Venus Williams is spotted in golf cart as she prepares for Italian wedding to actor Andrew Preti

Tennis superstar Venus Williams was spotted by holidaymakers in a golf cart as she prepared for her wedding to actor Andrew Preti on an Italian island.

The 45-year-old reportedly was set to marry Preti on the island of Ischia on Friday.

Onlookers on holiday saw her riding in the back of a golf cart in a white dress and sun hat on Thursday, which read ‘Mrs Preti’ in the village of Sant’Angelo.

The five-time Wimbledon winner confirmed her engagement to Preti during a post-match interview at the D.C. Open in July, shortly after beating fellow American Peyton Stearns.

Eyewitnesses on the island said the tennis star’s sister, Serena Williams, now retired from professional tennis, was also in the buggy, alongside her sister, with wedding guests wearing ‘Team Groom’ and ‘Team Bride’ T-shirts, though these details are not visible in the pictures.

One onlooker said: ‘They got out of the taxis and into the golf buggies while we were waiting for the bus.’ Another described shouting Venus’ name, which caught her attention. 

While the photo was taken from afar, she appeared to be wearing a sun hat with the lettering ‘SIG RA PETRI’.

Sig. ra is an abbreviation for the Italian word ‘Signora’, which translates to Mrs in English.

Williams has largely kept her personal life out of the spotlight in recent years. She has previously been linked to model Elio Pis in 2012 and financier Nicholas Hammond in 2017.

Her fiancé Preti, 37, is a model, actor and director who grew up in Denmark before moving to Italy as a teenager, according to IMDb.

He trained at the Susan Batson Academy in New York, later writing, directing and starring in the 2014 indie film One More Day.

He has also appeared in several Italian TV productions, including the drama A Professor and the 2023 reality series Temptation.

It was only in July when she announced that she was set to walk down the aisle, saying during the DC Open: ‘My fiancé is here, and he really encouraged me to keep playing,’ Williams said.

She added: ‘He’s never seen me play.’

Williams remains one of the most successful players in the sport’s history, with four Olympic gold medals and more than $42million in career prize money.

She previously spoke about how she didn’t feel the need to get married or settle down in her future.

In 2021, she told Cosmopolitan: ‘I have a lot of friends who don’t believe me when I say that I like my life and I don’t want to change it for any reason.’

‘I’m not desperate, and they don’t believe me,’ she insisted. ‘They say things like, “You’re going to miss your window.” I’m like, “Please, relax. You might feel this way, but I don’t. I promise you I don’t.”‘ 

Also in 2021, during a chat with ESPN’s Chrissie Evert, Williams joked about her lack of love life, saying, ‘I’m very single. Actually, I might be undateable.’

A year later, in 2022, she candidly discussed how it can be ‘easy to get stuck in a single life.’