Serena and Venus Williams faced off against Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns in their first doubles match together since the 2022 U.S. Open. The match took place on Monday night at the Cincinnati Open, where the Williams sisters lost in a closely contested match with a score of 2-6, 6-1 (10-8). This event marks a notable return for the iconic duo, who have not played together in nearly a year.
The sisters nearly recovered from a 6-0 deficit in the match tiebreaker before a double-fault by Venus Williams ended their first doubles appearance in a non-Grand Slam event since the Italian Open in 2016. Serena had been off the tour since 2022 before returning this summer at age 44. Kostyuk and Stearns, both 24, are playing in their first tournament together. 3 and top seed Alexander Zverev won his ATP-tour leading 46th match this season, outlasting Terence Atmane, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6).
“I won’t hold it against anyone.
“I thought it was fun,” Serena said. “Eventually we would find our way to each other,” the 46-year-old Venus said about the decision to play doubles again. “I kind of expected it but it stung a little bit that this is my hometown,” Stearns said about the pro-Williams sisters crowd.
“I thought it was special. We kicked off a little rust in the middle of the match and just, you know (were) starting to feel it. I didn’t come out here to win this tournament. Winning is obviously great. But in this position just, you know, having fun. It was really cool to be able to do this again. The sisters planned to play together at Wimbledon but had to withdraw after Serena injured her knee while losing her singles match. They entered Cincinnati as a wild card. “It’s our first time playing together in forever. It was great for us to get out there and do it. Kostyuk is from Ukraine. Stearns grew up in the Cincinnati suburb of Mason, where the tournament is played every year. The crowd was going for them but we used it to our advantage and flipped the script. World No.
