Serena and Venus Williams are entered to play in the women’s doubles at Wimbledon this year, which would mark the the first time that the sisters have played together at the All England Club since 2016.
They won the title that year, in what would turn out to be their very last major title as doubles partners.
They returned in 2022 for the US Open, but were knocked out in the first round by Czech pair Linda Noskova and Lucie Hradecka at Flushing Meadows in New York, New York.
Now, with Serena coming out of a four-year retirement earlier this year at Queen’s Club, where she partnered Victoria Mboko, the sisters looked set to take to the hallowed turf of south London once more, but there is a slight snag in their plans.
Serena suffered a knee injury in her first-round defeat in the women’s singles draw, where she was beaten by the Australian Maya Joint in a three-set thriller on Centre Court.
What time are Serena and Venus Williams playing at Wimbledon today?
As such, it has thrown into doubt whether the two sisters will be able to play in their doubles match, where they are scheduled to take on Camila Osorio and Solana Sierra at “4.30pm”, with the “court to be announced”.
The first round of the women’s doubles competition usually takes place on the Thursday and Friday of the first week, but the Williams sisters were nowhere to be seen on either day’s order of play.
They have, however, emerged on Saturday’s, although a time for their match is still “to be arranged”.
Tournament director Jamie Baker told reporters on Friday morning that the All England Club was doing all it could to try and help Serena to play.
"We are giving her as much time [as possible], obviously,' Baker said.
“We want her to play if she, if she possibly can."In terms of the days [that first-round matches should be played], it's actually a guideline, like that's what we're hoping to do, based on trying to get the tournament finished.
“There are sometimes exceptional circumstances, whether it's weather or injuries, or sometimes also conflicts of players playing in like two or three events - so it doesn't happen that often - but occasionally you do get the odd match that carries over."We wouldn't do that if we felt it was putting the rest of the competition in any type of danger of putting it back."
Serena had already delayed accepting her singles wildcard, having not played a singles match since her comeback earlier this summer.
She just played at Queen’s with Mboko, before partnering Karolina Muchova at the Berlin Open.
She revealed ahead of the tournament that she had decided to play in the women’s singles on the Friday before the draw was set to start - the day of her wildcard deadline - and it seems as though this situation is on a similar vein.
