NEW YORK – Venus Williams won a women’s doubles match at the US Open for the first time in over a decade. This time without my younger sister Serena.
Williams, 45, teamed up with Leila Fernandez on Thursday to defeat the sixth seed pair, Ludmila Kichenok and Ellen Perez 7-6 (4), 6-3.
Williams made the yoke and waves of her signature when it was finished, and was called 22-year-old Fernandez.
Williams and Fernandez, the 2021 singles runner-up at Flushing Meadows, are huge fan favorites at almost complete Louis Armstrong Stadium, and the stool umpire had to ask the crowd many times to keep it quiet.
The audience gave Williams and Fernandez a standing ovation after insisting on an opening tiebreaker despite chasing 5-2 on that set.
There was a chant “Go here, Venus, I’m here!” And the sign on the stand says “Welcome to the Williams Show.”
“Amazing,” Williams said in an on-court interview, awarded a wildcard entry for a women’s doubles draw. “Thank you guys, thank you for showing up for us.”
She has not won a women’s doubles match in New York since 2014.
The final 14 major women’s doubles championships appeared at Wimbledon in 2016.
The older Williams also won seven grand slam titles in singles, and two more in mixed doubles.
She had finished toured until she returned to action for 16 months, playing singles and doubles at the City Open in July. She defeated Payton Stearns and then ranked 35th in the world, becoming the second oldest woman in a tour-level singles match.
Williams also played at the Cincinnati Open earlier this month and last week in the US Open Mixed Double Stonament with Riley Opelca, losing in the first round. This is the first major since Wimbledon in 1998 to compete in all three events (single, female doubles, mixed doubles).
In singles, Williams, the oldest to perform singles at the US Open since 1981, was bored with the look of the US Open Main Draw on Monday night after pushing 11th seed Karolina Mciba to three sets.
Thursday’s contest was Williams’ first major doubles contest since Serena’s final tournament, the 2022 US Open.
ESPN research and Associated Press contributed to this report.