Williams sisters lose at last

The Williams sisters (foreground) met their match

Venus and Serena Williams have been beaten for the first time in 18 months, on their return to the court on which they won Olympic gold together just over three months ago.

The sisters, winners of Wimbledon as well last year, were beaten in a third set tie-break by Martina Hingis and Monica Seles in the opening round of the Adidas International in Sydney.

Hingis and Seles were playing together for the first time.

Chosen as the showpiece night match under the Centre Court floodlights, Hingis and Seles won 6-4 3-6 7-6 just after 10pm. They saved four match points on Venus Williams' serve at 5-6 in the decider.

Hingis (left) and Seles were delighted to win

The defeat ended the sisters' run of 22 unbeaten doubles matches.

While Serena has a chance to make amends in the singles, Venus decided to opt out of tha. Her next match will be in next week's Australian Open in Melbourne.

She is confident her lack of competitive match practice - her last tournament was two months ago - will not count against her in the first Grand Slam of the year.

"If I'm not ready I should go home," said the 20-year-old, who will stay on in Sydney to practise with her 19-year-old sister.

"It was tough coming back here because the Olympics were so exciting and I was so excited with the whole experience," she added.

Hingis had asked Seles to team up with her after splitting from Anna Kournikova last month.

Exchange of breaks

Although unseeded just as the Williamses were, they are favourites now to begin their partnership with a title.

"It was such a great match; who could believe it was only first-round doubles?" said Hingis.

Hingis and Seles came out on top in the first set after an exchange of service breaks.

The Williams sisters levelled in the second, breaking Hingis to go 5-3 before Serena held serve to take the set.

To take away a win in a match like that is great

  Martina Hingis

The third set swung wildly, with the Hingis-Seles combination grabbing a 5-3 lead and Seles serving for the match before the Williams sisters regained control with successive breaks of serve.

Venus had her first match point at 6-5 and 40-30 before Hingis drilled a cross court forehand for deuce. Venus had the advantage point a further three times but could not close out.

Hingis-Seles equalised with their second break point to force the tiebreaker and, after exchanging service breaks until 2-2, won five consecutive points to clinch the match.

Hingis said the match was worthy of a final.

"Four players like that together on the court, we have all won Grand Slams, are all in the top 10... it was so exciting," she said.

"Monica and I had nothing to lose because we never played together before, so we were just going out to do our best and have fun. To take away a win in a match like that is great."