Venus Williams said Andrea Preti was the reason she kept going when tennis started to feel like something she might walk away from. After returning to competition for the first time in 16 months at the Mubadala DC Open in Washington, D.C. in July 2025, the 46-year-old said Preti really encouraged her to keep playing.
That disclosure landed in the same stretch of days when Williams also revealed she was engaged after her opening match victory. For readers searching Venus Williams husband Andrea Preti now, the reason is simple: the pair’s relationship has moved from private to public, and Williams is tying it directly to the decision that brought her back on court.
Williams said there were so many times when she wanted to coast and kind of chill, but Preti pushed the opposite. That mattered because the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion had been out of action for 16 months, and she had not lifted a trophy in a decade. Instead of treating a comeback like a ceremonial return, Preti kept pressing her to stay with it.
The two met in June 2024 at a Gucci event while Williams was on a sisters’ trip to Lake Como during Milan Fashion Week. Preti, who was born in Denmark and moved to Italy as a teenager, later said he told her, “You’re so beautiful,” and that she began speaking with him in Italian. He asked if she wanted a drink, and Williams later said he wanted to call her and took the time and energy to come see her.
That effort became part of how she told the story. Williams said they met in Italy, then the next week she was in London and he came all the way there. She had been single for six years, kept her dating life extremely private, and told The Knot in February that she knew he was serious because he wanted to talk instead of leaving everything to messages.
The relationship also deepened quickly enough to meet the hardest test early. A month into it, Preti was by her side when she underwent surgery for uterine fibroids. Williams later said they were going through a lot and that after only a few dates in London she just knew she was going to marry him.
Williams and Preti married in Italy and later made it official in Palm Beach, though the exact dates were not disclosed. What is clear now is that the person she opened up about in July was not just a partner in private life but a voice inside the comeback itself, urging her not to slow down when she was ready to settle for less. Williams is set to play doubles with Serena Williams at the 2026 U.S. Open and compete in singles at Flushing Meadows, a next step that now reads less like a surprise than the continuation of a decision Preti helped her make.
