The Williams sisters refuse to move on. Serena does not like the word retirement. Venus doesn’t want to “ever be ruled out.” So when they reprise their old doubles partnership, the crowd feels both things at once, joy at seeing them together again, and the suspicion that this might be the last time.

The evergreen duo, a combined age of 90, forged a three-hour thriller at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday. Serena and Venus led 5-0 in the final-set tiebreak. They lost anyway, to Taiwanese-Australian pair Chan Hao-ching and Maya Joint.

Four years ago, at the same venue, the 14-time Grand Slam-winning pair lost in the first round to Czechia’s Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova. It looked like the end. Serena had already written in Vogue about her daughter Olympia wanting to be a big sister, about “evolving away from tennis.” Adira River Ohanian was born the year after.

Neither sister could say goodbye, though. Serena kept playing singles and returned to doubles in 2025. Venus followed in 2026. Serena’s singles comeback came at Wimbledon, where Joint beat her too.

It was Olympia who pushed for the reunion. “You need to play with Auntie VV,” Serena recalled her daughter saying, on Good Morning America. She obliged. A knee injury in her singles match kept her from pairing with Venus at SW19, but they played Cincinnati together, and got a US Open wildcard. New York got the last singles-superstar doubles team standing, one more time.

Serena, rusty after four years away, showed flashes of the old forehand. She’d served superbly earlier that same evening, in mixed doubles with Carlos Alcaraz. She couldn’t repeat it here.

Venus was steadier, fewer unforced errors, more of the contest riding on her racquet. Chan and Joint ran away with the first set. Then Venus held serve at 2-3, then broke with a volley, and the fightback was on. Serena chipped in at the net to help level things at a set apiece.

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In the decider, they fell to 1-4. The crowd got louder. They clawed back, forced a tiebreak, went 5-0 up.

Venus Williams, left, and Serena Williams, of the United States, confer as they play against Hao-Ching Chan, of Taiwan, and Maya Joint, of Australia, during a women’s doubles match at the U.S. Open tennis championships.

Then Chan and Joint remembered who they were.

Joint had now faced, and beaten, both Williams sisters inside three months. “I’m at a loss for words to think that happened,” she said courtside. “She’s an idol of mine. I looked up to both of them growing up in Michigan. Just to be able to play them twice is amazing.”

“Welcome to the Williams Show,” read one poster in the stands. The crowd applauded on cue and went quiet mid-point, a rare discipline for an Ashe crowd. Noise dipped in the first set, rose once the sisters found their rhythm, dipped again on match point, then came back one more time. Flushing Meadows saying goodbye, still unsure if it needed to.

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“The atmosphere was surreal,” Joint said later. “It was something we’ve never experienced before, and to play against such legends of the game was super special.”

The sisters lost. They left smiling anyway, and skipped the press conference.

Before the match, Venus had waved off the retirement question entirely. “I don’t think I should have to,” she told reporters, after a straight-sets loss to Sofia Kenin in singles. “My mind is fully focused on that: how I recover from this completely insane evening and get ready for the next one.”

Serena, after her mixed doubles run with Alcaraz, had said much the same. “I probably will play again. I have to. After some of those returns, I think I need to play at least once.”

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Her daughter started this, the stepping away, and the coming back. She’s also why Serena, 23 singles majors deep, isn’t done yet. “It’s just really wanting my children to see me play at a different age. You can do anything at any age as long as you work hard and put some effort and dedication behind it,” she said.

Until the next time, then.