With the current suspension of the ATP and WTA Tours, we are opening up our US Open vault to bring you full match videos of classic encounters through the years in New York.
Join us Saturday at 4 p.m. ET for the latest #USOpenClassics on Facebook Live and Twitter. Next up in the series is a full-match live stream of the 2008 quarterfinal matchup between Serena and Venus Williams. The full match will be posted on Sunday on the US Open YouTube Channel.
Two sisters, two tiebreaks, each decided by two points. The year was two thousand and... eight.
The '08 US Open quarterfinal is the second-longest Willams sisters match on record, at two hours, 25 minutes, and perhaps the most intense and dramatic of their 30 WTA meetings. (Serena leads the head-to-head, 18-12.) It remains their only matchup to feature more than one tiebreak.
Both came in at top form, with Serena dropping just 14 games en route to the last eight, and Venus dropping 15 in four matches. Just before the US Open, they had teamed up to win Olympic doubles gold in Beijing. Going back slightly further, the sisters also won the doubles title at Wimbledon, where Venus defeated her sister in the singles final.
For all the buildup, both American tennis legends delivered under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium with an instant classic.
Serena was 26 and seeded No. 4 in New York, though she would reclaim the world No. 1 ranking—for the first time in five years—from Ana Ivanovic by winning the title without dropping a set. Venus was 28 and seeded No. 7.
The 2008 US Open was also remarkable for Roger Federer's fifth consecutive title, as well as the farewall Grand Slam appearance from 1998 US Open champ and former world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport.
Watch the full #USOpenClassics match via Facebook Live and Twitter on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET.
