SERENA Williams believes facing her sister Venus in the Australian Open final today will be the greatest moment of both their careers.
The siblings will compete professionally on the court for the 28th time in Melbourne – their ninth meeting in a grand slam final – long after many considered their domination of the game to be at an end.
While Serena has continued building her stack of major titles unabated, Venus appeared to be fading at the start of the decade as she failed to reach a single grand slam quarter-final between 2011 and 2014. Her decline was due in part to a battle with Sjogren’s syndrome, an immunity disorder which increases fatigue and reduces endurance.
However, Venus is currently enjoying a late resurgence, backing up her run to the last four at Wimbledon six months ago by going one step further in Australia.
It means that Venus and Serena, aged 36 and 35 respectively, reunite this weekend, 19 years after their first competitive meeting in the second round of the Australian Open and eight years since their last shared major final, at Wimbledon.
“This probably is the moment of our careers so far. I can definitely that say for me,” Serena said.
“Nothing can break our family. If anything, this will definitely bring us closer together.
“This is a story. This is something that I couldn’t write a better ending for. This is a great opportunity for us to start our new beginning. It’s the one time that I really genuinely feel like no matter what happens, I can’t lose, she can’t lose. It’s going to be a great situation.”
Venus’ progress is certainly the more remarkable but Serena remains the clear favourite to celebrate the 23rd grand slam title win of her career and set an Open era record.
But Serena said: “I don’t have to win another match as long as I live. I just have to have fun.”
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