Venus and Serena Williams will play doubles at the U.S. Open. Matthew Stockman / Getty ImagesAug. 26, 2026 10:16 am EDT Updated Serena Williams is coming back to the U.S. Open main draws, four years after she walked off Arthur Ashe Stadium, and away from tennis, for what had appeared to be the last time.The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, who won her first U.S. Open title 27 years ago when she was 17, will team up with her sister, Venus in doubles. Serena is not set to play singles, but Venus, 46, received a wild card for that draw, too.Williams, 44 last played in the U.S. Open in 2022. It was her final event before she left the sport for the first time, and she gave birth to a second daughter the following year. Her presence in any tournament has long taken over the event until she loses, a dynamic already magnified on her return to New York when she and Carlos Alcaraz stole the show in the mixed doubles event despite not reaching the semifinals.Serena Williams’ unforgettable comebackWilliams played her first singles match in nearly four years at Wimbledon in July, losing to Maya Joint of Australia in three sets. She tweaked her right knee in that loss, which meant that she and Venus could not enter the doubles draw there as planned.They played together at the Cincinnati Open, a WTA 1000 event, earlier in August. They came close to a tantalizing comeback against Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns, but ultimately succumbed in a deciding 10-point tiebreak.In the first part of her career, Serena won six U.S. Open singles titles, including a run of three in a row starting in 2012 and ending in 2014. Venus won the singles title in 2000 and 2001, and she and Serena also won the doubles title twice, in 1999 and 2009.