Okay, so someone brought this up the other day, or maybe it just popped into my head, you know how these things go. The question was simple: how old was Vicario when she played Venus? Like, the first time they faced off. It sounded straightforward, but tennis history can get fuzzy.
My Process to Figure it Out
First thing, I had to pin down who we’re talking about. “Vicario” obviously means Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, the Spanish fighter. And “Venus” is Venus Williams, of course. Two legends.
Next step, I needed their birth years. A quick check confirmed:
- Arantxa Sánchez Vicario: Born December 18, 1971
- Venus Williams: Born June 17, 1980
Alright, got the raw materials. Now, the tricky part: when did they first play each other on the tour? This needed a bit more digging. You can’t just guess. I had to look up their head-to-head match history.
Scrolling through records, found it! Their first official WTA tour match was in 1997. Specifically, it happened in Sydney, Australia, early in the year, I think January.
Doing the Math
So, the match was in 1997. Let’s calculate:
Venus Williams: Born June 1980. In January 1997, she hadn’t had her birthday yet for that year. So, 1997 – 1980 = 17. But wait, the match was before her birthday. So she was actually 16 years old. Yeah, 16 turning 17 later that year.
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario: Born December 1971. In January 1997, she had already passed her birthday for the previous year (Dec 1996). So, 1997 – 1971 = 26. But her birthday is late in the year. The match was in Jan 1997. Her 25th birthday was just a month or so before, in Dec 1996. So, she was 25 years old at the time of that first match.
There it is. When Arantxa Sánchez Vicario first played Venus Williams professionally in 1997, Vicario was 25 years old. Venus was just 16. Quite the age gap back then, thinking about it now.
Took a few steps, checking dates, finding the match, doing the simple subtraction, but got there in the end. Always good to verify this stuff rather than just guessing.
