One of the greatest rivalries in tennis will resume inside Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday night when Serena and Venus Williams meet for the 30th time in their surefire Hall of Fame careers.
It will be their sixth meeting in New York City and their 16th match at a major. It's also the second-earliest they've faced one another at a Grand Slam, behind only their first-ever contest in the second round of the 1998 Australian Open.
Here’s a collection of quick facts about their previous meetings at Flushing Meadows:
- Serena and Venus have played five matches at the US Open, with Serena holding a narrow 3-2 edge, including wins in their previous two encounters.
- Four of the five matches have been won in straight sets. The only exception was the 2015 quarterfinal that Serena won 6-3 in the third.
- The siblings have contested two finals in New York. Venus won their first championship match in 2001 and Serena got her revenge 12 months later.
- The Williams sisters' two championship matches were notable for another reason. When Venus won in 2001 and when Serena won the following year, neither player dropped a set during their respective title runs. Only eight different women have gone a perfect 14-0, winning the US Open without dropping a set.
- Of the 11 sets the sisters have played, Serena holds a 6-5 advantage. But even though Serena has won more of the matches, Venus has actually won more games, 55 to 53.
- How evenly matched are the sisters? In five matches at the US Open, they are separated by just six points. Venus has won 368 to Serena’s 362.
- In terms of their combined seeding — Venus is No. 17, Serena is No. 16 — this is the highest of their six meetings in Flushing Meadows.
- Serena currently has 23 major titles compared with Venus' seven Grand Slam wins. The last time two women with more combined major titles played against each other in a Grand Slam singles match was 30 years ago -- when Martina Navratilova (who had 17 titles) played Chris Evert (18) at Wimbledon in 1988.
- If Venus wins, it will be Serena's earliest exit at the US Open in two decades, dating back to when she debuted here as a 16-year-old in 1998.
- If Serena wins, it will be the first time either sister has won three consecutive matches against the other at the same major.
- All five of their singles matches at the US Open have been played in Arthur Ashe Stadium on the biggest stage in tennis. Four of those matches have been in primetime, including the first-ever primetime women's singles final in 2001, with the latest finishing at 11:03 p.m ET.
- That 2001 final was the first US Open championship match between two sisters. Combined with the fact that it was on nationla network television, it was the most-watched program on U.S. TV that evening.
- Their third-round match will mark the first time they’ve played on a Friday night in New York City. They’ve played twice on Saturdays, and once each on Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday.
- Venus and Serena are one of nine sets of sisters to play each other in singles competition in the history of the US Open. The other pairs are Agnieszka and Urszula Radwanska; Katerina and Magdalena Maleeva; Manuela and Magdalena Maleeva; Anne and Elizabeth Minter; Elizabeth and Gertrude Ostheimer; Elizabeth and Nancy Ostheimer; Edna and Mildred Wildey; and Juliette and Kathleen Atkinson.
- The average Serena-Venus match at the US Open has lasted one hour, 34 minutes. Their shortest match in the 2001 final lasted 69 minutes. Their longest match was the two-hour, 25-minute quarterfinal in 2008.
- Serena has aced her sister 29 times and recorded 108 winners in five matches. Venus has aced Serena 20 times and hit 99 winners.
- Venus has converted 14 of 36 break points (38.8 percent), while Serena has converted 13 of 38 opportunities (34.2 percent).
- Both players have had success at the net. Venus has won 60 points in 85 approaches (70.6 percent) compared with Serena’s 49 net points in 76 forays forward (64.5).
- The siblings’ serve profiles against each other are almost identical. Serena has won 66.7 percent of points when she makes her first serve; Venus has won 67.5 percent of points on her first serve. Serena has won 48.2 percent of points on her second serve; Venus has won 47.5 percent.
- Serena’s first-serve percentage in five matches is 60.8 percent. Venus’ first-serve percentage is 62.4 percent.
