Venus Williams and Jamie Murray will team up to compete in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon. After much speculation, it has been confirmed the tennis legend will take to the hallowed turf at the All-England Club once again.
This partnership comes three years after their siblings, Serena Williams and Andy Murray teamed up. They reached the round of 16 where the top seeded pair of Bruno Soares and Nicole Melichar-Martinez got the better of them.
Venus is excited for her next appearance at SW19, as was illustrated in a post on her Instagram story. She reposted a video from the account for her Eleven By Venus clothing line, which featured a video clip showcasing models donning the type of tennis outfits worn at Wimbledon. The five-time singles champion at SW19 wrote: "Wimbledon Whites are up next for me @wimbledon", alongside two firecracker emojis.
Williams and Murray, the latter being a two-time winner of this event in the past, will commence their campaign against Alicja Rosolska and Michael Venus in the first round. Williams has won two mixed doubles titles in grand slams. She won both titles in 1998 at the Australian Open and French Open. She also won a silver medal with Rajeev Ram at the 2016 Olympics.
Venus did make the mixed doubles final at Wimbledon back in 2006 alongside fellow legend Bob Bryan, but lost to Andy Ram and Vera Zvonareva. Jamie has also had plenty of success in the mixed doubles at the US Open, winning three consecutive titles from from 2017-2019, first with Martina Hingis and the final two with Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
Murray will have a busy tournament as he will compete in the men's doubles event alongside Soares, and is in search of his first men's doubles title at Wimbledon.
Ahead of his first match with Venus, there are question marks around her form given the 42-year-old has not competed in any capacity since playing singles at the Chicago Open last August due to injury. Venus is no stranger to an all-star doubles pairings at Wimbledon however, as she teamed with Nick Kyrgios last summer.
They won their first match against Austin Krajicek and Sabrina Santamaria in three sets, before withdrawing from the competition due to abdominal injury sustained by the Australian. Before last night’s exit, sister Serena also made her return to competitive action in doubles, alongside Ons Jabeur.
But after winning their first two matches in Eastbourne last week, the pair were forced to withdraw after the Tunisian sustained an injury. The 40-year-old remained tight-lipped on whether last night’s appearance at Wimbledon will be her last. She fought valiantly in her first match in over a year, but just fell short in a near three-hour thriller against France’s Harmony Tan.
During her post-match press conference, she refused to give a straight answer regarding her future. “Like I said coming into this, I'm just planning for right now, seeing how I feel, just to go from there,” the 23-time grand slam champion said.
Pressed on whether it was her farewell to the All England Club, Williams added: “That's a question I can't answer. I don't know. Who knows? Who knows where I'll pop up. There’s definitely lots of motivation to play better and at home (the US Open)."
