NEW YORK (AP) — Venus Williams insists she is not a good doubles player. The 14 major championships she and Serena won together tell a different story.
Without her younger sister by her side, Williams showed Thursday she’s still got it. Williams won a at the for the first time in more than a decade, teaming with Leylah Fernandez to defeat the sixth-seeded pair of Lyudmyla Kichenok and Ellen Perez 7-6 (4), 6-3.
When it was over, the 45-year-old Williams did her signature twirl-and-wave and called Fernandez “the best partner I ever played with — outside of Serena.” The 22-year-old Canadian even reminded Venus of Serena.
“Our energy really matched each other in terms of determination, in terms of not giving up, in terms of really still just focused and dialed in in every single thing,” Williams said. “That felt amazing because I never really played with a partner — outside of Serena, obviously — who had that kind of mentality, so it was really fun.”
Williams and Fernandez, the 2021 singles runner-up at Flushing Meadows, were heavy fan favorites at a nearly-full Louis Armstrong Stadium, and the chair umpire had to ask the crowd multiple times to quiet down.
The spectators gave Williams and Fernandez a standing ovation after they claimed the opening tiebreaker despite trailing 5-2 in that set — and rose again to cheer after the match ended in 90 minutes.
“Leylah is a good player, (and) Venus is also a good doubles player,” Kichenok said. “They have played doubles many times. They know what it is. Maybe it took a bit of time to adjust at the beginning, but then they found their rhythm.”
Throughout the match, there were chants of “Here we go, Venus, here we go!” and a sign in the stands read, “Welcome to the Williams show.”
“Wow,” Williams said in her on-court interview. “Thank you, you guys. Thank you for showing up for us.”
Williams hadn’t won a women’s doubles match in New York since 2014, when she and Serena made it to the quarterfinals, or at any Grand Slam tournament since the 2018 French Open.
“It’s an area that I’m not that comfortable in, being on a doubles court, but I think you get to some point in the match where you stop thinking about it,” Williams said. “When push comes to shove, I’ll do what I have to, but I’m a singles player, so of course when I walk out there, I actually tell myself just to play singles and try that method. I try not to be something that I’m not.”
The older Williams won seven Grand Slam titles in singles and another two in mixed doubles. She had been off the tour for 16 months until returning to action by playing singles and doubles at Washington in July.
“With the amount of matches I’ve played, I’m progressing very quickly,” Williams said. “I didn’t have to come back to play tennis, but eventually I found my way back.”
At Flushing Meadows, Williams lost in the first round of mixed doubles and singles, then was awarded a wild card for women’s doubles. Fernandez described feeling “like a kid on Christmas Day” and jumping around with a smile on her face after getting the call that Williams wanted to play doubles with her.
She was shocked to hear the comparison to Serena.
“It’s probably the biggest compliment I’ve ever gotten,” Fernandez said. “I feel like those are big shoes to fill.”
Back in doubles at the U.S. Open for the first time since 2022, Williams gets to keep going in New York after pushing 11th-seeded Karolina Muchova to three sets of singles play Monday night. Ulrikke Eikeri and Eri Hozumi are up next in the second round of doubles.
“I actually feel great,” Williams said. “With some luck, we’ll stay, maybe win another round and just keep getting better.”
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