Venus Williams insists that she will not be returning to doubles after playing her last match with sister Serena Williams at last year's US Open.
Former world No. 1 Venus has had a wildly successful career across both singles and doubles. The American boasts 14 Grand Slam titles in doubles, all of which were achieved with her sister Serena.
Over the years, the pair of tennis legends lifted the trophy twice at both the US Open and the Roland Garros, four times at the Australian Open, and an immensely impressive six times at Wimbledon.
When Serena announced that the 2022 US Open would be her final tournament before retirement, the sisters paired up one last time in the women's doubles where they were defeated in the first round by Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova.
After Venus continued to play in singles following her younger sister's retirement, many began to speculate that the 43-year-old could be looking for a new doubles partner.
The most popular notion was that Venus would team up with her good friend Reilly Opelka in the mixed doubles at the upcoming US Open, and the tennis star was recently asked if this pairing was a possibility, to which she replied with a no despite admitting that it would be a lot of fun.
"It’d be two big serves and that’d be a lot of fun but I think Reilly should focus on the singles," she said.
Although Venus is still very active in singles and will be competing at the WTA 1000 Canadian Open this week in preparation for the upcoming American hard-court major, she has once again insisted that she is done with doubles.
"I’m actually retired from doubles. I keep saying it and no one believes me but I’ve seen the mountaintop, played with the best, played with Serena and it doesn’t get much better than that," she said, "And as much as I’d love to play with lots of people, including one of my friends Reilly, I think I’ve done it all in doubles."
Venus Williams says she retired from doubles when Serena retired from tennis: “When Serena retired I retired from doubles as well. When you have Serena Williams as a partner you have seen the glory at the mountaintop, you can't go any higher! Sorry I don't have better news.”
