By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer
NEW YORK — Serena and Venus Williams traded fist bumps or palm slaps and chatted between points. They smiled while conversing in their seats at changeovers.
When their first doubles match together in 4½ years ended with a loss at the U.S Open on Thursday night, the siblings hugged each other, then left the court to a standing ovation.
The Williams sisters were eliminated by the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova, 7-6 (5), 6-4, at Flushing Meadows.
“I was speechless when I found out I’m going to face these two. I mean, they’re legends. And I was always such a big fan of them, especially Serena. She has been my idol since ever, probably,” said Noskova, a 17-year-old making her Grand Slam debut in doubles. “So I was really happy, excited, but kind of scared, to face them.”
Arthur Ashe Stadium had never hosted a first-round doubles match – for women or men, during the night or day – until this one featuring two members of one family who have combined to claim 14 Grand Slam titles in doubles.
“It’s something incredible, because playing first round in a huge stadium, with 23,000 people, is something amazing,” said the 37-year-old Hradecka, who won major doubles trophies with Andrea Hlavackova at the 2013 U.S. Open and 2011 French Open. “I don’t think (when) we played the final here, it was packed like this.”
The Williams sisters, who did not do interviews after the match, were partnering up for the first time since the 2018 French Open. This was their fourth first-round doubles defeat at a Slam; the most recent had been at the 2013 French Open.
“I’m still in shock that we won,” Hradecka said in an on-court interview right after the match’s conclusion.
Speaking to the sellout crowd of 23,859, she said: “I’m so sorry for you that we beat them, but we are so happy that we did it.”
The fans were not nearly as boisterous as they were for each of the two victories in singles this week for Serena, who has hinted that this will be the final event of her career.
Serena plays Ajla Tomljanovic on Friday night in the third round of singles; Venus was bounced from that bracket in the first round.
After a rather subdued entrance from the locker room by Hradecka and Noskova, who were competing as a team for the first time, a video tribute to the Williams-Williams pairing played on the Ashe videoboards, with a narrator introducing “two of the greatest athletes on Planet Earth” and, in a reference to Serena’s looming retirement, saying, “It’s not too late to change your mind.”
There was footage of them through the years, including as kids with white beads in their hair (like Serena’s daughter, Olympia, wore on opening night) and, later, winning titles.
Olympia, who turned 5 on Thursday, was not there for this one, Serena’s husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian was, as were the sisters’ mother, Oracene Price, and their sister, Isha.
During the pre-match warmup, the announcer noted that the sisters are 14-0 in Grand Slam doubles finals and declared: “They’ve transformed and elevated the sport as we know it.”
The spectators saved their biggest cheers for some of Serena’s best efforts, whether aces or put-aways or an on-the-run forehand winner. The sisters went up 5-4 early and held two set points there on Noskova’s serve, but could not convert either.
The loudest moment probably arrived after a 19-stroke point won by the sisters during the first-set tiebreaker, featuring three swinging volleys by Serena. That put them ahead 4-3, and soon it was 5-3.
But Hradecka and Noskova grabbed the next four points to claim that set. They then jumped ahead 3-0 in the second, and after the Williams sisters made it 4-all, the Czech team pulled away.
The Williams siblings received a wild-card entry into this year’s doubles field. Serena, who turns 41 next month, and Venus, who turned 42 in June, won doubles trophies at the U.S. Open in 1999 – the year Serena won her first major singles trophy at age 17 in New York – and 2009.
They have a total of 30 major trophies in singles: 23 for Serena, seven for Venus.
“Playing against the Williams sisters,” Noskova said, “is a special moment for everybody.”
NADAL HITS NOSE WITH RACKET, TOPS FOGNINI
Second-seeded Rafael Nadal accidentally bloodied himself on the bridge of the nose with his racket early in the fourth set of a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Fabio Fognini that ended after midnight ET.
Nadal hit a backhand and, on the follow-through, his racket ricocheted off the court and smacked him in the face, cutting his nose. The 22-time Grand Slam champion immediately grimaced, dropped his racket and put his right hand to his face. Then he placed both hands on his head, before going over to the sideline. He remained down on his back on the sideline while a trainer treated him, bandaging the injury.
“Well, just, a little bit dizzy at the beginning,” Nadal said after wrapping up the win about 20 minutes later. “A little bit painful.”
Nadal was leading the fourth set 3-0 at the time of the injury.
SWIATEK CRUISING WITH LESS ATTENTION
Iga Swiatek is winning easily – and quietly.
At this U.S. Open, even the world’s top-ranked player is a distant No. 2 as long as Serena Williams is still around.
“Yeah, that’s kind of her time right now,” Swiatek said. “I’m just, you know, playing and focusing on that, and that’s the most important thing for me.”
The two-time French Open champion beat 2017 U.S. Open winner Sloane Stephens, 6-3, 6-2, on Thursday in the second round for her WTA Tour-leading 50th victory this season.
A day after Williams eliminated No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit, with No. 3 Maria Sakkari losing earlier Wednesday, Swiatek perhaps looms as an even bigger threat to win a seventh title this year, something no woman has done since Williams in 2014. Past U.S. Open champions Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu have also been eliminated, along with 2021 runner-up Leylah Fernandez.
No. 6 Aryna Sabalenka remained the only women’s semifinalist from last year in the field – barely – by erasing two match points and edging Kaia Kanepi, 2-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4. But fourth-seeded Paula Badosa was knocked out with a 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-2 loss to Croatian Petra Martic.
Swiatek came to the U.S. Open just 4-4 in her last eight matches after winning 37 in a row, but she has dropped just eight games through two rounds. She needed only 74 minutes to beat Stephens, having no trouble with her first match in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“Honestly, I just tried to have the same kind of motivation or attitude as any other court, because it’s the best way for me to perform good,” Swiatek said.
Williams resumes what could be her final singles tournament Friday, leading off the night session on Ashe for the third time this week against Ajla Tomljanovic.
Other winners Thursday included No. 8 Jessica Pegula, No. 9 Garbiñe Muguruza, No. 13 Belinda Bencic and No. 26 Victoria Azarenka.
No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz tied for the season lead in victories on the men’s tour with his 46th by beating Federico Coria of Argentina, 6-2, 6-1, 7-5.
No. 7 Cam Norrie, No. 9 Andrey Rublev, No. 11 Jannik Sinner and No. 15 Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, advanced, but No. 25 Borna Coric was upset by American Jenson Brooksby, 6-4, 7-6 (10), 6-1. Brooksby reached the fourth round at Flushing Meadows as a 20-year-old last year, winning a set from Novak Djokovic.
He will play the 19th-year-old Alcaraz next.
“I’m going to bring in my best,” Alcaraz said. “It’s going to be a good, competitive battle out there.”
Pegula returned to the court later Thursday with Coco Gauff, and the second-seeded team was upset by Fernandez and Daria Saville, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5).
Gauff is also still alive in singles, facing fellow American Madison Keys on Friday afternoon. But she and Pegula were also counting on a long run in doubles, as they made in reaching the French Open final.
Gauff recently became the second-youngest player to reach No. 1 in the WTA doubles rankings. She had already reached the U.S. Open final last year with Caty McNally.
UKRAINE’S KOSTYUK REFUSES AZARENKA HANDSHAKE
A Ukrainian player declined to shake hands with Victoria Azarenka after the three-time U.S. Open runner-up from Belarus beat her at Flushing Meadows on Thursday.
Marta Kostyuk waited at the net with her racket held up, which Azarenka tapped with her racket following her 6-2, 6-3 victory.
Belarus helped Russia launch its invasion of Ukraine in February, and Kostyuk said it had been on her mind since she saw the U.S. Open draw that she may have to play Azarenka in the second round.
“It’s pretty personal,” Kostyuk said. “It wasn’t a personal match for me because it was Vika specifically, but overall it was not just a casual match that I play in a tournament.”
Asked about the traditional handshake that follows a match, Kostyuk said: “I just don’t think it’s the right thing to do in the circumstances I’m in right now.”
Azarenka said she had already faced that situation with a Ukrainian player when she played Dayana Yastremska last month in Washington.
“It is what it is. I just move on,” Azarenka said. “I cannot force anybody to shake my hand. It’s their decision.”
Kostyuk said she texted Azarenka a day before the match to inform her there would be no handshake. Azarenka returned the text, telling Kostyuk she was no longer on site, so Kostyuk dropped the subject because she wanted to deliver the message in person.
Azarenka said she reached out to all the Ukrainian players she has a relationship with in March after the invasion. Kostyuk isn’t one of them, but Azarenka said she tried nevertheless.
“Well, I’ve offered many times through the WTA, because I believe that there is a sort of sensitivity. I’ve been told that that’s not a good time,” Azarenka said.
“If Marta wants to speak with me, like she texted me yesterday, I replied. I’m open any time to listen, to try to understand, to sympathize. I believe that empathy in the moment like this is really important, which has, again, been my clear message in the beginning.”
Kostyuk questioned Azarenka being part of the “Tennis Plays for Peace Exhibition” that the U.S. Tennis Association held the week before the tournament to raise money for Ukraine. Azarenka was dropped from the lineup the day of the event, which helped generate more than $1 million for humanitarian assistance.
“Everyone is trying to be super democratic about this thing that happened and because it’s like, my nation is being killed daily, I’m going to tell you from my perspective very quickly so I don’t think I ever want to answer this question again,” Kostyuk said. “Imagine there is a World War II and there is a fundraiser for Jewish people and a German player wants to play. During the war, not 70 years after the war happened. During the war. I don’t think Jewish people would understand.”
Azarenka, a member of the WTA Tour players council, said the important thing was that the event was held, not whether she was part of it.
“I feel like I’ve had a very clear message from the beginning, is that I’m here to try to help, which I have done a lot,” Azarenka said. “Maybe not something that people see and that’s not what I do it for. I do it for people who in need, juniors who need clothes, other people who need money or other people who needed transportation or whatever. That’s what is important to me, to help people are in need.”
Russian and Belarussian players were banned from Wimbledon in response to the war. They are allowed to play at the U.S. Open, without their nations or their flags being listed.
KYRGIOS FINED FOR CONDUCT
Nick Kyrgios was fined $7,500 for unsportsmanlike conduct during his second-round victory Wednesday.
Kyrgios was warned after using profanity toward someone in the stands. It appeared the Wimbledon runner-up was yelling at someone in his own box, telling the person to be more supportive or leave.
The temperamental Australian also complained to the chair umpire about the smell of marijuana during the second set.
The fine was the highest given to a player at the tournament thus far.
FIONA FERRO’S FORMER COACH CHARGED WITH RAPE
Pierre Bouteyre, the former coach of French tennis player Fiona Ferro, has been charged with raping and sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager, according to a report in Agence France-Presse.
Ferro, 25, is the No. 259-ranked player in the world and lost in the qualifiers at the U.S. Open. She has accused Bouteyre, 50, of rape and sexual assault between 2012 and 2015, when she would have been 15 to 18 years old, her lawyer told AFP. Bouteyre traveled with Ferro and was her private coach, her lawyer said.
According to the prosecutor on the case, Bouteyre has been charged with “rape of a minor by a person having authority over the victim” and “sexual assault of a minor over the age of 15 by a person having authority over the victim.”
Bouteyre’s lawyer said to AFP that he “recognizes the relationship occurred but denies any coercion.”
“It was a love story according to him,” his lawyer said.
ESPN tennis analyst Pam Shriver tweeted her support for Ferro and added, “The best way to improve safeguarding is to tell our stories.”
Bouteyre is also the former coach of France’s Alize Cornet, who beat Katerina Siniakova in the second round of the U.S. Open. Cornet, 32, defeated defending U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu in the first round. After her second-round win, Cornet was asked by L’Equipe about the charges.
“It’s far too serious a subject for me to dwell on during the tournament,” Cornet said in French. “It obviously affects me a lot, and maybe that’s one of the reasons why I don’t sleep very well at night. Obviously, I send a huge support to Fiona, which I did by message because she is my friend. It’s terrible, for both of them and especially for Fiona. He’s been my coach for 10 years, so it’s not cool to learn that kind of stuff.”
AP staff writer Brian Mahoney contributed to this story.
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