Serena and Venus Williams returning to U.S. Open women’s doubles tournament tonight

Serena and Venus Williams will play together at the U.S. Open in New York for the first time in four years on Friday night.

The Williams sisters will face the team of Maya Joint, who beat Serena Williams at Wimbledon this summer, and Hao-Ching Chan in the first round of the women’s doubles tournament.

The 44-year-old Serena returned to the sport this year after four years out of action and lost to Joint, a 20-year-old from Australia, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3. She injured her knee in the match and had to pull out of her planned doubles match at the All England Club with Venus, 46.

But they are set to compete at the U.S. Open, where the Williams sisters won the title in 1999 and 2009 and are 27-7 in their nine appearances. They last played together at the tournament in 2022, losing in the first round in what was expected to be Serena’s final match in Flushing Meadows.

Joint and Chan are the No. 14-seeded team.

Nine-time Grand Slam doubles champion Bethanie Mattek-Sands thinks they’ll be a little intimidated by the Williams sisters.

“I mean, the night match against the Williams sisters with the New York crowd, it’s going to be tough,” Mattek-Sands told CBS News.

Early Monday morning, Venus bowed out of her 26th singles appearance at Flushing Meadows, falling in straight sets to fellow American wild card Sofia Kenin after not getting on the court until midnight.

She lost 6-2, 7-6 (6) in what could be her final singles match at a Grand Slam, if not her illustrious career. It was her 15th consecutive singles defeat dating back to her last victory in Washington in July 2025.

Venus has now lost six in a row at the U.S. Open since winning in the first round in 2019. Ahead of the doubles match, Venus was not ready to contemplate her future in tennis.

“I don’t think I should have to,” she told a small group of reporters after the match. “My mind is fully focused on that: how I recover from this completely insane evening and get ready for the next one.”

Last week, Serena and Carlos Alcaraz were knocked out in the mixed doubles quarterfinals by Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli, 5-4 (4), 4-1 after winning their debut playing together.