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| Photo Credit: AP. |
NEW YORK (AP) — Serena and Venus Williams traded fist bumps or palm slaps and chatted between points. They smiled while conversing in their seats at changeovers.
When their
first doubles match together in 4 1/2 years ended with a loss at the U.S Open
on Thursday night, the siblings hugged each other, then left the court to a
standing ovation.
The Williams
sisters were eliminated by the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova
7-6 (5), 6-4 at Flushing Meadows.
“I was
speechless when I found out I’m going to face these two. I mean, they’re
legends. And I was always such a big fan of them, especially Serena. She has
been my idol since ever, probably,” said Noskova, a 17-year-old making her
Grand Slam debut in doubles. “So I was really happy, excited, but kind of
scared, to face them.”
Arthur Ashe
Stadium had never hosted a first-round doubles match — for women or men, during
the night or day — until this one featuring two members of one family who have
combined to claim 14 Grand Slam titles in doubles.
“It’s something incredible, because playing
first round in a huge stadium, with 23,000 people, is something amazing,” said
the 37-year-old Hradecka, who won major doubles trophies with Andrea Hlavackova
at the 2013 U.S. Open and 2011 French Open. “I don’t think (when) we played the
final here, it was packed like this.”
The Williams
sisters, who did not do interviews after the match, were partnering up for the
first time since the 2018 French Open. This was their fourth first-round
doubles defeat at a Slam; the most recent had been at the 2013 French Open.
“I’m still
in shock that we won,” Hradecka said in an on-court interview right after the
match’s conclusion.
Speaking to
the sellout crowd of 23,859, she said: “I’m so sorry for you that we beat them,
but we are so happy that we did it.”
The fans
were not nearly as boisterous as they were for each of the two victories in
singles this week for Serena, who has hinted that this will be the final event
of her career.
Serena plays
Ajla Tomljanovic on Friday night in the third round of singles; Venus was
bounced from that bracket in the first round.
After a
rather subdued entrance from the locker room by Hradecka and Noskova, who were
competing as a team for the first time, a video tribute to the
Williams-Williams pairing played on the Ashe videoboards, with a narrator
introducing “two of the greatest athletes on Planet Earth” and, in a reference
to Serena’s looming retirement, saying, “It’s not too late to change your
mind.”
There was
footage of them through the years, including as kids with white beads in their
hair (like Serena’s daughter, Olympia, wore on opening night) and, later,
winning titles.
Olympia, who
turned 5 on Thursday, was not there for this one, Serena’s husband, Reddit
co-founder Alexis Ohanian was, as were the sisters’ mother, Oracene Price, and
their sister, Isha.
During the
pre-match warmup, the announcer noted that the sisters are 14-0 in Grand Slam
doubles finals and declared: “They’ve transformed and elevated the sport as we
know it.”
The spectators
saved their biggest cheers for some of Serena’s best efforts, whether aces or
putaways or an on-the-run forehand winner. The sisters went up 5-4 early and
held two set points there on Noskova’s serve, but could not convert either.
The loudest
moment probably arrived after a 19-stroke point won by the sisters during the
first-set tiebreaker, featuring three swinging volleys by Serena. That put them
ahead 4-3, and soon it was 5-3.
But Hradecka
and Noskova grabbed the next four points to claim that set. They then jumped
ahead 3-0 in the second, and after the Williams sisters made it 4-all, the
Czech team pulled away.
The Williams
siblings received a wild-card entry into this year’s doubles field. Serena, who
turns 41 next month, and Venus, who turned 42 in June, won doubles trophies at
the U.S. Open in 1999 -- the year Serena won her first major singles trophy at
age 17 in New York -- and 2009.
They have a
total of 30 major trophies in singles: 23 for Serena, seven for Venus.
“Playing
against the Williams sisters,” Noskova said, “is a special moment for
everybody.”
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