The 23-time tennis champion, who played in her first event since February, rode back from a break in the final set to defeat her sister, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of the inaugural Top Seed Open in Lexington, Kentucky.
“Last few games, I just wanted to win because I lost a lot of those tight sets,” Serena, who was 4-2 down in the final set, said in an interview after the game.
“I said ‘I really have to try to win this’ … just for the sake of my game and my confidence, so I was just trying to focus on those last two games,” added the former top-ranked American, who led extended over her older sister to 19-12 in career meetings on a hot and humid day.
30 great singles titles
The 38-year-old Serena and the 40-year-old Venus have dominated the sport for more than two decades and have 30 major singles titles between them. Before this week, they had played each other in the third round of the US Open two years ago. Serena’s 6-1, 6-2 victory was a star-studded affair, played in the night session under the lights at a packed Flushing Meadows in New York.
Their 31st career meeting was played in less glamorous surroundings, behind closed doors on a small court at a private tennis club by a busy road. The recently added event in Lexington, the first tennis tournament since the coronavirus pandemic suspended the sport for five months, has put biosecurity measures in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
The event in Kentucky serves as a warm-up event for the US Open, which kicks off in New York at the end of this month and where Serena is trying to win a record-breaking 24th major singles title. She last won a Grand Slam singles title at the 2017 Australian Open.
Refurbished storage
Unlike Serena, Venus had played a few exposition games in recent weeks. She had taken advantage of the long dismissal to renew her service movement, and had been in fine form in the opening round, beating the former world no. 1 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in straight sets.
Serena, who came close to going out in the opening round against 60th-ranked Bernarda Pera, started well against her older sister as she took a quick 2-0 lead. But after defeating three breakpoints for 3-0, they broke on the backhand error in the next game. It was all Venus after that, winning six of the last seven games to take the first set 6-3 as they put a now unfair Serena under pressure from the back of the court with blistering ground strokes.
Serena regrouped in the second set, winning it on a backhand error after 50 minutes after a break from serve in the sixth set. With the heat rule after two sets, when temperatures hovered around 31 degrees Celsius (87 degrees Fahrenheit), Venus went 10 minutes from the court while Serena stayed on the court.
Serena fought back from a break in the final set to win four games in a row and claim her 19th victory over her sister.
“Honestly, I’m playing well, but I do not think I’ve ever made a harder draw in my life,” Venus said at a news conference after the game over Zoom. “I’ve basically played two finals in a row. Of course I want to play a little better today, but overall, not a bad start.”
‘They played so well’
“She played unbelievable,” Serena said of her brother. “They played so well. I honestly don’t know how I could pull it off in the end.”
The sisters played their first official match in the second round of the 1998 Open, when a 17-year-old Venus beat her 16-year-old sister in straight sets.
Although Venus, a seven-time major winner and former world no. 1, in the early years had the lead over her younger sibling, Serena has since dominated, taking nine of the last 11 meetings for this week and winning an Open time record 23 major singles championships.
Serena will play the winner of the match between American Shelby Rogers and emerging Canadian teenager Leylah Fernandez in the quarterfinals.
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