US Open Day 6 - Williams sisters lose, but Serena might return

Catherine Whitaker (0:10)

Well, hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast on a special Friday night here at the US Open, a night that saw the return of Serena Williams to the Arthur Ashe Stadium. We are coming to you from Flushing Meadows at just gone 11 p.m. Having just watched the Williams Sisters in doubles action. There are still matches going on out there, and we'll be back to cover those in part three of today's show. We'll certainly be recording that post 2 a.m. Because that does seem to be how this US Open is rolling. But just before we get into the singles, David, a word on the Serena and Venus experience tonight. They lost their round one doubles match to Maya Joint and Chan Hao Ching in a deciding set tie break. The match lasting more than three hours. And the length of the match, incidentally thrilling, though it was, has meant that Ben Shelton and Denis Shapovalov have only just begun their best of five set match at gone 11 p.m. But tonight, and we experienced much of this match live inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium, it was both the loudest and the quietest it has been all week.

David Law (1:25)

Yes, because usually what you get inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium is just 10, 20,000 conversations of people catching up with each other on a night out. I mean, we experienced this feeling of it just being a big night out, we came in a little bit later today after last night's 4 a.m. finish with our recording of last night's show.

So we were walking the boardwalk down to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, along with everybody else who were coming for this 7 o'clock start time with Serena and Venus Williams. The place was ready for a party. It was just an amazing experience to walk in. But then when you got inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium, just about for the first time that I've had all tournament, and first time in fact that I can remember, those conversations were not happening. Everybody was focused, I think, on the court, on the presence of Serena and Venus Williams. When they came out, when they were introduced to the crowd, the place just exploded in noise. I mean, it was still probably only about half full at that point. I mean, it takes such a long time to get everybody into this place, that it was not completely full. But within half a dozen games, it was full. And yes, when they were winning points, it was the loudest it has been. But when people were just watching the points unfold, I mean, it was more like Wimbledon Center Court than it was the Arthur Ashe Stadium. And you just don't get that here, do you?

It was a measure really of the way they just focused everybody's attention on them.

Catherine Whitaker (2:59)

Yeah. And a word for Maya Joint, who has now beaten Serena Williams on two of the biggest and most intimidating stages in the sport on two separate occasions in 2026 Now, if you told us that at the start of the year, Matt, we, well, we wouldn't have believed you. We would have been confused.

Matt Roberts (3:19)

For lots of reasons.

David Law (3:20)

We would have laughed.

Catherine Whitaker (3:21)

I mean, Caroline Wozniacki did apparently spill in commentary on ESPN that Serena Williams does intend to properly come back to singles in 2027 to some degree. Whether she will row back on that, I don't know. But it's a bit of a surprise to me, I think on the basis of what we've seen of Serena, be it quite a small sample size. I mean, it was incredibly fun tonight, but they did lose the first round doubles match.

Matt Roberts (3:53)

Yes. Serena, I thought, was nowhere near as sharp as she had been in the mixed doubles with Alcaraz last week. Actually, I felt like Serena's serve was a bit of a struggle tonight, which is normally the shot that's always there for her. They were down a break in the third set, and it looked like maybe it was going to fizzle out, but they came back. They were pretty close to winning. They went five love up in that match tie break, and Joint and Chan clawed it back. Yeah, look, it was a very special occasion, very cool to see Serena and Venus playing. It's a match that I think everyone will remember fondly, but it's very, very different to singles.

They held their own in this match, absolutely, but they lost in the first round, and that's in the doubles. The singles is a totally different ball game whatsoever.