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Williams team up for doubles

Paris - Serena and Venus Williams are teaming up at the French Open for the first time in three years.

The sisters received a doubles wild card from the tournament on Saturday, allowing them to play in that event after skipping it in 2011 and 2012.

It's only the fourth time they'll be a pair at Roland Garros. They won the French Open doubles title in 1999 - beating Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova in the final - and again in 2010, while losing in the third round in 2009.

The Williams sisters own a total of 13 Grand Slam trophies from women's doubles, to go along with the 15 won by Serena and seven by Venus in singles.

The French Open, which starts on Sunday, will be only their second doubles event of the season. They lost to eventual champions Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci of Italy in the Australian Open quarter-finals in January.

The American siblings won the Wimbledon championship and London Olympics doubles gold medal together last year.

A total of 14 doubles teams were awarded wild cards for the French Open - seven women's duos, seven men's duos - and the other 13 all went to French players.

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