5 epic battles between the Williams sisters

The Williams sisters will be competing at a Grand Slam final for the ninth time at the Australian Open

We are only a few hours away from the Women’s Singles final at this year’s Australian Open and the title clash will be something which every 90s born kid would want to watch- Venus Williams vs Serena Williams. Both the Williams sisters have been in exceptional form this year and the battle will be expected to be a tightly contested one.

While Serena had a cakewalk semi-final against Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, Venus was pushed to three sets by 36^th ranked Coco Vandeweghe before eventually prevailing to reach her first Grand Slam final since the 2009 edition of Wimbledon.

Both sisters are already in their mid-30s but have not shown any signs of slowing down and with the kind of tennis the two are playing, there’s no denying that they still have a lot of tennis left in them. Both the Williams sisters share a fierce rivalry and have met each other a total of 27 times with Serena leading 16-11

Over the years, both sisters have played some scintillating tennis –and here are five of the most exciting Venus-Serena matches that have ever been played.

#5. 2009 Dubai Tennis Championships semi-finals

Venus Williams won the 2009 Dubai Tennis Championships but not before surviving a scare from sister Serena in the semi-finals

Both the Williams sisters were in terrific form during the 2009 Dubai Tennis Championships as they had an easy passage to the semi-finals. Serena, who was the top seed, had dropped only one set prior to the semis while sixth seeded Venus lost only 12 games prior to the semi-finals.

Both Venus and Serena locked horns in the semis and for a time, it looked that Venus would have a very convincing victory over Serena as she took the first set 6-1. However, Serena had no plans to back and unleashed a relentless attack on her sister during the second set as levelled the match by taking the second set 6-2, which was the first set that Venus had dropped throughout the entire tournament. What followed was a nail-biting third set as both players held their nerve to take the set to a tiebreak.

Venus eventually won the match by winning the third set tiebreak 7-3 and eventually went on to win the tournament by defeating Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano in straight sets.