NEW YORK – The Williams sisters are back on Arthur Ashe billboards and draw sheets, and fate has wasted no time setting up a storyline.
Serena and Venus Williams will open their US Open women’s doubles campaign against Maya Joint and Hao-Ching Chan, the United States Tennis Association announced, in a first-round matchup loaded with recent history and unanswered questions.
A Wimbledon sting returns to center stage
For Serena, Joint is not just another name across the net. As a wild card in singles at Wimbledon, the 44-year-old Serena fell to the Australian in the first round, aggravating a knee injury that forced her to pull out of doubles with Venus. That withdrawal cut short a reunion many hoped would build toward one last deep run together.
Now, the same opponent stands in the way of their first US Open win as a team since 2019. The knee, the exit, the frustration at Wimbledon — all of it lingers in the background of this opening round.
A storied partnership on borrowed time
The Williams sisters arrive in New York as wild cards in the doubles draw, a status that feels almost surreal given what they’ve meant to the tournament. They have lifted the US Open doubles trophy twice and reshaped what power, aggression, and intimidation look like in the women’s game.
Yet the recent record tells a harsher story. The last time they played doubles together at Flushing Meadows was in 2022, when they bowed out in the first round to Linda Nosková and Lucie Hradecká. That loss felt like a closing chapter, not a pause.
They only just rekindled the partnership on August 17 at the Cincinnati Masters, their first doubles match together since that 2022 US Open. The script there was familiar: drama, shot-making, and a narrow defeat, as they fell in a first-round thriller to Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns. The instincts remain. The margins, at this stage of their careers, are razor-thin.
Double duty in New York
Both sisters are already woven into this year’s New York storylines.
Serena has been busy, teaming up with Carlos Alcaraz in mixed doubles and pushing through to the quarterfinals. The pairing drew huge crowds and underlined her enduring box-office pull as much as her competitive edge.
Venus’s stay in singles was shorter. She exited in the first round to Sofia Kenin, another reminder of how unforgiving the individual draw has become for legends trying to squeeze more out of their careers. Doubles, though, offers something different: shared energy, shorter bursts, and the comfort of a partner who knows every nuance of your game and your mood.
A loaded doubles field
The Williams sisters will not ease into this draw. The field around them is sharp, organized, and hungry.
Taylor Townsend and Kateřina Siniaková arrive as the No. 1 seeds, seeking redemption after losing last year’s final to Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe. That defeat has not been forgotten, even if the partnerships have been reshuffled.
Routliffe returns as the No. 9 seed alongside Aldila Sutjiadi, a new pairing with serious upside. Dabrowski, meanwhile, has linked up with Luisa Stefani, and they slot in as the No. 2 seeds, a clear marker of the respect they command on this surface and in this format.
It’s a draw built for tension: established teams, retooled contenders, and, now, two icons operating on a wild card and a wave of nostalgia.
The question is no longer what the Williams sisters have done here. It’s how much more they can still take from this court, and how many more nights New York will get to watch them chase one last run together.
