Washington: Serena Williams recovered to defeat her sister Venus Williams 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday in a second-round Grand Slam champion matchup at the WTA Top Seed Open.
Serena, a 23 Grand Slam winner, said the victory would boost her confidence at the U.S. Open as she progressed to 19-12 in the 22-year rivalry with Venus.
“I wanted to win this for my game and my confidence,” said Serena, whose only title as a mother came in January at Auckland.
“Honestly, I didn’t come here to win (a title) for the first time in my career. I just came here to get games. I haven’t had that much free time since I had the baby.”
Serena, who is ninth in place, has won 23 singles Grand Slam titles, equivalent to Margaret Court’s all-time record, and is preparing to claim a seventh singles crown at the US Open at Flushing Meadows.
Serena hit a cross-right winner to break Venus and gain a 2-1 lead in the third set, then dropped the next four games, then recovered in the seventh with a forehand winner, then held on 4-4.
Serena went a winning backhand on the court beyond Venus to take a 5-4 lead and served the match, aided by an ace of a referee’s rule to succeed in 30-30.
Serena followed the call with her 14th ace and won after two hours and 19 minutes when Venus sent a forehand over the baseline.
“The last two games, I just sought to win because I lost a lot of the tight sets,” Serena said. “I tried in the last two games.”
Serena had six double faults and hit 67% of her first serves while winning 46% of second-serve points and taking 5-of-15 break points in her first event since February’s Fed Cup.
Venus, 67th, had six aces with double faults. The seven-time Grand Slam champion defeated Victoria Azarenka in the first round.
“He played amazing,” Serena said of Venus. “He’s doing so well. Honestly, I don’t know how I was able to succeed in the end. She played so well.
The sisters concluded with a scandal online, a nod to the COVID-19 pandemic that had interrupted the season for five months until last week and forced the occasion in Lexington, Kentucky, to be played in front of the public.
Serena reached the quarter-finals on Friday against the winner of a subsequent match between American Shelby Rogers and Canada’s Leylah Fernandez.
Serena rose to 100-110 after wasting the first set, that of all active WTA players. In Sister Rivalry Williams, the first-set winner won 26 of 31 games.
Thursday’s attack marked the first match of Serena and Venus in a draw since their first level attack at the time of the 1998 Australian Open.
Serena won 10 of her last 12 in Miami in 2009.
It is the first clash between the superstar brothers since the third circular of the 2018 U.S. Open, when Serena, on her return from maternity leave, won 6-1, 6-2.
Venus, 40, and Serena, 38, were a combined age of 19 years and 19 days, the oldest combined senior of all WTA Tour matches.
Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann, who eliminated fifth seed, Kazakh Yulia Putintseva, 6-2, 6-2, also in the last eight.
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