When their first doubles match together in 4 1/2 years ended in a loss at the US Open on Thursday night, the brothers hugged each other and then walked off the court to a standing ovation. The Williams sisters were eliminated by Czech pair Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova 7-6 (5), 6-4 at Flushing Meadows. “I was speechless when I found out I was going to face these two. I mean, they’re legends. And I’ve always been such a big fan of them, especially Serena. He’s been my idol forever, probably,” said Noskova, a 17-year-old making her Grand Slam doubles debut. “So I was really happy, excited, but kind of scared to face them.” Arthur Ashe Stadium had never hosted a first-round doubles match — women’s or men’s, night or day — until it featured two members of a family that combined to claim 14 Grand Slam doubles titles. “It’s incredible, because to play the first round in a huge stadium, with 23,000 people, it’s amazing,” said the 37-year-old Hradecka, who won major doubles trophies with Andrea Hlavackova at the 2013 US Open and 2011 French Open. Open. “I don’t think (when) we played the final here, it was packed like this.” The Williams sisters, who did not give interviews after the match, teamed up for the first time since the 2018 French Open. According to the WTA, this was just their second first-round doubles loss at a Slam. the only other came all the way at the 1997 US Open. “I’m still in shock that we won,” Hradecka said in an on-field interview immediately after the match. Speaking to the sell-out crowd of 23,859, he said: “I’m so sorry for you that we beat them, but we’re so glad we did.” The fans weren’t as raucous as they were for each of the two singles wins this week for Serena, who has hinted that this will be the final event of her career. Serena plays Ajla Tomljanovic on Friday night in the third round of singles. Venus bounced off this bracket in the first round. After a fairly subdued entrance from the locker room by Hradecka and Noskova, who were competing as a team for the first time, a video tribute to the Williams-Williams pair played on the Ashe video boards, with a narrator introducing “two of the greatest athletes on the planet Earth,” and, in a reference to Serena’s impending retirement, saying, “It’s not too late to change your mind.” There have been shots of them over the years, including as kids with white beads in their hair (like Serena’s daughter Olympia wore on opening night) and, later, winning titles. Olympia, who turned 5 on Thursday, wasn’t there for it, Serena’s husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian was, as were the sisters’ mother, Oracene Price, and their sister, Isha. During the pre-match warm-up, the announcer noted that the sisters are 14-0 in Grand Slam doubles finals and stated, “They have transformed and elevated the sport as we know it.” Spectators saved their biggest cheers for some of Serena’s best efforts, whether aces or players or a forehand winner on the run. The sisters went up 5-4 early and held two set points there on Noskova’s serve, but couldn’t convert a single one. The strongest moment probably came after a 19-year point the sisters won during the first set tiebreak, with three swinging volleys from Serena. This put them ahead 4-3, and it soon became 5-3. But Hradecka and Noskova took the next four points to claim this set. They then took a 3-0 lead in the second, and after the Williams sisters made it 4-all, the Czech team pulled away. The Williams siblings received a wild card entry into this year’s doubles. Serena, who turns 41 next month, and Venus, who turns 42 in June, won doubles titles at the US Open in 1999 — the year Serena won her first major singles trophy at age 17 in New York — and in 2009. They have a total of 30 major singles trophies: 23 for Serena, seven for Venus. “Playing against the Williams sisters,” Noskova said, “is a special moment for everyone.”
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