ESPN Accidentally Erases Venus Williams From Existence, Fans Notice Immediately

ESPN managed to do the impossible this week: they created a graphic about Venus Williams… without Venus Williams.

In a segment celebrating the five American women with the most major singles wins before age 23, ESPN proudly displayed a list topped by Venus. Great! Except the graphic showed Serena Williams twice, and Venus zero times, which is a bold artistic choice considering Venus was literally the #1 name on the list.

It was basically: “Here are the top players! #1 Venus Williams! And here she is… Serena Williams again.”

Fans noticed instantly.

One viewer wrote, “Did ESPN just clone Serena and call it a day?” Another said, “Please do better. This is unprofessional,” which is polite code for “Who made this and why are they still employed?”

A third fan went straight for the jugular: “For how bad ESPN is, they should be embarrassed.” (ESPN, somewhere in a control room, quietly deleting the graphic and pretending it never happened.)

Others pointed out that the mistake showed a “lack of care or effort,” which is a nice way of saying someone at ESPN definitely does not watch tennis and possibly thinks the Williams sisters are interchangeable Pokémon evolutions.

Some fans begged ESPN to hire people who “actually know tennis,” which is a reasonable request for a sports network.

⭐ Meanwhile, the Williams Sisters Were Busy Having Their Own Adventure

Both Venus and Serena received wildcards for the US Open. Venus played singles, Serena played doubles, and together they reunited for a doubles match — their first time sharing the court at the Open since 2022.

It went… well, it went dramatically.

They lost the first set, stormed back in the second, and then reached a tiebreak in the third where they led 5–1. Then everything collapsed faster than ESPN’s graphic department.

Their opponents, Maya Joint and Chan Hao‑ching, completed the comeback, and the Williams sisters exited the tournament so quickly that even the umpire probably said, “Wait, what just happened?”

Afterward, the sisters skipped post‑match interviews, leaving fans disappointed and journalists staring at empty chairs like abandoned pets.

As for their plans for the 2027 season? Unknown. But hopefully they’ll at least get correctly labeled in graphics.