Serena and Venus Together Again: Wild Card for the Cincinnati Doubles

Serena and Venus Williams have received a wild card for the women's doubles draw at the Cincinnati Open, running from August 13 to 23. It will be their first time on court as teammates since the 2022 US Open, and their first time ever playing together in Ohio: in their careers, the two sisters had never played the tournament as a pair.

The announcement closes a circle left open in July. Serena, 44, had returned to action in June at Queen's after four years away, winning on her comeback in doubles alongside Victoria Mboko against Melichar-Martinez and Routliffe 7-6(2), 6-2, before continuing on to Berlin with Karolina Muchova. A reunion with her sister was already planned at Wimbledon, but a knee injury picked up in her first-round singles loss to Maya Joint forced her to withdraw from the doubles.

Venus, 46, also received a wild card for the singles draw. She'll need it: in 2026 she is still winless in ten WTA-level matches, with her last victory coming at the 2025 Washington tournament against Peyton Stearns. Sloane Stephens and Taylor Townsend also received singles wild cards.

Together the sisters have won fourteen Grand Slam doubles titles and three Olympic golds, all earned back when they were the players to beat. Cincinnati is not that context, and neither of them pretends it is. But after a Wimbledon withdrawal that seemed to have closed the window, the tournament decided it was worth reopening before the US Open.