Serena and Venus Williams came within two points of completing a dramatic comeback Monday night, but their long-awaited doubles reunion ended with a 2-6, 6-1, 10-8 loss to Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns in the opening round of the Cincinnati Open. Playing together for the first time since the 2022 US Open, the Williams sisters recovered from a difficult opening set and dominated the second. They then nearly erased a 6-0 deficit in the deciding match tiebreak before Venus double-faulted on match point.
The defeat ended their first doubles appearance together outside a Grand Slam tournament since the 2016 Italian Open. Still, the match offered flashes of the chemistry that helped them win 14 Grand Slam doubles titles and three Olympic gold medals. Kostyuk and Stearns controlled the opening set as the Williams sisters worked to rediscover their rhythm. Serena and Venus responded forcefully in the second, dropping only one game and sending the match to a first-to-10 tiebreak.
The momentum shifted again when Kostyuk and Stearns raced through the first six points of the decider. The Williams sisters refused to let the match slip away quietly. Consecutive double faults from Kostyuk helped open the door, and the crowd grew louder as Serena and Venus closed the gap to 8-7. Kostyuk and Stearns reached match point at 9-7, but Serena kept the match alive with an overhead winner.
Venus then double-faulted, bringing a sudden end to a comeback that had appeared almost impossible minutes earlier. “I thought it was fun. I thought it was special,” Serena said afterward. “It was really cool to be able to do this again.” The Cincinnati crowd strongly backed the Williams sisters, even though Stearns grew up in Mason, the Ohio suburb where the tournament is held. Stearns and Ukraine’s Kostyuk, both 24, were competing together for the first time.
Serena, 44, returned to professional tennis this summer after stepping away following the 2022 US Open. She and Venus had planned to play doubles at Wimbledon, but they withdrew after Serena sustained a knee injury during her opening-round singles match. The sisters accepted a wild card into Cincinnati, where Serena won consecutive singles titles in 2014 and 2015. She entered only the doubles competition this year.
Venus, 46, also received a singles wild card but lost 6-2, 6-2 to Colombian qualifier Emiliana Arango in the first round. Monday’s result leaves unanswered whether the sisters will play together again before the end of the season. Their return lasted only one match, but the close finish and the crowd’s response showed that a Williams sisters doubles appearance remains one of the biggest attractions in tennis.
