Key takeaways:
- Serena Williams withdrew from her Wimbledon doubles match with Venus Williams, saying her knee was not ready to compete.
- Williams twisted her knee during a first-round singles loss to Maya Joint, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3.
- The match would have been the Williams sisters’ first Wimbledon doubles appearance together since their 2016 title run.
Serena Williams’ Wimbledon comeback ended before she could take the court with her sister Venus, as a knee injury forced her to withdraw from their first-round doubles match Saturday.
Williams, 44, had been scheduled to team with Venus Williams, 46, against Camila Osorio and Solana Sierra. Instead, Britain’s Samantha Murray Sharan and Thailand’s Lanlana Tararudee replaced the sisters in the draw.
“I’m heartbroken to have to withdraw from doubles,” Serena Williams wrote on Instagram. “Coming back to compete again has been a gift, and the opportunity to play alongside @venuswilliams once more meant the world to me. I did everything I could but unfortunately my knee just isn’t ready to compete.”
The injury came during Williams’ singles return at Wimbledon, where she twisted her knee in the first set of her opening-round match against 20-year-old Maya Joint. Williams lost that match 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 after receiving a wild card invitation into the singles draw.
Williams said she was grateful to tournament director Jamie Baker and Wimbledon staff for giving her time to recover.
“Thank you to the fans for your incredible support and for making this comeback so meaningful,” she wrote. “All I can say is stay tuned to a city near you.”
In her social media post, Williams included images of herself receiving treatment and four syringes filled with yellow fluid. “The photo of the syringes is the fluid they drained from my knee after my singles match – yikes!” she wrote. “The good news is that my knee shouldn’t swell or collect that much fluid again. The bad news is that, as hard as I tried, I wasn’t able to be ready for doubles.”
The doubles match would have been the first time Serena and Venus Williams had competed together since the 2022 US Open and their first Wimbledon appearance as a team since 2016, when they won the title. The sisters have won six Wimbledon doubles championships together and 14 Grand Slam doubles titles overall.
Serena Williams recently returned to professional tennis after nearly four years away from competition following her official retirement at the 2022 US Open. Before Wimbledon, she competed in doubles at Queen’s Club and in Berlin.
Wimbledon had kept its final women’s singles wild card available for Williams, and she accepted it a day before the deadline last Monday. After her first-round loss, Williams confirmed the knee problem and did not train on-site during the five days that followed, The Guardian reported.
The sisters’ doubles match had been one of the most anticipated events of the tournament. By the end of play Friday, every other women’s doubles first-round match had been completed. Their match remained unscheduled for a fixed time Saturday and was listed as not before 4:30 p.m.
Venus Williams had been scheduled to train at Aorangi Park, the All England Club’s practice courts, at 2:30 p.m., with Serena scheduled for 4 p.m. Serena’s farewell to the Centre Court crowd after her singles defeat Monday became her final Wimbledon appearance this year.
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