Don’t take Williams matchup for granted
Christine Brennan: Let’s hope this isn’t the last time Venus and Serena meet
You might have heard the news that Venus and Serena Williams will play each other Friday night in the third round of the US Open, a continuation of a 20-year rivalry that has long been the most fascinating in all of sports. It’s the 16th time they will have met in a Grand Slam event and the 30th time they will have faced each other overall.
I’m one of those people who thinks Serena will win, believes it’s fine if Venus does and mostly just wants to see an intense, well-played tennis match.
But there’s a bigger, overriding thought that hangs over their match: Don’t let it be their last.
Venus is 38; Serena turns 37 Sept. 26. In tennis years, that’s pretty old. They’ve both dealt with injuries and illness. They also lead full lives with loads of attractive opportunities off the court, so at this stage of their careers, every time they meet, you can’t help but wonder if it’s the last time.
In Grand Slam events, Williams sisters matches tend to be relatively few and far between. The last time they met in a Grand Slam tournament was the final of the 2017 Australian Open, which Serena won in two sets. Before that, it was the quarterfinals of the 2015 US Open, which Serena won in three sets.
They also met at Wimbledon that year (also a Serena victory, in the round of 16), but, beyond that, you have to go all the way back to Wimbledon 2009 to find a Grand Slam match between the two (Serena’s win in the final).
So who’s to say we’ll ever see this remarkable rivalry play out again in a major tournament?
Early on, we took all this for granted, not realizing the magnitude of their talent and the significance of their historic and legendary careers.
Remember all the unsubstantiated, nasty talk that one sister was throwing the match to the other? That their father, Richard, was orchestrating the whole thing?
How ridiculous that sounds today, now that we know Serena is the greatest of all time, with Venus not that far behind. Who’s to say Venus wouldn’t be the best ever if she hadn’t had a younger sister? At the most competitive time in the history of women’s sports, Serena has won 23 Grand Slam titles, the most by any player in the Open era, and Venus has won seven. It’s breathtaking.
But with Venus and Serena, it’s not just about the tennis. They are endlessly interesting: what they say, what they do, how they live. Listen to what they were saying about Friday’s match.
“Normally I say cheer for me, but I say cheer for who you want, me or Venus,” Serena said with a laugh after her second-round match. “I never root against her, no matter what. So I think that’s the toughest part for me: When you always want someone to win, to have to beat them. I know the same thing is for her. When she beats me, she always roots for me as well.”
This has been going on for quite a while, since the first time the sisters played each other professionally, in the second round of the 1998 Australian Open, which Venus won. The last time they played was not in a Grand Slam event but in the third round at Indian Wells this past March, when Serena was coming back after giving birth six months earlier and Venus won in two sets.
Serena was pregnant the last time they faced each other in a Grand Slam tournament, the 2017 Australian Open final.
Venus remembers it well.
“The last time we played the Australian it was two against one,” she said with a smile, noting that she was one of the few people at the time to know Serena was pregnant.
“At least this time it’s going to (be) fair.”
How much fun is this? If only it could go on forever.