Venus and Serena Williams’ highly anticipated US Open return ends in heartbreaking loss
Venus and Serena Williams reunited on court at the US Open on Friday night, their first appearance together at the tournament in four years, but the doubles pairing ended in a narrow defeat. The match, played before an enthusiastic Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd firmly behind the sisters, underlines that Serena, 44, is continuing her comeback after several years out of the sport, having previously had to pull out of a planned reunion at Wimbledon this summer through injury.
The Williams sisters lost to Taiwan's Chan Hao-ching and Australia's 20-year-old Maya Joint 6-3, 6-7(6), 7-6(10) in a contest lasting just over three hours. Venus and Serena dropped the first set before fighting back to force a tie-break in the second, and then battled through a tense final-set tie-break in which they led early before their opponents rallied to clinch victory. Despite the loss, the display was seen as evidence that the two-time US Open doubles champions (1999 and 2009) remain competitive at the top level.
- Venus and Serena Williams lost their US Open doubles return
- Beaten by Chan Hao-ching and Maya Joint in three close sets
- Match lasted over three hours; crowd firmly supported the sisters
New here? Start with this
Venus and Serena Williams are among the most successful sisters in tennis history, and their doubles partnership won the US Open twice, in 1999 and 2009. Serena, now 44, has spent the past few years mostly away from top-level competition, and this week's tournament marked her and Venus's first appearance together at the US Open in four years. An earlier attempt to reunite at Wimbledon this summer fell through when Serena was injured.
The US Open is one of tennis's four Grand Slam tournaments, the sport's biggest annual events, held in New York. Doubles matches, where two players team up against another pair, typically attract less attention than singles, but this pairing drew huge interest because of the sisters' history and Serena's ongoing comeback. Their opponents were Chan Hao-ching of Taiwan and 20-year-old Maya Joint of Australia.
The match matters partly as a marker of where Serena's game stands as she works her way back into competitive tennis, and partly as a rare chance to see one of the sport's most storied partnerships back on court together at a major tournament.