FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. — Venus Williams and Leylah Fernandez’s run at the U.S. Open women’s doubles championship came to a screeching halt Tuesday. They lost 6-1, 6-2 to top seed Taylor Townsend and Kateřina Siniaková in the quarterfinals in Louis Armstrong Stadium. It ends a remarkable tournament for Williams and Fernandez, who first played doubles together last week.

“I was so inspired by Leylah,” Williams said. “I really got so much confidence playing with her, having an opportunity to play more matches in the doubles, and it was just an amazing experience to be able to do that.”

Right from the first ball, Townsend and Siniaková were locked in. They started the match with an early break, punishing Williams’ serve with precise volleys. Townsend and Siniaková raced to a 4-0 lead, winning 12 of the first 13 points, before winning the first set 6-1 in 22 minutes.

In the second set, down 0-1, Williams and Fernandez had game points to get a hold and stay within striking distance. But Williams recorded a double fault. Then, Fernandez hit a forehand volley in the net, giving Townsend and Siniaková life in the game. At deuce, Siniaková hit a blazing forehand volley winner before Townsend followed with an overhead smash to get the break. The top seed cruised to a straight-set victory, concluding a memorable run for Williams and Fernandez, who left the court to deafening cheers from the Armstrong crowd.

For Williams and Fernandez, their doubles partnership formed on a whim. Fernandez was supposed to play with Marie Bouzková, before the Czech player pulled out due to injury. The Canadian still wanted to play doubles, so she began looking for a potential replacement.

It was her dad Jorge who suggested the pipe dream option: Venus Williams. Fernandez didn’t have Williams’ number, so she feverishly contacted people she knew to get in touch with the 14-time doubles champion.

Originally, Williams thought no. The 45-year-old American had just lost in three sets to Karolína Muchová in a hard-fought first-round singles match. She joked she “isn’t good at doubles,” as a 14-time Grand Slam champion in the discipline, but she was concerned with her lack of matches.

The more she thought about it, the more she was drawn to the idea.

“An hour later, I was, like, I think I want to,” Williams said in a news conference, smiling. “At first I was just thinking, I don’t know if I can actually do it. Then I was thinking, OK, maybe I can. Maybe we have a chance to just get in the draw.”

Williams and Fernandez received a wild-card entry and were not granted the benefit of an easy draw, playing No. 6 seed Lyudmyla Kichenok and Ellen Perez in the first round. Despite being the underdog, Williams and Fernandez looked like an experienced doubles pair. They rallied from 2-5 down to force a first-set tiebreak, coalescing as a team with Williams’ powerful serve and Fernandez’s solid net play. They won the first set tiebreak 7-4 en route to a straight-set upset victory 7-6 (4), 6-3.

Williams and Fernandez captured their second round 7-6 (1), 6-1 over unseeded Eri Hozumi and Ulrikke Eikeri. In the third round, the pair beat 12th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova and Zhang Shuai with another straight-sets victory, 6-3, 6-4. And despite their tournament ending in the quarterfinals, Williams and Fernandez captured the attention of the U.S. Open with their fighting spirit and fun energy on the court.

For Fernandez, playing alongside Williams, one of her tennis idols, reminded her why she pursued a career as a professional tennis player.

“The most important thing is that I started playing tennis for the love of the game and for bringing joy on court, not only for myself but also for the fans,” Fernandez said.

Williams, who played singles, women’s and mixed doubles at the U.S. Open, is taking a lot of confidence from her time in New York. She doesn’t know when her next tournament will be but knows where she can improve. The wild-card entries awarded Williams the opportunity to come back to her home slam and show that she can still play at 45, while having fun.

“I stayed myself,” Williams said. “I didn’t try to play another game. I didn’t try to play it safe. I went for it, and that’s who I am. I go for it.”

For Townsend, her doubles tournament continues following a memorable run in the singles tournament. She reached her first round of 16 at a Slam since 2019. In the second round against Jelena Ostapenko, Townsend won in straight sets 7-5, 6-1, capturing 10 of the last 11 games. After the match, Ostapenko and Townsend had a tense exchange at the net. Ostapenko told Townsend, who is Black, that she had “no education,” after the American didn’t apologize for a net cord that helped win her a point at the end of the first set. In a news conference afterward, Townsend said that she “let her racket do the talking.” The Latvian apologized days later, with a statement that did not acknowledge Townsend.

Townsend followed up the drama of her Ostapenko victory with a 7-5, 6-2 upset win in Arthur Ashe Stadium over fifth seed Mirra Andreeva. The 29-year-old then had eight match point opportunities in the second set tiebreak of her round of 16 match against Barbora Krejčíkova, but failed to capitalize. Townsend’s singles tournament ended in a three-set defeat 6-1, 6-7 (13), 6-3 to Krejčíková.

For Townsend, she treated today like just another match. Townsend played Williams in doubles at the Citi Open where she won in the third set 10-6 alongside Zhang Shuai. In that match, Townsend admits she felt nervous. In their U.S. Open encounter, there was calm.

“Today it was nice for me, because it was just another match, and so sometimes you need to have those experiences to be able to get through the nerves and get through the nostalgia who is on the other side of the net,” Townsend said.

Now, Townsend and Siniaková play in the semifinals, looking to capture a second major in 2025 after winning the Australian Open. The top seed faces the fourth seed of Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens.

(Photo: Al Bello / Getty Images)