Serena and Venus Williams last shared a doubles court at Arthur Ashe Stadium, in what was assumed to be Serena’s farewell to tennis. Nearly four years later, the sisters are walking onto a doubles court together again, this time in Cincinnati.

It is their first appearance as a pair at this tournament in either career. Friday’s doubles draw put them on a collision course with Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns in the very first round. The sentimental value of the reunion is obvious. What’s less obvious is how ready either sister actually is for it. Kostyuk enters as the tournament’s tenth seed, fresh off a strong singles season. Stearns grew up in the host city. Both sisters arrive off some of the roughest form of their respective comebacks.

Serena’s road here has been especially bumpy. The sisters were originally scheduled to debut together at Wimbledon. Serena needed fluid drained from her right knee after a first-round singles loss to Maya Joint. The injury forced her out of the doubles draw alongside Venus. It was the second time in a month that injury broke up one of Serena’s doubles partnerships. She and teenager Victoria Mboko won their opening match at Queen’s Club. Mboko then tore up her own knee in a singles match days later. Serena’s next partner was Karolina Muchova at the Berlin Open. They fell in the first round to Erin Routliffe and Giuliana Olmos.

Venus has had an even tougher road this season. She is winless across twelve singles matches in 2026. Emiliana Arango beat her 6-2, 6-2 in Cincinnati’s first round on Friday. The loss reignited fan criticism of her wildcard entries. Her doubles results have not offered much shelter either. She and Stearns lost in the first round the only other time they partnered. That came in February at the ATX Open. Stearns went on to win the singles title there.

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Individual form aside, the sisters carry a doubles résumé with almost no equal. Their finals record together has been broken only once in more than two decades.

The Williams Sisters Lost Only One Doubles Final in Their Careers

Despite playing with multiple doubles partners throughout their careers, the Williams sisters’ doubles success has come only while playing together. The duo reached twenty-three Tour-level doubles finals in their careers, losing only one of those title clashes.

The only final loss the Williams sisters had in doubles was at the Southern California Open in 1999, when they lost to the team of Lindsay Davenport and Corina Morariu. Together, Serena and Venus had one of the most impressive doubles resumes of all time, which included fourteen Major titles and three Olympic golds.

The upcoming match at the Cincinnati Open will be important for the Williams sisters to justify their position as wildcard recipients. While Serena has just made her comeback, and will need wildcards, there has been criticism from fans who are not happy with Venus getting successive singles wildcards, despite the American not winning any match this year, noise which has increased after she was knocked out of her singles campaign by Emiliana Arango in the first round.

Should Serena’s serve be firing like it was on the grass, and both she and Serena are fit, they will have a decent chance of beating the team of Kostyuk and Stearns, as they are not a set doubles team, and the Williams sisters will have the experience and the crowd support behind them.