Williams Sisters Face Seeded Test on US Open Doubles Return

Serena Williams and Venus Williams will return to Grand Slam doubles together at the US Open against 14th seeds Chan Hao-Ching and Maya Joint, with the draw immediately presenting a demanding opening test for the two-time Flushing Meadows champions.

The sisters are competing together in Grand Slam doubles for the first time since the 2022 US Open. Their partnership at the tournament began with their first appearance in 1997 and has included championship runs in 1999 and 2009.

Serena and Venus have won 14 Grand Slam women’s doubles titles as a pair, but they are seeking their first victory together since their Roland Garros campaign in 2018. Their latest tournament appearance came in Cincinnati three weeks ago, where they lost a deciding match tie-break to Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns.

A difficult first-round assignment

Chan and Joint arrive in New York having made a quick impact since joining forces. The pair reached the final in Memphis, made the second round in Toronto and advanced to the quarterfinals in Cincinnati, giving the 14th seeds recent momentum heading into their US Open opener.

Joint also has recent history against Serena. The Australian defeated Serena in three sets in the opening round at Wimbledon, in Serena’s only singles match of her comeback so far. Chan has faced the Williams sisters as a team before as well, defeating them alongside Liezel Huber in the opening round in Beijing in 2013.

Serena later beat Chan in 2022 when she partnered Ons Jabeur against Chan and Shuko Aoyama at Eastbourne. Those previous meetings add further context to an opening-round matchup that brings a celebrated partnership back to a tournament where it has produced some of its biggest doubles achievements.

The winner of the Williams sisters’ first-round match will play either Nicole Fossa Huergo and Tamara Korpatsch or Jesika Maleckova and Miriam Skoch. A third-round meeting with fourth seeds Hsieh Su-Wei and Jelena Ostapenko is a potential route later in the draw.

US Open doubles draw takes shape

Elsewhere, top seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend begin their campaign against American wild cards Reese Brantmeier and Savannah Broadus. The top-seeded pair are pursuing their first US Open title together. Siniakova previously won the New York doubles title with Barbora Krejcikova in 2022, while Townsend was runner-up with Caty McNally in 2022 and again last year alongside Siniakova.

The defending champions are not reunited this season. Gabriela Dabrowski is partnering Luisa Stefani, and the second seeds will open against Anastasia Detiuc and Irina Khromacheva. Erin Routliffe has teamed with Aldila Sutjiadi, with the ninth seeds set to face Ann Li and Clara Tauson.

Another first-round match features former champion Sara Errani alongside 18-year-old Lilli Tagger against 16-year-old American twins Annika and Kristina Penickova. Errani and Tagger are playing their second major together this season after reaching the second round at Roland Garros, and could meet Dabrowski and Stefani in the following round.

For Serena and Venus, however, the immediate focus is on Chan and Joint. Their return places one of tennis’ most successful doubles partnerships back in the US Open draw, at the event where their shared Grand Slam journey began nearly three decades ago.