{"id":1050314,"date":"2026-09-08T05:57:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T05:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1050314\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T05:57:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T05:57:31","slug":"serena-and-venus-williams-will-not-be-fined-for-u-s-open-violation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1050314\/","title":{"rendered":"Serena and Venus Williams will not be fined for U.S. Open violation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Friday night, Serena and Venus Williams competed together in the women\u2019s doubles at the U.S. Open for the first time since 2022.<\/p>\n<p>The iconic sisters couldn\u2019t gut out a victory, however, losing an epic three-set match after a long tiebreaker. And within minutes of the match ending, the USTA sent credentialed media a statement that, despite being requested for a post-match presser, \u201cSerena and Venus Williams will not be available for press tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Appearing for a post-match press conference is a requirement for all requested players in the Grand Slam rulebook. However, The i Papers\u2019\u00a0James Gray reported that the Williamses would not be fined or face punishment for their decision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSerena and Venus Williams will NOT be fined for missing press on Friday night \u2013 and the USTA were not notified of any injury reason for skipping their obligations,\u201d Gray reported on Saturday.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Serena and Venus Williams will NOT be fined for missing press on Friday night \u2013 and the USTA were not notified of any injury reason for skipping their obligations.<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/USOpen?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">#USOpen<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 James Gray (@jamesgraysport) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jamesgraysport\/status\/2096297309734855008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">September 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Although most professional tennis players never miss press sessions over the course of their careers, this is far from new for the Williams sisters, who have skirted press obligations more than 15 times over their legendary careers, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benrothenberg.com\/p\/us-open-venus-serena-williams-skip-press-conference-fine-us-open-preview-matches-sunday\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ben Rothenberg of Bounces.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Per Rothenberg, media availability was a \u201cnon-starter\u201d for one sister in particular. Serena waved to the Arthur Ashe Stadium audience and went directly out of the stadium and into a car, leaving Venus, who stayed and went back to the locker room. Although Venus may have been open to holding a post-match presser alone, the U.S. Open wasn\u2019t going to make her do it by herself on behalf of a doubles pair after Serena had left so abruptly.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, any decision to issue a fine for a code violation is at the U.S. Open\u2019s discretion. It\u2019s fair to question the \u201cfairness\u201d in the sisters avoiding punishment for a clear violation, but both sisters have had a gargantuan positive effect on tennis, and their competing, even in their mid-forties, remains a gigantic asset to the sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friday night, Serena and Venus Williams competed together in the women\u2019s doubles at the U.S. Open for the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1050315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[48],"tags":[420595,5224,62,1464,39499,67,132,68,46604],"class_list":["post-1050314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-2026-u-s-open","tag-serena-williams","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-u-s-open","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-venus-williams"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050314","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=1050314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1050315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1050314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1050314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1050314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}