Venus Williams insists she is not a good doubles player. The 14 major championships she and Serena won together tell a different story.<\/p>\n
Without her younger sister by her side, Williams showed Thursday she\u2019s still got it. Williams won a women\u2019s doubles match at the US Open for the first time in more than a decade, teaming with Leylah Fernandez to defeat the sixth-seeded pair of Lyudmyla Kichenok and Ellen Perez 7-6 (4), 6-3.<\/p>\n
When it was over, the 45-year-old Williams did her signature twirl-and-wave and called Fernandez \u201cthe best partner I ever played with \u2013 outside of Serena.\u201d The 22-year-old Canadian even reminded Venus of Serena.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur energy really matched each other in terms of determination, in terms of not giving up, in terms of really still just focused and dialed in in every single thing,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThat felt amazing because I never really played with a partner \u2013 outside of Serena, obviously \u2013 who had that kind of mentality, so it was really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams and Fernandez, the 2021 singles runner-up at Flushing Meadows, were heavy fan favorites at a nearly-full Louis Armstrong Stadium, and the chair umpire had to ask the crowd multiple times to quiet down.<\/p>\n
The spectators gave Williams and Fernandez a standing ovation after they claimed the opening tiebreaker despite trailing 5-2 in that set \u2013 and rose again to cheer after the match ended in 90 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeylah is a good player, [and] Venus is also a good doubles player,\u201d Kichenok said. \u201cThey have played doubles many times. They know what it is. Maybe it took a bit of time to adjust at the beginning, but then they found their rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout the match, there were chants of \u201cHere we go, Venus, here we go!\u201d and a sign in the stands read, \u201cWelcome to the Williams show.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWow,\u201d Williams said in her on-court interview. \u201cThank you, you guys. Thank you for showing up for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Venus Williams and Leylah Fernandez play in the US Open women\u2019s doubles. Photograph: Al Bello\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Williams hadn\u2019t won a women\u2019s doubles match in New York since 2014, when she and Serena made it to the quarter-finals, or at any grand slam tournament since the 2018 French Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an area that I\u2019m not that comfortable in, being on a doubles court, but I think you get to some point in the match where you stop thinking about it,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWhen push comes to shove, I\u2019ll do what I have to, but I\u2019m a singles player, so of course when I walk out there, I actually tell myself just to play singles and try that method. I try not to be something that I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n
The older Williams won seven grand slam titles in singles and another two in mixed doubles. She had been off the tour for 16 months until returning to action by playing singles and doubles at Washington in July.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the amount of matches I\u2019ve played, I\u2019m progressing very quickly,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have to come back to play tennis, but eventually I found my way back.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Flushing Meadows, Williams lost in the first round of mixed doubles and singles, then was awarded a wild card for women\u2019s doubles. Fernandez described feeling \u201clike a kid on Christmas Day\u201d and jumping around with a smile on her face after getting the call that Williams wanted to play doubles with her.<\/p>\n
She was shocked to hear the comparison to Serena.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably the biggest compliment I\u2019ve ever gotten,\u201d Fernandez said. \u201cI feel like those are big shoes to fill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back in doubles at the US Open for the first time since 2022, Williams gets to keep going in New York after pushing 11th-seeded Karolina Muchova to three sets before bowing out of singles play Monday night. Ulrikke Eikeri and Eri Hozumi are up next in the second round of doubles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually feel great,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWith some luck, we\u2019ll stay, maybe win another round and just keep getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venus Williams insists she is not a good doubles player. The 14 major championships she and Serena won…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-104432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}