Since they burst onto the tennis scene, as effervescent teenagers, Venus and Serena have been a duo. They played singles and, occasionally doubles, but they were indivisible.
They were family.
Twenty years after their first meeting in a major, and after 29 matches in the pro ranks, they are still the closest of tennis sisters. Tonight they meet for the 16th time in a Grand Slam.
When they played in their first Slam, it wasn’t yet clear which sister would develop into the more distinguished player. Their father and coach, Richard Williams, dropped not-so-subtle hints that – though both daughters were extra-special athletes – Serena was the supernova.
The paterfamilias’s prediction has been borne out. Serena has not merely distinguished herself from her sister Venus, she has distanced herself from the entire field of women who have ever held a racquet.
Serena, now 36, has amassed 23 major championships, the most in the Open era, and has her sights set on Margaret Court’s pre-Open record of 24.
Yet both young girls from the public courts of Compton, Calif., have grown up to be among the greatest tennis players the game has seen. Venus, 38, has been No. 1 in the world and collected seven major titles of her own.
Early on, their matches against each other were famously fraught with emotion and intrafamily drama: awkward for the sisters, for their parents, even for fans.
If their encounters are slightly less conflicted today, it’s likely only because the sisters and the world are more accustomed to their occurrences. But it doesn’t mean that the Williams sisters necessarily enjoy facing each other any more now that they’re veterans and no longer ingenues.
“Unfortunately and fortunately we have to play each other. We make each other better. We bring out the best when we play each other. It's what we do.”
“Unfortunately and fortunately we have to play each other,” Serena said after her second-round match here. “We make each other better. We bring out the best when we play each other. It's what we do.”
“I never root against her, no matter what,” she continued. “So I think that's the toughest part for me. When you always want someone to win, to have to beat them. I know the same thing is for her. When she beats me, she always roots for me, as well.”
Serena and Venus are both one-name international superstars. But they remain a collective, a duo. The Williams sisters. Despite their individual trajectories and diverging lives, they will always be thought of together.
And one doubts that they’d have it any other way.
Serena acknowledged that they are inseparable. "I feel like throughout our career, we have pushed each other to be the best that we can be, and be Venus and Serena Williams."
At this year’s US Open, the sisters are now bunched together in the seeds, right next to each other: No. 16 (Venus) and No. 17 (Serena). That feels appropriate, even if the numbers seem off for this illustrious duo.
A meeting in the third round is unusual. The Williamses haven’t met this early in a major since their very first encounter, at the 1998 Australian Open. Venus won that one, as a 17 year old; Serena wouldn’t beat her older sister until their fourth professional match, setting up a rivalry and dynamic that would be at the forefront of women’s tennis for the next two decades.
The last time they met in a Slam, in the final of the 2017 Australian Open, Serena was playing – unknown to all but a few, including Venus – while two months pregnant with her first child. When Serena later revealed that fact to the world, Venus joked that her younger sister had an unfair advantage: “It was two against one,” she said.
Friday night it will be back to one on one. But in this family the math never lies. One plus one always equals two.
