Serena and Venus Williams to play Wimbledon as wild-card doubles entry
The duo, who have been dating for years, is coming together once again.
The Williams sisters (Venus, 45, and Serena, 44) will return to their doubles partnership at Wimbledon in less than two weeks. The All England Club announced the doubles wild card invitation on Tuesday.
If they win for a record seventh time, the Williams sisters will make history as the oldest doubles combo to win a Grand Slam in nearly 16 years.
The record of 74 years and 303 days belongs to Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strýcová, who won the 2023 Wimbledon. Venus will turn 46 on Wednesday and Serena will turn 45 on September 26, making their combined age at the end of the tournament 90 years and approximately 290 days.
The Williams sisters have won six doubles titles together at Wimbledon; the most recent of these was in 2016 and the first was in 2000. Together they won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles; this was the second most titles won by any women’s team in the Open Era, behind the 20 won by Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver.
Serena recently returned to competition after almost four years away from professional tennis. On Tuesday, she will compete in the Berlin Open doubles alongside world No. 10 singles player Karolína Muchová against Erin Routliffe and Giuliana Olmos.
Serena’s first tournament in her comeback was shortened. Her playmate, Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko, suffered a knee injury that ended her efforts at the Queen’s Club Championship, defeating No. 3 seeds Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez 7-6(2), 6-2.
Venus, who will turn 46 on Wednesday, is in the middle 33rd consecutive record season in WTA. In many tournaments, he was eliminated in the first round in singles, but achieved better results in doubles.
The matchup at Wimbledon will be the first matchup for the Williams sisters since 2022. Serena took a long break from that year and gave birth to her second child, Adira River Ohanian, in 2023.
Most of the sisters’ careers have been played at Wimbledon. Serena has 14 titles on the hallowed grass court; six in doubles, one in mixed doubles and seven in singles. Venus Williams has won 11 Wimbledon titles, five in singles and six in doubles.
Williams’ sisters are also not scheduled to play women’s singles at this year’s tournament, but have not been allocated a wild card in women’s singles.
