Venus Williams failed to make the most of a third-set advantage as she was beaten 6-2 4-6 7-6 (8-6) by Irina-Camelia Begu in the first round of the Bad Homburg Open.

Williams was granted a wildcard for the event in Germany ahead of teaming up with her sister Serena to play doubles at Wimbledon, with the younger Williams sister also set to make a singles return at SW19.

The elder Williams was serving for the match at 5-3 up in the deciding set against Begu, only for the Romanian to convert her third break point of a tense game and keep the contest going.

It stayed on serve from that moment on, with a breaker required, and neither player went more than two points up at any stage.

However, after wasting two match points, Begu made it third time lucky to tee up a second-round meeting with fourth seed Karolina Muchova. 

After 2 hours and 57 minutes, qualifier Irina-Camelia #Begu defeats Venus #Williams to book her place in the next round.#BHO26 pic.twitter.com/yJt1vZGuy3

— Bad Homburg Open powered by Solarwatt (@badhomburgopen) June 22, 2026

Venus still waiting on first win of 2026

Serena Williams stole all the headlines on Monday, when it was announced that she had accepted the final wildcard for the women's singles draw at the All England Club.

But, almost four years on from her last grand slam appearance, the doubles event – which she has already won six times alongside Venus, last doing so in 2016 – may be her best shot at a deep run.

Venus has shown how difficult it can be to recapture the singles magic, losing all eight of her singles matches on the WTA Tour this year.

She fired in seven aces to Begu's three but also mixed in 11 double faults to her opponent's five and gave up 16 break points, with three of those coming in the crucial ninth game of the decider, when she missed her chance to serve out the contest.