Sister, sister: Wozniacki first WTA player to partner Venus & Serena

It was recently announced that Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki would join forces at one of the first WTA events of the 2020 season, the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand. But it’s not just going to be an all-star team of former No. 1s—it’s actually historic.

The 29-year-old Wozniacki will become the first woman to have played doubles with both Serena and Venus Williams. The sisters have played almost exclusively with each other since they burst onto the scene in the ’90s, but once in a while—usually when the other is injured—they’ve teamed up with another player. Through the end of 2019, Serena had played with three doubles partners outside of her big sister, while Venus teamed up with seven.

Wozniacki is one of them. The two appeared at the Premier-level Qatar Total Open in Doha back in 2008, reaching the second round together. And now, just weeks before the 2018 Australian Open champion calls time on her career, Wozniacki is set to take the court with her good friend, Serena.

Only once before has either of the Williams sisters actually won a WTA event with a different partner. Serena won Leipzig, Germany in 2002 alongside 1999 Wimbledon semifinalist Alexandra Stevenson. Serena also played with Martina Navratilova at Tokyo in 2002 and Alison Riske in Fed Cup in 2015.

The Williams sisters are one of the greatest doubles teams of all time, winning 14 Grand Slam titles together—four Australian Opens, two French Opens, six Wimbledons and two US Opens. They also have three Olympic gold medals in doubles at Sydney in 2000, Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, and they’ve both reached No. 1 in the WTA doubles rankings. They also have four Grand Slam mixed doubles titles between them, sweeping all four majors in 1998—Venus won the Australian Open and French Open with Justin Gimelstob and Serena won Wimbledon and the US Open with Max Mirnyi.

There is one man who’s played doubles with both Williams sisters: Bob Bryan, one half of another legendary sibling doubles duo, has played one major with each of them. He played with Venus at Wimbledon in 2006, reaching the final, and with Serena at the 2012 French Open, falling in the first round.