Venus & Serena Williams were eliminated by the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka & Linda Noskova 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the first round of women’s doubles
Serena Williams : Doubles | Knocked out | Numbers
A 16-year-old Serena and her sister Venus competed in a tennis “Battle of the Sexes” against Karsten Braasch at the 1998 Australian Open.
| Serena Williams | ||
| Representing United States | ||
|---|---|---|
| Olympic Games | ||
| Gold | 2000 Sydney | Doubles |
| Gold | 2008 Beijing | Doubles |
| Gold | 2012 London | Singles |
| Gold | 2012 London | Doubles |
At the time Braasch was 203rd in the ATP rankings.
The sisters had claimed they could beat any man outside the top 200, and accepted his challenge. Braasch beat both of them, playing one set against each. The score versus Serena was 6–1 and 6–2 against Venus.
Braasch said afterward, “500 and above, no chance.” The sisters later tweaked the number to beating men outside the top 350.
Doubles
Williams is widely considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. The arrival of the Williams sisters has been credited with ushering in a new era of power and athleticism on the women’s professional tennis tour.
| Doubles | |
|---|---|
| Career record | 192–34 (85.0%) |
| Career titles | 23 |
| Highest ranking | No. 1 (June 21, 2010) |
| Current ranking | No. 413 (August 29, 2022) |
| Grand Slam doubles results | |
| Australian Open | W (2001, 2003, 2009, 2010) |
| French Open | W (1999, 2010) |
| Wimbledon | W (2000, 2002, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2016) |
| US Open | W (1999, 2009) |
Williams returned to professional play in June 2022 when she partnered up with Ons Jabeur in the Eastbourne International.
The pairing beat Sara Sorribes Tormo and Marie Bouzková in the first round, and Shuko Aoyama and Chan Hao-ching in the second.
The pairing retired from the tournament afterwards owing to an injury sustained by Jabeur.
Williams also entered the 2022 Wimbledon Championships in singles, having accepted a wildcard after dropping to 1204th in the singles rankings.
She lost to Harmony Tan in the first round in an over 3 hour match, the longest thus far at the tournament.
Serena Williams knocked out
William Sisters are knocked out of doubles’ play by Czech duo at US Open.
Serena Williams’ illustrious doubles career has likely come to an end after she and her sister Venus fell in straight sets to the Czech duo of Linda Nosková and Lucie Hradecká in the first round of the US Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York.
The 23-time grand slam singles and 14-time doubles champion is still set to play against Australia’s Ajla Tomljanović in the third round of the singles draw on Friday. Venus Williams lost in the first round on Tuesday.
Thursday night might have been the last match for Serena and Venus as a doubles team. The Czech Republic duo of Nosková, 17, and Hradecká, 37, advanced to the second round, winning 7-6(5), 6-4.
Numbers
Entering the 2022 US Open, Serena has won 23 Grand Slam singles championships. That’s the most by any player in the Open Era (since 1968) and is second-most all time. Margaret Court is first with 24.
Serena could tie Court’s record if she wins the US Open. She has won the tournament six times.
Serena has won 367 major matches, the most by a woman in tennis history. She has also won 73 career singles titles, the fifth-most among women in the Open Era.
Winning all four Grand Slam events in tennis is not an easy task, let alone consecutively. But Serena has proved otherwise.
She has won four straight majors twice in her career (2002-03 and 2014-15). Steffi Graf is the only other tennis player to achieve that feat.
She spent 319 weeks as the ATP or WTA’s No. 1-ranked player during her career. To put this into perspective, only four other players have spent 300-plus weeks as the ATP or WTA No. 1 player (Graf, Navratilova, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer).
Serena spent 186 consecutive weeks as the WTA’s No. 1 player from Feb. 2013 to Sept. 2016. That’s tied for the longest streak at No.1 since WTA rankings were introduced (1975).