Serena and Venus Williams Return to US Open Doubles
NEW YORK – Serena and Venus Williams are heading back into the glare of Arthur Ashe Stadium with a storyline tennis could not script any better.
The sisters have been drawn to face Maya Joint and Hao-Ching Chan in the first round of the US Open women’s doubles, the USTA confirmed, setting up an immediate rematch with the player who handed Serena a painful exit – literally – at Wimbledon.
A Wimbledon sting returns to New York
Serena, 44 and still insisting on doing things on her own terms, entered Wimbledon singles this summer as a wild card. Her campaign lasted just one round. Joint beat her there, and in the process Serena injured her knee, an issue serious enough to force her withdrawal from doubles alongside Venus.
Now Joint is back across the net, this time with Chan, and the stakes are emotional as much as competitive. The last time Serena and Venus walked off a Grand Slam court together, it felt like an ending. New York is offering them another chapter.
A wild card with history attached
Tournament organizers have given the Williams sisters a wild card into the main doubles draw, a nod to both their legacy and their enduring box-office pull. They have lifted the US Open doubles trophy twice, part of a haul that helped redefine what dominance looks like in the women’s game.
Their last appearance as a team in this event came in 2022, when they lost in the opening round to Linda Nosková and Lucie Hradecká. That night had the air of a farewell tour stop. The result barely mattered; the occasion did.
Since then, they had stayed away from doubles at the majors until this month’s Cincinnati Masters on August 17. There, they finally reunited on court and were thrown straight into a first-round thriller, losing to Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns. The rust showed in patches, the competitive fire did not.
Double duty in New York
This will be Serena’s second outing at Flushing Meadows this year. She has already drawn huge crowds in mixed doubles, partnering Carlos Alcaraz in a high-profile pairing that pushed through to the quarterfinals. The experiment underlined her ability to still bend a stadium to her will.
Venus’s own singles campaign in New York ended quickly, a first-round defeat to Sofia Kenin that again raised questions about how long she wants to keep grinding through the tour. Doubles with Serena offers something different: less physical strain, more shared responsibility, and the comfort of a partnership that has spanned decades.
A loaded doubles field
The draw around them is anything but soft. Taylor Townsend and Kateřina Siniaková come in as the No. 1 seeds, still carrying the sting of last year’s final loss to Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe.
That championship pair has been split. Routliffe now lines up alongside Aldila Sutjiadi as the No. 9 seeds, while Dabrowski teams with Luisa Stefani and slots in as the No. 2 seeds. The top of the draw is crowded with established teams, rhythm, and recent success.
The Williams sisters bring something else entirely: nostalgia, unpredictability, and the lingering sense that any match could be their last together on this stage.
The question now is simple and brutal: can memory and muscle memory carry them past the woman who ended Serena’s Wimbledon and into one more deep run in New York?
