A knee injury from her singles return kept Serena from joining Venus on court, ending one of Wimbledon’s most anticipated reunions before it began.
Serena Williams will not take the court with her sister Venus at Wimbledon after all, withdrawing from their first round doubles match Saturday because of a knee injury that never fully healed in time.
An injury that started days earlier
The trouble began during Serena’s singles return on Tuesday, when the 44 year old twisted her knee in the first set of a marathon loss to 20 year old Maya Joint of Australia. Williams fought through the rest of the match before falling 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3, but the damage lingered. She did not train on site in the days that followed, and tournament organizers pushed her doubles match back to Saturday to give her extra time to recover.
That extra time was not enough. In a social media post, Williams said stepping away from doubles left her heartbroken, adding that everything about returning to compete again, including the chance to play alongside her sister one more time, had meant a great deal to her. She said she had done everything possible to get ready, but her knee simply was not there.
Williams shared images from her recovery process, including several syringes that held fluid drained from her knee following the singles match, along with video of herself walking with her leg heavily wrapped. The visuals underscored just how physically demanding her comeback had been for a player who had been away from tour level singles for nearly four years.
A reunion tournament organizers tried hard to protect
The doubles pairing had been billed as one of the most anticipated storylines of this year’s tournament. Serena and Venus, now 46, had not played doubles together since the 2022 US Open and had not shared a Wimbledon doubles court since winning the title there in 2016. Together they have won six Wimbledon doubles titles and 14 grand slam titles overall, numbers that made any reunion, however brief, feel significant.
Tournament officials worked to accommodate the sisters throughout the week, leaving their match as the lone unscheduled first round doubles pairing while every other match in the women’s draw wrapped up by Friday. Even Saturday’s slot remained uncertain until late in the day, listed only as not before 4.30pm before Williams’s withdrawal was announced. Camila Osorio and Solana Sierra, their scheduled opponents, will now face Samantha Murray Sharan and Lanlana Tararudee instead.
Venus still finds the court, and Serena hints at more to come
Venus Williams did not sit out the week entirely. She competed in mixed doubles on Friday alongside Kevin Krawietz, falling in straight sets to Tereza Mihalikova and Lloyd Glasspool. She has already received a wild card into August’s Canadian Open, suggesting her season is far from over.
For Serena, the picture is less certain, though she left the door open. She closed her statement by telling fans to stay tuned to a city near them, a hint that another appearance could be coming with the US Open approaching later this summer. Whether that means another shot at doubles with Venus, or simply more singles rounds on her own terms, remains to be seen.
