Venus Williams threw a tongue-in-cheek jibe at sister Serena after making a successful return to tennis at the Citi Open.
The 45-year-old accepted a wildcard for the event in Washington in her first appearance since the Miami Open in March 2024.
Williams was victorious alongside partner Hailey Baptiste in the first round of the women’s doubles, defeating the pairing of Eugenie Bouchard and Clervie Ngounoue 6-3 6-1 to advance to the second round.
Williams, whose last title came at the Cincinnati Open in August 2023, is gunning for singles glory in addition to the doubles with a clash against Peyton Stearns scheduled for Tuesday.
Following Monday’s win, Williams found time to aim a cheeky dig at Serena by joking she enjoyed playing with Baptiste more than her younger sister.
“I think from the first point I could see that we were going to be a good team,” Williams told Sky Sports.
“We just should have started playing earlier, years ago, right? I think Serena was just in the way.
“It was inspiring to be out here, I love this game and still hitting it big.”
The Williams sisters have scooped a combined 30 major singles titles between them while dominating the doubles scene winning 14 Grand Slam events.
Her 16-month hiatus didn’t appear to have knocked her out of stride as she cruised to victory in the US capital in her first doubles match in three years.
Having spent a long period away from the court, Williams was not given a ranking and it remains to be seen whether she will play at the US Open which begins in late August.
Elsewhere, Britain’s Emma Raducanu partnered with Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina to beat number four seeds Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls 2-6 7-6 (7-4) 11-9.
The pair lost the first five games of the first set, having been broken three times but were able to claw themselves back into the match and won the second set on a tie-break.
They then let four match points slip in the championship tie-break but were able to turn the tide in their favour by picking up the next two points to seal victory in their first match playing together.
In the men’s singles, Britain’s Dan Evans and Cameron Norrie booked their places in the second round.
Evans saw off Belgium’s Zizou Bergs 3-6 6-4 6-3 in the first round and will face American Alex Michelsen in the next round.
“I didn’t just want to take the wildcard and lose,” Evans told Sky Sports after sealing his victory. “I felt I needed to pay them back a bit and try to ‘defend’ my title, because I couldn’t last year.”
Meanwhile, Norrie defeated British qualifier Billy Harris 6-3 7-6 (7-4) and will take on French Open semi-finalist Lorenzo Musetti of Italy next.
In the women’s singles, British number one Katie Boulter was knocked out in the opening round after a 6-3, 6-4 defeat to Maria Sakkari.