Serena Williams defeats sister Venus
Win marks record 23rd Grand Slam victory for younger Williams; Federer takes home 18th
MELBOURNE, Australia — Serena Williams wrote more history with a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of sister Venus to claim a record 23rd Open Era Grand Slam singles title with a seventh Australian Open trophy on Saturday.
The 35-year-old surpassed Germany’s Steffi Graf and now stands one major title behind the 24 of Australian all-time leader Margaret Court, who won 13 of them before the 1967 start of the Open Era.
Williams will return to No. 1 after losing the spot in September to Angelique Kerber.
The Williams pair were playing a sibling final for the eighth time at a grand slam, with Serena increasing her lead to 17-11 overall.
“It’s such a great feeling to have 23, it really feels great,” Serena said. “I’ve been chasing it for a really long time. It feels like, really long time.
“When it got on my radar, I knew I had an opportunity to get there, and I’m here. I’m here. It’s a great feeling. I really felt like today, win or lose, I really felt like there was no way I could have
lost.
“If I had lost, it wouldn’t have been a loss because I know everything that Venus has gone through. I know how hard she works. In particular before this tournament, she worked so hard. I just felt like this was just a winwin situation for me.”
Serena, playing her 29th Grand Slam singles final, finished without the loss of a set.
The match began cautiously, with Serena calmly smashing a racquet in the third game after being passed by her sister at the baseline.
The pair committed 21 unforced errors between them in the first five games before settling in somewhat.