MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Venus Williams fell at the first hurdle but said she was proud of herself after making history as the oldest woman to ever play at the Australian Open on Sunday.

The American seven-time Grand Slam champion, 45, was handed a wildcard for Melbourne, five years after she last appeared at the major.

It attracted some flak amid concerns that it deprived a younger player of the opportunity, compounded by Williams losing first-round matches at both her warm-up tournaments.

The ageless veteran showed she still has what it takes in patches, pushing 24-year-old Serbian Olga Danilovic all the way before losing the last six games to crash out 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-4 in a grueling action that lasted for two hours and 17minutes.

"It was such a great game, such a great moment. The energy from the crowd was amazing. That lifted me up so much," Williams said.

"She played a great game. Also some luck there, as well. That's just the sport. That's how it works sometimes.”

"I'm really proud of my effort today because I'm playing better with each match, getting to the places that I want to get to," she added.

"Right now, I'm just going to have to keep going forward and working on myself and working to control my errors."

After getting a standing ovation, the former world No. 1, now ranked 578, made a promising start, breaking the 69th-ranked Danilovic's first service game.

But the Serbian quickly struck back with a lucky net cord helping her level the set.

Williams sent down powerful serves and showed no issues moving around the court as the set moved to a tiebreak, where she fell 2-0 behind but rallied to clinch it with a clinical forehand winner.

Danilovic managed to get an early break in the second set and Williams had no answers, sending it to a decider, where the American raced 4-0 clear.

But she lost focus, allowing Danilovic to battle back to 4-4 before a huge 14-and-a-half-minute ninth game that proved pivotal.

Williams had six game points, but failed to convert, and the Serb took the game on her second breakpoint before serving out for the win.

"Not easy," Danilovic said. "There were a lot of nerves. I just said to myself, 'Okay, just play, just take everything out and just play point by point.'”