Serena matches her easiest win over Venus in rout
NEW YORK — Serena Williams kept booming big shots for winners, never allowing herself to feel sorry for the overmatched player on the other side.
So what if it happened to be her big sister?
The Williams sisters, long ago in careers that have spanned 20 years and 30 meetings as professionals, learned they had to view each other only as opponents — and in Serena’s eyes, Venus is the best one she’s ever played. “Even though it’s difficult, especially for me,” Serena said, “we just do the best that we can.”
On Friday, it was perhaps the best she’s ever done against Venus. Serena equaled her most-lopsided victory against her sister with a 6-1, 6-2 rout 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 Saturday. 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 fans that were part of Friday’s single-day record crowd of 70,162 tried desperately to get behind her with pleas of “Come on, Venus!” early in the second set.
“I think it’s by far the best match I ever played against her in forever,” Serena said of the match that lasted just 1 hour, 12 minutes. “But I don’t know about ever, ever. It probably was.”
They 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, and only once over the next two decades had either won so decisively. Serena won by the same score in a semifinal victory in Charleston, S.C., in 2013.
“I think it’s the best match she’s ever played against me,” Venus said. “I don’t think I did a lot wrong. But she just did everything right.”
Serena, the No. 17 seed, advanced to face Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, who knocked out top-ranked Simona Halep in the first round.
On Saturday, Madison Keys rallied after dropping the first set and the U.S. Open finalist from a year ago beat Aleksandra Krunic 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Keys lost to Sloane Stephens in the final last year and lost to her again this year in the French Open semis. But Keys has been plagued with injuries for most of the season and slipped out of the top 10 in the rankings.
The 14th-seeded Keys looked out of sorts in the first set but she was resilient the rest of the way and won 12 of the last 15 games. She said she was nervous — she even whiffed on an overhead — but thanked the crowd for pulling her through into the round of 16.
Marketa Vondrousova upset No. 13 seed Kiki Bertens 7-6 (4), 2-6, 7-6 (1).