“The colorful beads and butterfly hair clips that marked the teenage style of Venus Williams were gone. From the moment she strode onto Center Court today, the streamlined 20-year-old with the Paul Bunyan backswing had the look of a serious young woman. A scowl was as good as any accessory.

Williams, 45, made her tennis comeback at the Citi Open in Washington D.C., where she won her opening matches in singles and doubles.

Venus Williams just came back from a 16-month break from professional tennis. But she didn’t return because she missed playing — rather, she missed her health insurance. “I had to come back for the insurance,” Williams, 45, said this week after beating Peyton Stearns — 22 years her junior — at the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington, D.C.

After many months of speculation on whether she would ever return to the tour, WTA icon Venus Williams quelled those fears with a second round appearance at last month's DC Open.