Ukrainian tennis players Lyudmyla and Nadiia Kichenok will play together in a doubles match for the first time since May 2025, UNN reports.
The Kichenok sisters will open the 2026 season playing doubles at a tournament in Brisbane, Australia. This will be the Ukrainian tennis players' first team appearance at this tournament.
Lyudmyla and Nadiia Kichenok last competed in doubles in May at the WTA 500 tournament in Strasbourg, where they were defeated in the first round of the competition.
The sisters' doubles performance at the WTA 500 in Linz, Austria, this season was more successful – they reached the final where they lost to the pair Tímea Babos/Luisa Stefani in three sets.
Together, the Ukrainians also played in the Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers — a victory over the Polish pair (2:0 in sets).
For Lyudmyla Kichenok, this will be her fifth participation in the Brisbane tournament. The tennis player's best result is winning the tournament in 2024 in doubles with Latvian Jelena Ostapenko. Nadiia Kichenok will also participate in the tournament for the fifth time; so far, she has managed to reach the quarterfinals twice, in 2018 and 2024.
In addition to the Kichenok sisters, two other Ukrainian tennis players, Marta Kostyuk and Dayana Yastremska, will participate in the Brisbane tournament. Both Ukrainians have been included in the list of participants in the singles draw of the tournament.
The Kichenok sisters have won four titles playing together in doubles. In 2015, the tennis players won a tournament in Shenzhen, China, a year later they won the Brasil Tennis Cup, won the WTA Elite Trophy-2018, and also the Tallinn Open in 2022.