Off the court, they’re mothers and good friends. On-court, they’re competitors and adversaries.
Although Victoria Azarenka has only won four of her 22 matches against Serena Williams, point-for-point their rivalry is one of the most competitive on the women’s tour. Every match they’ve played at a Grand Slam since their 2012 US Open final has gone three sets; even Williams’ straight-set 7-5, 6-3 victory at Indian Wells last year—their most recent match—lasted more than two hours, with both players fist-pumping and shouting after every grueling point earned.
Azarenka, for her part, loves their battles.
“It's very simple: I like playing against the best,” she said, after her quarterfinal win over No. 16 seed Elise Mertens. “That's where you see yourself, your level, the biggest challenge. That's what I'm working hard for, to play on the biggest stages against the best players. There's no one as tough, mentally, as Serena. I love that challenge.”
Before they face off for the 23rd time, in the 2020 US Open women’s semifinals, here’s a look back at their three dramatic clashes in Flushing Meadows. Incredibly, this will be their first meeting in New York since 2013.
2011: No. 28 Serena Williams d. No. 4 Victoria Azarenka, 6-1, 7-6 (Third Round)
Williams spent the summer of 2011 swiftly climbing up the rankings after she’d been absent from the tour for nearly a year, with a foot injury and then a pulmonary embolism. She entered the US Open seeded No. 28, which meant that if the draw held up she’d face one of the top players in the third round. Williams quickly took the first set, 6-1, but had to fight for the second: Azarenka saved four match points on her own serve, at 3-5, then broke Williams as the American was serving for the match. The then-13-time Grand Slam champion toughed out a tiebreak, despite her opponent’s momentum.
Cameras from the documentary Venus and Serena caught the elite athlete’s feelings toward this battle (and her champion’s mentality) as she admonished her former hitting partner Sascha Bajin for going too easy on her in the practice before the bout. “You were just hitting patty-cake,” she said. “...[These girls] don’t play patty-cake against me.”
2012: No. 4 Serena Williams d. No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 (Final)
Azarenka began 2012 as the player to beat, attaining the world No. 1 ranking for the first time and embarking on a 26-match win streak that included titles in Sydney, Qatar, and Indian Wells, as well as her first-ever Grand Slam championship at the Australian Open. Midway through the year, Williams gained momentum: She won her first major since 2010 at Wimbledon in July, then captured her first gold medal in singles at the Olympics, defeating Azarenka in the semifinals at both events. These results set the stage for an epic clash at the last Grand Slam of the year: Williams again jumped out to a quick lead, but Azarenka confidently fought back in the second set to take the contest to a decider. For much of the third set, the No. 1 seed seemed to have momentum on her side; she broke her opponent at 3-3, was two points away from the win on Williams’s serve, at 5-3, then served for the match at 5-4. But Williams held, broke back with a backhand down the line, then won the next two games, converting her first championship point as a ball from Azarenka sailed long.
“I was on serve at 30-all, I figured I could serve that out and make her serve for it—it’s the least I could have done,” Williams said, after the match. “Obviously, I never give up, I never quit, I’ve come back so many times from so many matches. I wasn’t too nervous, I just thought, if I could get to the next game... It was always [about getting to] the next game.”
2013: No. 1 Serena Williams d. No. 2 Victoria Azarenka, 7-5, 6-7, 6-1 (Final)
Williams’s 2013 season was one of the best in her career. Coming into the US Open she had already contested 10 finals, claiming eight; the two she lost were won by Azarenka. This battle, on an extremely windy day in Arthur Ashe Stadium, is easily one of their momentum-swinging wildest. Williams eked out the first set, then swiftly went up a double break, 4-1, in the second. But this was nowhere near over, as Azarenka refused to give up. She got one of the breaks back, then broke Williams as she was serving for the championship. At 5-5, Williams came out on top of an Azarenka service game and received another opportunity to serve for it. Again, she was broken, double-faulting on break point. Azarenka then claimed the set in a dramatic tiebreak. In the third, Williams focused and reined in some of the unforced errors she had been committing, going on to capture her fifth US Open title, her seventeenth Grand Slam and her second of the year (after the French Open). The two competitors warmly hugged at the net.
“I obviously would have preferred to close it out in straight sets, but going against a great opponent in Victoria, you have to be able to realize that [a comeback] can happen, and you have to keep fighting for everything,” Williams told reporters after the match, later adding, “I don’t think I was necessarily any more brave than Victoria tonight. I felt like she went for broke a lot. She changed her game and kept going and doing the right things, but I think I just pulled myself together and started playing the tennis that I know I can play.”
