Serena and Venus Williams knocked out of doubles’ play by Czech duo at US Open
Serena Williams and Venus Williams will not play the US Open doubles final after they were knocked out of the competition in a 4-2 win by a pair of Czech pairs on Wednesday.
Czech third-seeded Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova downed the Williams sisters 3-0 in the deciding set in the opening match on hard courts, then lost 5-3 to the Russians in the deciding frame on clay at Flushing Meadows.
Venus and Serena will now have to wait for a last-four meeting with third-seeded Ana Konjuh and Vasek Pospisil in the quarter-finals. Conventional wisdom has suggested both Serena and Venus will win their semi-final meeting, and now they will have to wait to see which combination of players can beat Konjuh and Pospisil to move on.
Venus, who has never held a Grand Slam singles title, ended 2014 with four titles at the French Open and reached the second round at Wimbledon. Serena, who won the only title she has won at a major, the 2013 US Open in a three-set thriller with Ana Ivanovic as she broke her sister Novak twice, could only reach the second round at the Australian Open.
“We are both disappointed and we are very disappointed because it was in the best of our hands and we just didn’t play to our best level this week,” said Williams, who won the Grand Slams in 2009 and 2010.
“To play in the French Open final and now here on grass, to not come close to our goals, to try to be in the semis, it’s been a rough couple of weeks for us.”
Williams said her sister will still have a chance to meet the winner of the other tie-break at the US Open between fourth-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro and Venus Ozuna.
“That’s the plan as far as I’m concerned,” she said.
Wimbledon champion Serena Williams was denied a semi-final appearance in her hometown tournament as she was beaten by top-seeded Simona Halep 5-3 6-1 on a slow court on Tuesday.
The Williams sisters were knocked out of the women’s doubles semi-finals of the