NEW YORK: American legend Venus Williams and her Canadian partner Leylah Fernandez knocked out of the US Open women's doubles draw after losing to No. 1 seeded team of American Taylor Townsend and Czechia’s Katerina Siniakova.
Townsend and Siniakova breezed into the semifinals, beating Venus/Fernandez, 6-1, 6-2.
Venus, 45, was competing in the US Open doubles draw after accepting a wild card to play singles and participating in the Mixed Doubles Championships.
"I'm really happy with the way that we played today, " said Townsend. "Especially playing opponents that are that tough and are able to kind of make adjustments on the fly, and Venus is a legend and understands and knows how to win and figure things out when things aren't going her way. And Leylah the same. She always is a fighter.
"It really made me very proud, and I'm sure Kat as well, of the way we were able to stay solid from start to finish, " she added.
Meanwhile, the defending champs and all-Italian team of Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini continued their quest to collect back-to-back US Open women’s doubles titles. They needed a second-set tiebreak to beat No. 7 seeds American Asia Muhammad and Dutch Demi Schuurs. Final score, 6-1, 7-6(5).
Elsewhere, No. 3 seeds Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe lost the first set to No. 11 seeds Hungary’s Timea Babos and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani, 0-6. The favored duo—who are also the 2023 US Open women’s doubles champions—rediscovered their winning ways to take the second two sets. Final match score to Dabrowski/Routliffe, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Wimbledon champions and No. 4 seeds Veronika Kudermetova and Germany’s Elise Mertens registered a convincing 6-4, 6-2 win against No. 5 seeds Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider.