Why I hope the Williams sisters do not meet at the US Open
Imagine you’re 35 years old, playing some of your best tennis in years, knowing you have just a handful of chances to win an eighth Grand Slam title but your first in eight years.
Imagine you’re playing in your home country where the fans have adored you over the years, especially after you overcame an energy-sapping auto-immune disease and defied the odds to pursue tennis and other passions, becoming an icon and role model to millions across the world, all the while flashing a smile that buries the pain and hurt underneath.
Imagine you walk out on the court against perhaps the Greatest Player of All Time and the current undisputed champion of the game in the biggest tennis stadium in the world. You would look forward to the encounter where you’re cast as the underdog, the overwhelming crowd favourite, the player who everyone would be rooting for.
Except that you wouldn’t. Because the player on the opposite side of the net is also from the United States and is a few matches away from solidifying her status as the Greatest Player of All Time, a few matches away from becoming the first player in 18 years to win all four Majors in the same season, a few matches away from winning a 22nd Grand Slam title, which would equal the most by any player in the Open Era.
Because the player on the opposite side of the net has overcome odds of her own – a mid-career slump, several injuries, a life-threatening illness and a knack for polarizing fans – to stand on the precipice of history.
Because the player on the opposite side of the net is also your sister.
If they were not sisters, their rivalry would perhaps have been the most fascinating in all of tennis. But if they were not sisters, maybe neither would have achieved what they have in the game.
Remove the bloodlines, and a match-up between Venus and Serena would perhaps have thrown up several classics on the lines of Graf vs Seles, Navratilova vs Evert and Federer vs Nadal.
They own some of the most powerful serves in the game, hit the ball with a ferocity few had seen before they burst on to the scene as beaded giigling teens, and cover the court pretty well too. But none of their 26 matches (which Serena leads 15-11) have produced the kind of high-quality tennis they are capable of playing against other rivals.
While the idea that two sisters from the ghetto in Compton could go on to meet in Grand Slam finals had tremendous novelty value at first, over time their match-ups have been reduced to tense rather than exciting affairs. The celebrations remain muted after a win, the jubilation overshadowed by their love and respect for one another.
But perhaps none of their meetings may be as painful as the one if they were to meet in the quarterfinals of the US Open next week in New York. Serena has won six of their last seven meetings and has clearly overshadowed her sister in the history books.
If Venus were to beat 19-year-old Estonian Anett Kontaveit to reeach the quarters, it would be only the second time in the last five years that she would compete in the last eight at a Slam. In the same period, Serena has racked up eight major titles.
Surely Venus wants to have another chance at lifting a Grand Slam title. She is not playing tennis to merely fill in one of the spots in the draw. But standing in between her desire and her sister’s chance to create history, even Venus may not be cheering for herself. Perhaps it would be fitting, then, that Venus were to lose to Kontaveit in the fourth round on Sunday.
As noted tennis wrtier Douglas Perry put it, “If Kim Clijsters had beaten Venus in four straight majors finals in 2002-03, one can't help but think Venus would have ratcheted up her already high level of fitness. That she would have shored up her sometimes-balky forehand. That she would have added more variety to her serve and perhaps worked her way to the net more often. You don't get to number one in the world without being extremely competitive.
But it wasn't Clijsters who surpassed her. Or Hingis. Or Lindsay Davenport. So her response was different. She didn't want to reinvent herself to try to beat Serena. Serena was family. The natural order of things, she decided, should be left alone. Her sister was better at tennis, and she wanted it more, and in the end Venus was okay with that.”
That’s not to say that Venus would end up losing intentionally, or put up anything less than her best efforts if she were to play her younger sister. One would have to think that underneath all the layers, however, Venus would not want to be the one responsible for crashing Serena’s coronation.
That is why it would perhaps be best if they were not to clash in New York, and instead keep their 27th meeting for another time.