Serena and Venus pair up

 - Dan Imhoff

Iconic sisters Serena and Venus Williams have accepted a wildcard into the women's doubles event.

In only their sixth Roland-Garros appearance together, the formidable Venus and Serena Williams will reunite in a doubles campaign sure to send rivals madly scanning the draw desperate to avoid seeing the wildcard combination’s names next to theirs.

Fourteen times the sisters have triumphed together in Grand Slam doubles but only twice have they triumphed on the red clay in Paris – on debut in 1999 and again in 2010.

In the eight years since, they have only contested Roland-Garros doubles twice, falling in the first round in 2013 and in the third round in 2016.

This will mark their first doubles campaign at a major since claiming a sixth Wimbledon crown together in 2016.

French hopes will be high as one half of the 2016-winning tandem, Kristina Mladenovic, teams with Hungarian Timea Babos as the top-seeded duo. Czech duo Andrea Sestini Hlavackova and Barbora Strycova are seeded second ahead of Slovenian-Spanish pair Andreja Klepac and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.



Defending champions, American Bethanie Mattek-Sand and Czech Lucie Safarova, will play with different partners in 2018. Mattek-Sands makes her Grand Slam return after a serious knee injury suffered at Wimbledon last season when she joins Latisha Chan of Chinese Taipei as the No.4 seeds.

Safarova, who has also endured a torrid start to the season with illness, will partner Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova. Victoria Azarenka will contest doubles at Roland-Garros for the first time since 2011 when she teams with rising Belarusian compatriot Aryna Sabalenka.

Australian Open champions Oliver Marach, of Austria, and Croatian Mate Pavic will look to win their second straight Grand Slam title together as No.1 seeds in the men’s doubles.

Last year’s Wimbledon champions Lukasz Kubot, of Poland, and Brazil’s Marcelo Melo start as second seeds ahead of two-time Roland-Garros champions Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States. Finnish-Australian pair Henri Kontinen and John Peers are seeded fourth.

Defending champions Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus will take the court with different partners in 2018. American Harrison joins Canada’s Vasek Pospisil, while New Zealand's Venus teams with Raven Klaasen of South Africa.