What to Know
A sibling rivalry for the ages will continue on Friday when Serena Williams and Venus Williams face off at the U.S. Open in Queens.
The sisters — Serena seeded 17th and Venus 16th — will play each other in the third round of the Grand Slam tournament.
On Monday, Serena, 36, defeated Magda Linette. The next day, she bested German player Carina Witthöft. In her first round match, Venus, 38, was victorious over Svetlana Kuznetsova. And on Wednesday, she won over Camila Giorgi.
The winner of Friday’s match will move on to the round of 16.
Friday will mark the 30th time that Serena and Venus have competed against each other in their careers, and the 16th time that they have played each other at Grand Slams.
The first time? Back in 1998, when Venus shut down Serena in the Australian Open’s second round.
Serena has won six U.S. Open singles championships, while Venus has won two, according to the Chicago Tribune.
“I wouldn’t say it’s exciting,” Serena said, according to The New York Times. “But it’s definitely going to be a really tough match for me. Once again, it’s early in the tournament. You know, it is what it is.”
“Unfortunately and fortunately we have to play each other,” Serena continued. “We make each other better. We bring out the best when we play each other. It’s what we do. So, I think we’re used to it now.”
Serena and Venus have been sharing their love of the game for a long time.
In a 1991 interview with Today, the girls’ mother Oracene Price said of her then-rising star daughters, “Sometimes I feel just like it was destiny, you know, for the both of them. Because my first three girls, they went out, they didn’t take to it. But the last two, they liked it a great deal.”
Venus, just 11, explained, “I think when I was 5 years old, that’s when I think I started liking it a lot.”
