NEW YORK — Venus Williams insists she is not a good doubles player. The 14 major championships she and her sister Serena won together tell a different story.
Without her younger sister by her side, Williams showed Thursday she has still got it by winning a women’s doubles match at the US Open 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, Williams, 45, did her signature twirl-and-wave and called Fernandez “the best partner I ever played with — outside of Serena.” Fernandez, 22, 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.”
Venus Williams, 45, called doubles partner Leylah Fernandez, 22, “the best partner I ever played with — outside of Serena.” Williams and Fernandez, who were unseeded, upset the sixth-seeded duo of Lyudmyla Kichenok and Ellen Perez 7-6 (4), 6-3. Mike Stobe/Getty Images
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.”
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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.
And Fernandez 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.”
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, who was awarded a wild-card entry into the women’s doubles draw, said in her on-court interview. “Thank you, you guys. Thank you for showing up for us.”
She hadn’t won a women’s doubles match in New York since 2014, when she and Serena reached the quarterfinals, or at any Grand Slam tournament since the 2018 French Open.
The last of the sisters’ 14 major championships in women’s doubles came at Wimbledon in 2016.
“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.”
Williams and Fernandez next face Ulrikke Eikeri and Eri Hozumi 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.”
The older Williams also has 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 the Citi Open in July after a 16-month absence. She defeated Peyton Stearns, then ranked No. 35 in the world, to become the second-oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match.
Williams also played at the Cincinnati Open earlier this month and in the US Open mixed doubles tournament last week with Reilly Opelka, losing in the first round. This is the first major Williams has competed in all three events (singles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles) since the 1998 Wimbledon.
“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.”
In singles, Williams, the oldest person to play singles at the US Open since 1981, pushed 11th-seeded Karolina Muchova to three sets before bowing out Monday night in her 25th US Open main draw appearance — the most by any player since the Open era began.
Thursday’s contest was the first for Williams in doubles at a major since the 2022 US Open, Serena’s final tournament.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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