according to \u201cBounces\u201d voice Ben Rothenberg<\/a>. <\/p>\nSerena walked off the Arthur Ashe court and out of the stadium into a car, leaving behind Venus, who stayed on the ground and went to the locker room as is the standard. In doing so, the sisters did not participate in a post-match press conference.<\/p>\n
Per the Grand Slam rulebook, a post-match press conference is required of all players if requested by media.<\/p>\n
Serena Williams and her sister Venus hit a return to Hao-Ching Chan and Maya Joint during their first-round doubles match, Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. Jason Szenes for NY Post<\/p>\n
Maya Joint (left), of Australia, and Hao-Ching Chan, of Taiwan, are congratulated by Serena Williams and Venus Williams (right), after the match. Jason Szenes for NY Post<\/p>\n
The sisters had been requested, as a pair, by many reporters through the US Open\u2019s media operations system.<\/p>\n
Yet, within minutes of the match ending, the USTA sent credentialed media a message.<\/p>\n
\u201cSerena and Venus Williams will not be available for press tonight,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n
The next day, the USTA told \u201cBounces\u201d that neither Serena nor Venus will be fined for skipping out on the media. <\/p>\n
Skipping a press conference without excuse such as an injury or illness is a code violation. It would be up to the discretion of the US Open to issue a fine and they chose not to sanction the two stars despite Serena\u2019s exit.<\/p>\n
Venus Williams, left, and Serena Williams acknowledge the fans after losing the match. Jason Szenes for NY Post<\/p>\n
Rothenberg estimated about 15-20 times when the Williams sisters did not show up to a post-match press conference and only some came with fines, which are normally at Grand Slam events. <\/p>\n
One instance was a $5,000 fine that Venus was hit with for skipping out on the press after a first-round loss at the Australian Open in 2016.<\/p>\n
The USTA\u2019s decision lends the idea there is a sense of favoritism for the Williams sisters and that the organization doesn\u2019t see a reason to sour its relationship with them.<\/p>\n
Serena Williams of the United States (left) reacts as her sister Venus of the United States looks to console her. Jason Szenes for NY Post<\/p>\n
The sisters previously spoke to reporters in Cincinnati after their first-round doubles loss last month. Venus also spoke to the media after her late night first-round singles loss in Queens. <\/p>\n
Questions remain on both Serena and Venus\u2019 futures as their time at the US Open ended on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After coming back into the tennis spotlight, Serena Williams went out with an Irish goodbye at the US…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1049040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[48],"tags":[5224,62,1464,67,132,68,20886,46604],"class_list":["post-1049039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-serena-williams","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-us-open-tennis","tag-venus-williams"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117230418700145462","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1049039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1049040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1049039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1049039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1049039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}