Serena Williams Joined Forces with Venus Williams for Wimbledon Doubles to Fulfill Daughter Olympia’s Wish

Serena Williams‘ campaign at the Berlin Open ended after the opening round. She played doubles alongside Karolina Muchova and lost with scores of 6-4, 6-4 to the pair of Erin Routliffe and Giuliana Olmos.

On the same day, Wimbledon also announced the wild cards. This Wimbledon will mark the return of the Williams sisters. Venus Williams, 46, never hung up her racket and made her return to tennis last year at the Citi Open. She played quite a few tournaments this year, though her singles campaigns only ended in disappointment because she failed to secure a win in every tournament she has played so far.

Serena, on the other hand, made her comeback from retirement at the Queen’s Club Championships, where she played doubles with Victoria Mboko. Although they defeated third seeds Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez in the first round, they were forced to hand the walkover to Laura Siegemund and Leylah Fernandez.

It was because Mboko, during her singles opening-round match against Karolina Pliskova, suffered an MCL injury in her left knee and was forced to withdraw from not just the Queen’s event but the entire grass swing, including Wimbledon.

After Queen’s, Serena played doubles in Berlin with Muchova. But for Wimbledon, she has reunited with sister Venus. Serena’s daughter Olympia is the reason why the Williams sisters joined forces.

I think it’s going to be fun. My daughter, Olympia, told me I should play with Venus. She’s always right… She’s very smart. She’s very wise, I think is a better word. So I said, ‘OK, Olympia, we’ll see if we can do it.’

Serena Williams told reporters in Berlin

This will be the first time since 2016 that Serena and Venus will play doubles together. They had reached the final and defeated Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova to win their sixth title in the tournament.

Olympia told @serenawilliams to play doubles with Venus at Wimbledon. 🥹👏 pic.twitter.com/26wti2ueWw

— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) June 16, 2026

It was also the last time they lifted a Major doubles title together. Also together, Serena and Venus have won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles.

Serena, however, did not request a singles wild card for Wimbledon. Additionally, Venus, who last played a singles match against Kaitlin Quevedo and lost it, did not get the wild card for singles at SW19. She is a five-time champion in the tournament.

Andrea Petkovic doesn’t think Serena Williams will only play doubles

Serena Williams, unsurprisingly, was asked whether she plans to play singles as well while she was competing at the Queen’s. Although Serena did not rule out the possibility of playing singles, she said playing singles will require her to train even more and that it is not her “journey” at the moment. Andrea Petkovic is believing none of it.

My opinion is that no person in this world, no athlete in the world, voluntarily goes back into these anti-doping protocols, especially not Serena Williams! You give up part of your freedom, your life. They know where you are every day at every hour and can visit you every day at any time. They usually come at five in the morning, just to f— with you. Apologies for my language, but it really is.

Andrea Petkovic said on the Becker-Petkovic podcast

Serena last competed in a singles tournament at the 2022 US Open. After her defeat to Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round, she called time on her career.

No one does this, Boris [Becker], to just play a bit of doubles; you can’t tell me that. That’s my opinion. I think she’s playing doubles to see what her body is doing and if she can handle it.

Andrea Petkovic added

The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion last won a Major at the 2017 Wimbledon by beating Venus Williams. Her last singles title was the 2020 ASB Classic.

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