Williams Sisters Fall in U.S. Open Doubles Thriller After Epic Comeback Bid

The Williams sisters took the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday night for their first U.S. Open doubles match together in four years, and for more than three hours they fought through a match that had the shape of a comeback story—until it didn't. Playing against the 14th-seeded team of Maya Joint and Hao-Ching Chan, Serena and Venus lost 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (10-8) in the first round, a three-set thriller that hinged on a single tiebreaker they could not quite close.

The match turned on momentum and margins. After dropping the opening set, the sisters clawed back into contention, forcing the match to a decisive third set where they trailed 4-1 before leveling it. That recovery set up a 10-point tiebreaker—the kind of sudden-death format that can feel like its own small tournament. The Williams sisters built a 5-0 lead in that tiebreaker, one hand on the victory. Joint and Chan answered, fighting back to 5-4, then 6-5, then 8-6. At 8-8, the match hung in balance. The seeded team won the next two points and took the match, 10-8.

For Serena, now 44, this loss carried particular weight. She had returned to professional tennis this year after a four-year absence, and this was her second defeat to Joint in a matter of weeks. At Wimbledon in July, Joint had beaten her in straight sets during Serena's singles comeback. The doubles loss at the U.S. Open marked another chapter in what has been a difficult return to competition. Earlier in the week, Serena and Venus had also lost together in a match tiebreaker at the Cincinnati Open.

Venus, 46, arrived at Flushing Meadows carrying her own weight of recent losses. She had fallen to American wild card Sofia Kenin in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6 (6), in the early morning hours of Monday—a match that did not begin until after midnight. That defeat extended her singles losing streak to 15 consecutive matches dating back to her last victory in Washington in July 2025. She had not won a singles match at the U.S. Open since 2019, losing six straight in the years since.

The doubles match represented something different for both sisters: a chance to compete together, to lean on each other's experience and skill. The Williams sisters have won the U.S. Open women's doubles title twice, in 1999 and 2009, and they carry a 27-8 record across their ten appearances in the tournament. They are among the most decorated doubles partners in tennis history. Yet on Friday night, that pedigree could not overcome Joint and Chan's resilience or the mathematics of a tiebreaker that slipped away.

Before the match, nine-time Grand Slam doubles champion Bethanie Mattek-Sands had acknowledged the weight of facing the Williams sisters in a night match at Arthur Ashe, with the New York crowd behind them. "It's going to be tough," she said. It was tough—for the Williams sisters. They came close enough to touch victory, close enough that the match stretched past three hours, close enough that they forced two tiebreakers. But close, in tennis, is a loss.

After the match, Venus deflected questions about what comes next, what her future in the sport might hold. "I don't think I should have to," she told reporters. "My mind is fully focused on that: how I recover from this completely insane evening and get ready for the next one." The sisters have also competed in mixed doubles at the Open, though they were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli the week before. For now, the focus is on recovery—and on whether there will be a next match at all.