The celebrated doubles partnership of Serena and Venus Williams concluded its latest U.S. Open chapter Friday, falling in a hard-fought first-round match against Maya Joint and Hao-Ching Chan. The sisters, who had not played together at the U.S. Open in four years, lost 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-7 (7) in a match that captivated the 24,000 fans in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Serena Williams, making a return to the sport after a four-year hiatus and expressing a preference for the term "evolving away from tennis" rather than "retirement," was spurred back onto the court partly by her 9-year-old daughter, Olympia. "You need to play with Auntie VeVe," Serena recalled her daughter saying. The sisters had previously played together at the U.S. Open in 2022, a match widely considered to be Serena's farewell to the tournament.
Despite a strong comeback in the second set and a significant rally in the third, the Williams sisters ultimately could not overcome their opponents. They trailed 4-1 in the third set but mounted a comeback, even taking a 5-0 lead in the tiebreaker. However, Joint and Chan secured victory by winning 10 of the final 12 points.
This marked the first U.S. Open doubles appearance for the sisters since 2022. Serena, at 44, faced a challenging match, including being broken twice in the first set. Venus, 46, who had recently been eliminated from the singles draw in the early hours of Monday morning and has experienced a losing streak, was considered to be playing better of the two sisters during the doubles match. The pair had reunited as a doubles team the previous month in Cincinnati before competing at the U.S. Open.
Though the scoreboard reflected a loss, the Williams sisters departed the court to cheers, acknowledging the crowd and sharing moments that contributed to their storied legacy in tennis. Maya Joint commented on the special nature of playing against such "legends of the game."