Serena and Venus Williams awarded US Open doubles wildcard

On 26 August 2026 the United States Tennis Association granted Serena and Venus Williams a wildcard to play women's doubles at the US Open, their first Grand Slam outing together for four years.

Together the sisters have won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles and three Olympic gold medals and are two-time winners of the women's doubles title in New York; they last teamed up at a major at the 2022 US Open, which was Serena's final tournament before she "evolved away" from tennis. Serena returned to doubles at Queen's in June and was later given the final Wimbledon women's singles wildcard; at Wimbledon she lost 6-3 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 to Australia's Maya Joint and sustained a knee injury that ruled her out of the women's doubles.

Serena is 44 and Venus is 46. Venus has played singles and doubles sporadically on the WTA Tour in recent years. The pair reunited at August's Cincinnati Open, where they lost in three sets to Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns.

Serena partnered Carlos Alcaraz in the US Open mixed doubles in New York on Tuesday, winning their opening match but losing in the quarter-finals. The mixed doubles appearance followed her earlier return to competitive doubles at Queen's in June and the Wimbledon singles wildcard she received.

Venus has also been given a wildcard for the singles. Last year at Flushing Meadows Venus and Canada's Leylah Fernandez reached the women's doubles quarter-finals before losing to top seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend.

As a pairing the Williams sisters have won 14 major doubles trophies together, with their most recent coming at Wimbledon in 2016; this will be only their third appearance together at a Grand Slam since then, after they teamed up at the French Open in 2018 and the US Open four years ago. They won the US Open doubles title in 1999 and again in 2009, and have never lost a major doubles final together.

The women's singles event at the US Open begins on Sunday, 30 August, and the Williams sisters' women's doubles campaign will start on either Thursday, 3 September or Friday, 4 September.