Williams Sisters Set for US Open Doubles Clash Against Familiar Foe

NEW YORK – The Williams sisters are back on the big stage together in Queens, and fate has wasted no time in handing Serena a familiar name across the net.

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 confirmed, in a first-round matchup heavy with recent history.

It was Joint who stunned Serena at Wimbledon earlier this summer. Granted a wild card into the singles draw at the All England Club, the 44-year-old Serena bowed out in the first round after suffering a knee injury in that defeat, an issue serious enough to force her withdrawal from doubles with Venus. Now, the veteran legend and the young challenger meet again, this time with a partner on each side and New York as the backdrop.

The Williams sisters arrive in the doubles draw as wild cards, but their legacy in this event needs no invitation. They have lifted the US Open doubles trophy twice and turned Ashe and Armstrong into their own stage for much of the past two decades. Their last run here as a team came in 2022, when they fell in the opening round to Linda Nosková and Lucie Hradecká, a subdued exit that hinted the partnership might be nearing its final chapter.

Not quite.

They reunited earlier this month at the Cincinnati Masters, stepping on court together for the first time since that 2022 US Open. The result was a reminder of both their enduring magnetism and the fine margins of elite doubles: a tight, first-round thriller lost to Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns. The loss stung, but the timing felt deliberate—a tune-up, a test, a chance to feel the rhythm again before New York.

Both sisters already have miles in their legs from this year’s visit to Flushing Meadows. Serena drew huge crowds in mixed doubles alongside Carlos Alcaraz, the unlikely superstar pairing advancing to the quarterfinals. Venus, playing singles, exited early with a first-round defeat to Sofia Kenin, a result that only sharpens the focus on what the sisters can still do together.

Top Seeds

At the top of the women’s doubles draw sit Taylor Townsend and Kateřina Siniaková as the No. 1 seeds. They know how close the margins can be in New York; last year they reached the final only to fall to Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe. That championship duo has now split paths. Routliffe returns as the No. 9 seed with Aldila Sutjiadi, while Dabrowski joins forces with Luisa Stefani as the No. 2 seed.

So the field is stacked, the seeds are settled, and the narrative threads are already tightening.

For Serena and Venus, this is more than a wild card. It is a late-career encore, a chance to rewrite the ending of their US Open doubles story. And standing in front of them, in the very first round, is the player who last sent Serena limping out of a major.