Serena and Venus Williams lost their first doubles match together in four years, falling 6-2 1-6 10-8 to Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns at the Cincinnati Open in front of a packed crowd.
The match opened badly for the American pair, who dropped the first set 6-2. They recovered to take the second 6-1, with Serena acknowledging some early “a little rust.” The contest was decided by a 10-point tie-break, where the sisters fell behind 6-0 before mounting a comeback. Serena produced two service winners to pull the score back, but Kostyuk and Stearns held on and clinched the win when Venus double-faulted on match point.
Venus reflected on the return to the court, saying, "We've waited a long time to get back on the doubles court. Eventually, we find our way to each other," and, "We give each other so much grace and encouragement. This is our first time playing together in forever, and I think we're really getting [into] our stride." Serena described the experience as positive as well, "I thought it was fun, it was special, it was good," adding, "We were starting to feel it. It was really cool to be able to do this again."
The match follows a staggered comeback for the sisters. Serena had returned to doubles in June and used a Wimbledon wildcard for singles, but a knee injury in a first-round loss at Wimbledon forced her to abandon a planned doubles appearance with Venus. She called the injury "a little traumatic experience, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" and has played only one singles match since then. Venus has competed more often, though she has lost her past 13 singles matches while finding better form in doubles, having reached the quarter-finals in New York last year.
The pair will need wildcards to appear at the US Open, which begins on Sunday, 30 August. Their history together remains formidable: they won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles and three Olympic gold medals at their peak, but this loss underlines how far both are from those heights and how limited their current window for another major run may be.
The Cincinnati event produced other notable results. World number two Elena Rybakina beat Magdalena Fręch 6-4 7-6 (7-2) and could move to the top of the rankings depending on results; she must reach the final to have a chance of surpassing Aryna Sabalenka, and would need to win the title if Sabalenka reaches the quarter-finals. Iga Świątek recovered from a first-set loss to beat Maria Sakkari 4-6 6-1 6-1, and third seed Jessica Pegula defeated Emma Navarro 7-5 6-2.
