Serena and Venus Williams will play doubles together for the first time since 2022 after the Cincinnati Open handed the sisters a wildcard into its women’s doubles draw. Venus also received a singles wildcard, alongside Sloane Stephens, Taylor Townsend, Darja Vidmanova, Elvina Kalieva, Caroline Dolehide and Lois Boisson, for the tournament running Aug. 8 to 23 in Mason, Ohio.
The pairing marks the first time the sisters will compete as a team in Cincinnati. Together they have won 14 major doubles titles and three Olympic gold medals, and their last doubles appearance came at the 2022 US Open, a defeat to Czech pair Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova in the tournament Serena described at the time as her step away from the sport.
Serena, 44, ended that absence this summer. She played doubles at Queen’s Club and at the Berlin Open, without Venus on either occasion, before returning to singles at Wimbledon. Her first-round loss there to 20-year-old Australian Maya Joint went three sets, and she sustained a knee injury during the match.
Her agent, Jill Smoller, said she tweaked her right knee at the end of the first set and was excused from post-match media duties by Wimbledon and WTA medical staff. The sisters had been drawn to face Camila Osorio of Colombia and Solana Sierra of Argentina, but Serena pulled out days later, writing on Instagram that she was heartbroken to withdraw from doubles. She later posted images of fluid drained from the knee, and her coach, Rennae Stubbs, said her intention was to keep playing through the US Open.
The Cincinnati entry is the first firm sign that plan is holding. Serena remains one title short of the all-time record of 24 Grand Slam singles crowns, shared by Margaret Court and Novak Djokovic, and a run in Ohio would be the clearest indicator yet of whether she returns to Flushing Meadows.
Venus arrives in a harder spot. She turned 46 in June and is still chasing her first singles win of 2026, having exited in the first round of all eight tournaments she has entered this year. Her doubles form has been marginally better, with one win apiece at two of the six events she has played, most recently partnering Britain’s Katie Boulter in Madrid and Alexandra Eala in Berlin. Her career record in Cincinnati stands at 12-10, with a semifinal in 2012 and a quarterfinal in 2019. She first played a WTA event in 1994 and has won 49 singles titles, including seven majors and Olympic gold in 2000.
The tournament opens with a community weekend on Aug. 8 and 9, with competition beginning Aug. 11 and both singles finals scheduled for Aug. 23. Draws and match scheduling are typically released in the days before play starts, so the sisters’ first opponents are not yet known. Costa Rica runs two hours behind Ohio in August, meaning afternoon matches in Mason land late morning locally.
