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Serena Williams will not compete with Venus Williams in the doubles after she was forced to withdraw from their first-round match due to the knee injury sustained in her singles return at Wimbledon.

Williams had been in a race to be fit to face Camila Osorio and Solana Sierra on Saturday afternoon. But she has not recovered from twisting her knee in the first set of her opening-round singles match against Maya Joint, which she lost 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3.

On social media, Williams said: “I’m heartbroken to have to withdraw from doubles. Coming back to compete again has been a gift, and the opportunity to play alongside @venuswilliams once more meant the world to me. I did everything I could but unfortunately my knee just isn’t ready to compete.

“I’m especially grateful to tournament director, Jamie Baker, and the entire tournament team for giving me every opportunity to recover. Thank you to the fans for your incredible support and for making this comeback so meaningful … All I can say is stay tuned to a city near you …”

Williams included images of her receiving treatment on her knee and four syringes filled with yellow fluid in her social media post: “The photo of the syringes is the fluid they drained from my knee after my singles match – yikes! The good news is that my knee shouldn’t swell or collect that much fluid again. The bad news is that, as hard as I tried, I wasn’t able to be ready for doubles.”

This was meant to be the first time that Serena and Venus Williams, aged 44 and 46 years old respectively, competed together since the 2022 US Open and their first appearance at Wimbledon together since they won the title in 2016. Despite prioritising singles, they are one of the greatest doubles teams, having won Wimbledon together six times and 14 grand slam titles overall.

Williams returned four years after her official retirement at the 2022 US Open, choosing to to compete in doubles at Queen’s Club and then Berlin.

Wimbledon had left its final singles wildcard available for Williams with the 24-time grand slam champion choosing to make her return a day before the deadline last Monday. At her age, and after so long without experiencing the intensity and stress of a top-level singles match, her body clearly reacted badly to her immense efforts.

Williams confirmed her knee problem a day after the loss and did not train on-site in the five days after her singles loss.

The prospect of Serena and Venus competing in the doubles again was one of the most anticipated events of the championships and the tournament organisers pushed their rules to the limit to accommodate them.

By the close of play on Friday, every women’s doubles first-round match had been completed bar the Williams sisters’.

The uncertainty continued well into Saturday after the pair were not scheduled in a solid time slot, their match instead listed as TBA with a time slot of not before 4.30pm. Britain’s Samantha Murray Sharan and Thailand’s Lanlana Tararudee have replaced the Williams sisters in the draw.

Venus had been scheduled to train in Aorangi Park, the All England Club’s practice courts, at 2.30pm and Serena was scheduled to train at 4pm. Serena’s emotional salute to the Centre Court crowd as she left after her loss on Monday marked her final appearance on the grass at the All England Club this year and possibly in her career.