The 23-time Grand Slam singles and 14-times doubles champion will play against Australian Ajla Tomljanović in the third round of the singles draw on Friday. Venus Williams lost in the first round on Tuesday.
Thursday night may have been the last game for Serena and Venus as a doubles team. Czech duo Nosková, 17, and Hradecká, 37, advanced to the second round, winning 7-6(5), 6-4.
“I think we did a very good job and I’m so sorry for you that we beat them, but we’re so happy we made it,” Hradecká said in an interview shortly after the game on the Space to fit the 23,000+ fans.
It was the first time she worked with Nosková in doubles.
The Williams duo started well and had two set points with a 5-4 lead in the first, but the Czechs fought back. Hradecká and Nosková were also behind in the tiebreak but won the final four points.
They appeared to have a comfortable 4-1 lead in the second set, but Venus and Serena managed to win three games in a row to even it out. But the Czechs held to take a 5-4 lead, then broke Serena in the final game when Hradecká hit a backhand between the sisters for the match-winner.
The Williams sisters competed as doubles wildcards at the US Open. They last played doubles together at the 2018 French Open when they reached the round of 16.
On Wednesday, Serena defeated Anett Kontaveit 7: 6 (4), 2: 6, 6: 2. It was Williams’ fourth match since she announced in Vogue magazine that she would “move away from tennis” after the US Open.
“I’ve never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me. I thought of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use this word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people,” Williams, 40, said in the Vogue article published earlier this month became.
“Perhaps evolution is the best word to describe what I intend to do. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis and towards other things that are important to me,” she said.
Venus Williams, 42, has not revealed her future tennis plans.
If they both leave the sport this year, they will do so with 48 Grand Slam titles (singles, doubles and mixed doubles) as a family and a perfect record in the doubles final (14-0). They also won three Olympic gold medals in doubles and each won gold in singles.