By Chris Oddo | Thursday January 26, 2017
19 years after their first head-to-head meeting, Venus and Serena Williams will play for a major title at the place where their Grand Slam rivalry began.
More: Venus Williams Reaches Australian Open Final and Pulls Off Brilliant Celly
No.2-seeded Williams eased past Cinderella semifinalist Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, 6-2, 6-1, to book herself a spot next to No.13-seeded Venus in Saturday’s final. It will be the ninth all-Williams Grand Slam final and the first in Australia since 2003.
“It hasn’t really set in yet,” Serena Williams said after the match.
Venus, who battled past CoCo Vandeweghe in a tense three-setter on Day 11, won the first meeting between the sisters in the second round at Melbourne in 1998. But Serena has held sway over her sister in Grand Slam finals, winning six of eight. Serena has also won seven of the last eight meetings with Venus and 16 of 27 overall.
"When I'm playing on the court with her, I think I'm playing, like, the best competitor in the game," Venus said on Friday when asked to look ahead to the challenge of facing her sister.
Their final on Saturday will be the oldest Grand Slam final in Open Era history, in terms of combined age of participants; Venus Williams is the oldest Australian Open women's singles final in Open Era history.
And yet all of those numbers were overshadowed by the sheer emotional content of Venus’ triumph on Day 11 in Melbourne. Her improbable appearance in the final and the unbridled joy of her celebration, coupled with her sister’s steady, dominant march to her 29th career Grand Slam final (Venus reached her 14th) has the tennis world basking in the nostalgic, throwback quality of the occasion.
The Williams are tennis royalty: tennis’ past, tennis’ present and, yes, tennis’ future.
Because Venus has not been a consistent force on par with her sister in the last half-decade, many pundits have erroneously ruled her out of Grand Slam contention for years, particularly after she announced her Sjogren’s Syndrome diagnosis in 2011 and spent several years learning to live—and compete—with the energy-sapping disease.
Compete she has done.
Venus has been persistent and tireless in pursuit of her own best tennis, and while many wondered if her retirement might be nearing, she remained vocal about the fact that she continues to play because she loves the life and the sport, not necessarily because she can win major titles.
“I just feel like no matter what happens, we’ve won,” Serena said after her match, happy to celebrate Venus’ triumph as much as her own. “She’s been through a lot, I’ve been through a lot. To see her comeback and do well, it’s just really great.”
Williams was not considered a threat to win this tournament a week ago, after a poor showing in Auckland that saw her pull out with an arm injury. But it's nothing new--she's been counted out for years.
But just like Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who fell to Serena in straight sets today in her first Grand Slam semifinal appearance since 1999, Venus never stopped battling. The heart of a champion is something that can never be overlooked.
Nobody expected Venus to still be standing this weekend, but she certainly believed she could win. "I'm here, that's why I'm here," she said proudly on Thursday. "I'm not just here to hang out halfway around the world. This is a long way to come for a hangout session.
Slowly but surely Venus has worked her way back into top form over the last two years. She dropped outside of the Top 50 for spells in 2012 and 2013, but she began to rise again from there, as she learned to manage her training and her diet while dealing with the sapping Sjogren’s Syndrome. Even when she wasn’t winning she was playing thrilling tennis. In 2014 at Wimbledon she fell in a tough three-setter to eventual champion Petra Kvitova that was one of the most entertaining matches of the fortnight. It was also an eye opener: Venus was better than her ranking; she could still play.
In 2015, she reached two major quarterfinals and reached the Top 10 in November for the first time since 2011.
Last year she broke through and reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, her first trip to the last four at a Slam since 2010. She was asked at that time if she enjoyed proving the doubters wrong. “No,” she said. “I think the toughest critic is always yourself in any case. If anyone's hard on me, I'm harder than anyone out there. But I don't really care.
"How about that? I have a job to do on the court. People are paid to talk and write, do all that stuff. There are very few people that can get out here and play at this level. I'm the one on the court. I'm the one that deserves to be there. I get that chance to go to the next round, so As long as I keep putting myself in that position, good things can happen.”
And good things have happened.
On the flip side, there haven’t been any doubters about Serena of late. Her march to history has been steady and she has racked up Grand Slam titles at an alarming and impressive rate, particularly after pairing with her current coach Patrick Mouratoglou.
Now, the player standing between her and the Open Era record for major titles is her sister.
Williams tied Steffi Graf on the all-time Open Era title list at Wimbledon last season, but failed to win No.23 at the U.S. Open, where she was upset by Karolina Pliskova in the semifinals.
After a long season of rehabilitation—Williams did not play again until January—Williams is back with a vengeance.
So is her sister.
One of the greatest and most compelling rivalries in all of tennis will be renewed on Saturday in Melbourne. Time has passed and the sport has changed dramatically from what it was during the heyday of Venus and Serena.
But one thing remains steadfast, 18 years after their first meeting. The will to win lives on in the Williams Sisters. Their athleticism, raw power, and super-grooved technical strokes will go down in history some of the greatest the women’s game has ever seen, but it’s their legendary compete level that makes them transcendent and has allowed them to stand the test of time.
“She’s my toughest opponent—I’ve never lost to anyone as much as I’ve lost to Venus—but honestly I really feel like I’ve already won,” Serena aptly stated after clinching her win on Thursday. “A Williams’ is going to win... Obviously I want to go out and play well, but no matter what happens I will be happy with the result.”