Serena and Venus Williams Receive US Open Doubles Wild Card

Serena and Venus Williams are heading back to the US Open doubles draw after organisers handed the American sisters a wild card for this year's tournament.

The US Open doubles wild card gives the 14-time Grand Slam doubles champions another chance to play together in New York, where they have already created plenty of history. This will be their ninth appearance as a doubles team at the tournament.

Their return follows an emotional reunion at the Cincinnati Open last week, where the sisters played together for the first time in almost four years. Their previous US Open appearance came in 2022.

The pair have lifted the women's doubles trophy at Flushing Meadows twice, winning their first title there in 1999 before adding another championship a decade later in 2009.

Serena, now 44, returned to competitive tennis in June after stepping away from the sport following the 2022 US Open. Her comeback has included doubles action, although her planned reunion with Venus at Wimbledon did not go ahead after she suffered a knee injury during her opening-round singles match.

She will compete only in doubles at this year's US Open.

Serena also featured in the mixed doubles tournament alongside Carlos Alcaraz. The pair reached the quarter-finals before their run ended against Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli on Tuesday.

Venus, 46, has a bigger schedule in New York. She has also received a wild card for the women's singles draw, meaning she is set to compete in both singles and doubles.

The Williams sisters US Open reunion will add another major storyline to a tournament that has already generated plenty of interest around their return to the court.

The US Open main draw begins on Sunday, while the women's and men's doubles competitions will start later in the week. For Serena and Venus, the focus will now turn to one more run together at the tournament that has been part of their careers for more than two decades.

And this time, New York gets to see the sisters back on the same side of the net.