Williams sisters team up for first time in four years, lose in Cincinnati Open opening tennis match

Nearly four years after their last joint appearance, tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams fell in the first round of the Cincinnati Open. The sisters lost to American Peyton Stearns and Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 1-6, 1-0 (8) on Monday. "I thought it was fun," Serena said after the match. "I thought it was special. We kicked off a little rust in the middle of the match and just, you know, (we were) starting to feel it."

Serena, 44, who returned to the tour this year after a hiatus, has played limited doubles matches. She won one with Canada's Victoria Mboko at a Wimbledon warm-up but lost another with the Czech Republic's Karolina Muchova in Berlin. Her singles return at Wimbledon also ended in a first-round loss and an injury that prevented her from playing doubles there. Serena has not yet announced her plans for the upcoming US Open.

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I thought it was fun. I thought it was special. We kicked off a little rust in the middle of the match and just, you know, (we were) starting to feel it.

Venus, 46, has a 3-9 record in doubles and 0-10 in singles this year. In their Cincinnati match, Stearns and Kostyuk dominated the decisive tiebreaker, leading 8-7 before Venus served a match-ending double fault. "It's our first time playing together in forever," Venus commented. "It was great for us to get out there and do it."

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It's our first time playing together in forever. It was great for us to get out there and do it.