Serena Williams will play doubles alongside sister Venus for the first time in four years at the US Open next week
Serena and Venus Williams were given a wildcard entry for women’s doubles at the US Open on Saturday, making it their first tournament as a team in more than four years.
Serena announced this month that she is preparing to end her playing career and, while she did not explicitly say the US Open would be her final event, she has indicated it will be.
Serena Williams, who turns 41 next month, and Venus, who turned 42 in June, have won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles together. That includes two championships at Flushing Meadows, in 1999 and 2009.
That’s aside from their combined total of 30 major trophies in singles – 23 for Serena, and seven for Venus.
The sisters have not competed anywhere in doubles as a pairing since losing in the third round of the French Open in June 2018.
Since then, Serena entered two doubles events with other partners: one with Caroline Wozniacki in January 2020, and one with Ons Jabeur this June.
Serena Williams was handed a blockbuster first-round singles tie under the Arthur Ashe lights on the first night of the tournament this Monday.
If she is able to get past world No. 80 Danka Kovinic in her opener, she will face the winner of Anna Kontaveit’s match with Jaqueline Cristian.
The schedule for the tournament was released Friday afternoon, with reigning men’s champion Daniil Medvedev opening the tournament against Stefan Kozlov in the main arena.
Coco Gauff will then take the court to play a qualifier in the second match of the day session, before Williams takes center stage at 7pm.
Serena Williams called time on her career, announcing her decision in next month’s Vogue, although a firm date on when she will go has not been confirmed.
The news came after the American superstar recorded her first win in 430 days but she said in the article: ‘It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine. I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next.’
Williams is not using the word ‘retirement.’ ‘I have never liked the word,’ Williams wrote in the latest issue of Vogue.
‘It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me. I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people.
Serena Williams not only wants to spend more time with her husband, Alexis, and their five-year-old, Olympia, but the 23-time Grand Slam singles winner revealed that the couple is trying to have another child in the near future.
