Serena Williams will not compete alongside Venus Williams in the doubles after she was forced to withdraw from their first-round match due to the knee injury sustained in her singles return at Wimbledon.
Williams had been in a race to be fit to face Camila Osorio and Solana Sierra on Saturday afternoon. But she has not recovered from twisting her knee in the first set of her opening-round singles match against Maya Joint, which she lost 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3.
In a statement on social media, Williams said: “I’m heartbroken to have to withdraw from doubles. Coming back to compete again has been a gift, and the opportunity to play alongside @venuswilliams once more meant the world to me. I did everything I could but unfortunately my knee just isn’t ready to compete.
“I’m especially grateful to tournament director, Jamie Baker, and the entire tournament team for giving me every opportunity to recover. Thank you to the fans for your incredible support and for making this comeback so meaningful … All I can say is stay tuned to a city near you …”
Williams included images of her receiving treatment on her knee and four syringes filled with yellow fluid in her social media post: “The photo of the syringes is the fluid they drained from my knee after my singles match – yikes! The good news is that my knee shouldn’t swell or collect that much fluid again. The bad news is that, as hard as I tried, I wasn’t able to be ready for doubles,” she wrote.
This was meant to be a monumental occasion, the first time that Serena and Venus Williams, aged 44 and 46 years old, competed together since the 2022 US Open and their first appearance at Wimbledon together since they won the title in 2016.
Despite prioritising singles throughout their careers, they are one of the greatest doubles teams of all-time, having won Wimbledon together six times and 14 grand slam titles overall.
The past few weeks saw Williams return four years after her official retirement at the 2022 US Open, with the American choosing to to compete in doubles at the Queen’s Club and then Berlin.
Wimbledon had left its final singles wildcard available for Williams until the last moments, with the 24-time grand slam champion choosing to make her return a day before the deadline last Monday. At her age, and after so long without experiencing the intensity and stress of a top-level singles match, her body clearly reacted badly to her immense efforts on the singles court.
The days since Williams’ singles loss have been filled with uncertainty. She confirmed her knee issue a day after the loss and did not train on-site at all in the five days after her singles loss.
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The prospect of Serena and Venus, who won six of their 14 doubles grand slam titles at Wimbledon despite being part-time doubles players, competing in the format again has been one of the most anticipated events of the championships and the tournament organisers had pushed their rules to the limit to accommodate them.
By the close of play on Friday, every women’s doubles first-round match had been completed bar the Williams sisters’.
The uncertainty continued well into Saturday after the pair were not even scheduled in a solid time slot, their match instead listed as TBA with a time slot of not before 4.30pm. Britain’s Samantha Murray Sharan and Thailand’s Lanlana Tararudee have now replaced the Williams sisters in the draw.
Venus had been scheduled to train in Aorangi Park, the All England Club’s practice courts, at 2.30pm and Serena had also been scheduled to train at 4pm. In the end, Serena’s emotional salute to the Centre Court crowd as she departed the stadium after her loss on Monday marked her final appearance on the grass at the All England Club this year and possibly in her career.
