Serena breezes past Venus
Lopsided 6-1, 6-2 win raises career record against sister to 18-12.
Serena Williams equaled her most lopsided victory in 30 professional meetings with sister Venus, winning 6-1, 6-2 Friday night in the third round of the U.S. Open.
Serena shook off an early ankle
injury to win seven straight games and seize control in perhaps her most dominant performance since giving birth to her daughter a year ago today.
The sisters’ earliest meeting in a Grand Slam tournament in 20 years was over early, with Venus unable to do anything to blunt Serena’s power, even after the crowd tried desperately to get behind her early in the second set.
“It’s not easy,” Serena said, despite how easy it looked in a match that lasted just 1 hour, 12 minutes.
“She’s my best friend. She means the world to me. Every time she loses, I feel like I do. It’s
not very easy, but it’s a tournament. We know there’s more to life than just playing each other and playing tennis.”
The sisters hadn’t played this early in a Grand Slam since Venus won in the second round of the 1998 Australian Open in their first meeting as pros.
Serena, the No. 17 seed, will next face Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, who knocked out top-ranked Simona Halep in the first round.
Serena, who turns 37 next month, leads the series with her sister 18-12, including 11-5 in Grand Slam tournaments. But this one wasn’t expected to be so easy, with Serena still working her way back into form after returning to the tour in the spring.
But this was the type of tennis that has brought her to 23 Grand Slam singles titles — the ability to pound balls all over the court and chase down the rare shots that looked as if they might get past her.
“This was my best match since I returned,” Serena said. “I worked for it. I worked really hard these last three or four months. That’s life, you have to keep working hard no matter what ups or downs you have. That’s what I’ve been doing.”
She pounded 10 aces to just one for Venus, the No. 16 seed who was perhaps a little drained after two tough matches to begin the tournament, including a three-setter against 2004 U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in her opener.