Sisters on a collision course
U.S. Open: Venus is potentially in position to derail Serena’s grand slam bid
In the moments after Serena Williams had dispatched her in the final at Cincinnati two weeks ago, Simona Halep offered the American, oddly, some words of support.
“I know you can do four,” she said during the trophy presentation, a reference to the calendar grand slam that the younger of the Williams sisters is in the midst of pursuing.
Or maybe it wasn’t that odd for Halep to be rooting for Williams, one of her would-be opponents. There’s a lot of that going around. Caroline Wozniacki said at Wimbledon that she hoped Serena would win the slam, even though at the time Williams was only halfway there. Ana Ivanovic said in Cincinnati that she wanted Serena to complete the four-in-one-year feat, which would be a first since Steffi Graf did it 27 years ago.
All the positive vibes have garnered a few confused reactions. Patrick McEnroe, the ESPN analyst, said “it seems some of these women players … it’s almost like they don’t really want to beat her.”
Halep, the second seed at the U.S. Open, has since added some qualifiers to her earlier statement.
“If I will not be in the finals, I want her to win,” Halep said in a news conference before the tournament began. “If I will be in the finals with her, I want to win.”
“Of course I want to win,” she added, a suggestion that all the well-wishing for Serena from fellow players is really a statement for her as their second choice for a champion after themselves, an it-goes-without-saying kind of thing.
The same is almost certainly not true for Venus Williams. Venus, 35 and Serena’s elder by two years, has had a strange seat as her sister has chased history.
At times she gets to be a normal sister, rooting for her in every match, and at times she has stood in her way. Should the pair each win their next two matches, they would meet in the quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows.
Would Venus really want to be the one to derail Serena’s historic pursuit?
Venus offered a clue as to how she would approach such a meeting when they met at Wimbledon in the fourth round in July.
“When we’re off the court, she’s Serena my sister. When we’re on the court, she’s Serena my opponent,” she said.
“I know that I have a match ahead of me.”
Try as one might to get her to admit that she was hoping to lose — and this was the British press, so there was a lot of trying — Venus would not take the bait on having mixed emotions while playing a sister trying to complete a generational accomplishment.
“I think everybody’s always looking for some answer, and it really is you have to play the match,” Venus said in London before Serena beat her in straight sets. “It doesn’t matter who’s across the net — you have to play, show up, compete, do your best, and it doesn’t change.” Serena holds a 15-11 advantage in their career matches against each other, although Venus beat her just last year in Montreal, albeit before Serena started her yearlong white-hot streak.
It really is a peculiar set of circumstances the sisters find themselves in. Venus will play Belinda Bencic in the third round. Serena lost to the Swiss teen in the final in Toronto last month. The younger sister will then offer the elder advice on her next opponent, in hopes that she will advance and so that they can try to beat each other in a couple of days. The subject of advice has come up a few times, and Venus all but laughs off the idea that she should be offering Serena any counsel.
“I don’t think she necessarily needs any advice from me or probably anyone,” Venus said at Wimbledon. “She should be giving out the advice. I think we just all try to keep her encouraged. I think we’re all amazed at what she’s done really.”
Asked if she ever gets frustrated with her sibling, Venus deadpanned: “Well, we do live together.”
And, asked if she was ever surprised by what Serena has done, she spoke bluntly and honestly. “No, ’cause I always want her to win,” Venus said. “So for me, it’s like magic when she wins, no matter what the circumstances.”
Even, one imagines, when she is the loser.