By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday May 13, 2021
Serena and Venus Williams will play some bonus tennis next week in Parma.
The pair have joined on to play the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma. Both Williams sisters have received wild cards into the singles draw and will join a field that includes Sloane Stephens, Cori Gauff, Madison Keys and Amanda Anisimova.
Williams, who played her first match since the Australian Open on Wednesday at Rome, and fell in straight sets to Nadia Podoroska, hinted that she may be hungry for some extra match play in her post-match press conference.
“Clearly I can do legions better,” she said of her performance. “I just gotta get there. Maybe I do need a few more matches, so I'm going to try to figure that out with my coach and my team and see what we would like to do. But, yeah, I just feel like it's different. I have been training for months, but it feels definitely different on clay to make that last adjustment.”
Serena will make her first appearance at a WTA 250 on clay since 2015 in Bastad.
The tournament will be important for Venus as well. The 40-year has lost three straight and is carrying a 2-4 record in 2021. She has battled injuries and her ranking sits at 87 in the world at the moment.