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Sports Desk: Serena Williams rallied to defeat sister Venus Williams 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday in a second-round matchup of Grand Slam champions at the WTA Top Seed Open.<\/p>\nSports Desk: Serena Williams rallied to defeat sister Venus Williams 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday in a second-round matchup of Grand Slam champions at the WTA Top Seed Open.<\/p>\n
Top-seeded Serena, a 23-time Grand Slam winner, said the victory will boost her confidence heading into the US Open as she improved to 19-12 in the 22- year-old rivalry with Venus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to win this for my game and my confidence,\u201d said Serena, whose only title as a mother came in January at Auckland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly didn\u2019t come here to win (a title) for the first time in my career. I just came here to get some matches. I haven\u2019t had this much time off since I had the baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ninth-ranked Serena is one shy of matching Margaret Court\u2019s all-time record of 24 Grand Slam titles and she is preparing to chase a seventh career US Open singles crown at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n
Serena smacked a cross-court forehand winner to break Venus for a 2-1 lead in the third set, then dropped the next four games, only to break again in the seventh on another forehand cross-court winner, then hold to 4-4.<\/p>\n
Serena zipped a backhand cross-court winner past Venus to break for a 5-4 lead and served out the match, aided by an umpire over-rule ace to reach 30- 30.<\/p>\n
Serena followed the call with her 14th ace and won after two hours and 19 minutes when Venus sent a forehand beyond the baseline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last couple games I just wanted to win because I\u2019ve been losing a lot of those tight sets,\u201d Serena said. \u201cI just tried to focus on those last two games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Serena improved to 100-110 after losing the first set, the best of any active WTA players. In the Williams sisters rivalry, the first-set winner has taken 26 of 31 meetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was right up there,\u201d Serena said. \u201cI\u2019d say it was one of the all-time top five super-competitive matches between the two of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Serena had six double faults and hit 67% of her first serves while winning 46% of second-serve points and taking 5-of-15 break points in her first event since February\u2019s Fed Cup.<\/p>\n
Venus, ranked 67th, had six aces with 11 double faults. The seven-time Grand Slam champion ousted Victoria Azarenka in the first round.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Combined age of 79 \u2013<\/p>\n
\u201cShe played unbelievable,\u201d Serena said of Venus. \u201cShe\u2019s doing so good. I honestly don\u2019t know how I was able to pull it off at the end. She played so well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Venus, 40, and Serena, 38, had a combined age of 79 years and 19 days, the third-oldest combined age of any WTA Tour match.<\/p>\n
The sisters concluded matters with a racquet tap at the net, a nod to the COVID-19 pandemic that had shut down the season for five months until last week and forced the Lexington, Kentucky, event to be played without public spectators.<\/p>\n
Serena advanced to a quarter-final on Friday against fellow American Shelby Rogers, who ousted Canadian teen Leylah Fernandez 6-2, 7-5.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s match marked the earliest Serena and Venus have met in a draw since their first tour-level meeting in the second round of the 1998 Australian Open.<\/p>\n
Serena has won 10 of their past 12 meetings dating to Miami 2009.<\/p>\n
It was the first match between the superstar siblings since the third round of the 2018 US Open, when Serena, in her comeback season from maternity leave, won 6-1, 6-2.<\/p>\n
Also into the last eight was Jil Teichmann, who eliminated Kazak fifth seed Yulia Putintseva 6-2, 6-2. The Swiss next plays Catherine Bellis, who beat US compatriot Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sports Desk: Serena Williams rallied to defeat sister Venus Williams 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday in a second-round matchup of Grand Slam champions at the WTA Top Seed Open. Top-seeded Serena, a 23-time Grand Slam winner, said the victory will boost her confidence heading into the US Open as she improved to 19-12 in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":61633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n