Love Game

NEW YORK—Matches between Venus and Serena Williams have traditionally been described as “awkward.” As their 27th meeting began, though, it had the air of a high-end celebration. A sellout crowd jammed the trains from Manhattan and swarmed across the grounds at Flushing Meadows, waiting for the gates in front of Arthur Ashe Stadium to open. Inside, it seemed that every other luxury suite contained a celebrity. While Venus and Serena warmed up, the big screens at the top of the stadium flashed images of Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump, and Aziz Ansari in rapid succession (only Ansari's was greeted with applause).

“It was more unique, definitely,” Venus said of the see-and-be-seen vibe in Ashe. “Serena is going for the Grand Slam, and I think everybody is interested because she has to play her sister to get to that. People want to see, you know, how that’s going to come out.”

But as parties often do, this one soon turned a little, well, awkward. Venus came out with guns—i.e., serves and forehands—blazing, but that only put her sister on immediate high alert. Serena responded with some of her best tennis of the tournament, hammering down serves and pouncing on her returns with preemptive ferocity.

Through the 6-2 first set, in which she hit 15 winners and made just two errors, there wasn’t a hint of wasted motion, or emotion, in Serena's game. There was also, as the set progressed, barely a hint of a sound in all of Arthur Ashe Stadium. As New York Times tennis writer Chris Clarey said after the first set was over, “I’ve heard more noise at a piano recital.” People had come to see Serena play her older sister, not give her a drubbing in front of the nation.

According to Venus and Serena, though, it was all par for the course for them as tennis pros—nothing personal. Last night each of them said that the fact that they’re sisters fades from their minds as the match starts and the normal reactions to competition take over.

“When you go on the court,” Serena said, “you don’t really think about it.”

“There’s lot of things going on in my mind, but nothing different from when I’m playing anyone else.”

As for Venus, she said, “My main goal when I go out there is to hold serve. I think that’s her main goal, too. Then you have to look for a break. That’s what I’m looking at when I’m out there. That’s kind of a peek into my mind.”

The awkwardness comes from their relationship, yes, but it also comes from the much simpler fact that they've played the game together for so long. They know each other’s styles and tendencies so well, and they’re both so strong on offense and defense, that at times it seems as if neither can let the other play well. Balls that are normally winners against other women come back across the net; serves that normally go for aces are met with stinging returns. Who could ever be better at reading, reaching, and returning Serena’s serve than the long-limbed, pace-loving Venus?

As Serena said afterward, “I’ve played a lot of great players like Lindsay [Davenport] and Jennifer [Capriati] and Martina [Hingis] and Kim [Clijsters] and Justine [Henin]...They just didn’t have, I think, the pressure—they didn’t know my game, and they just didn’t beat me as many times as Venus has.”

In the second set, Venus began to apply that pressure. For the first time, she got under Serena's skin and roused the crowd. With Serena serving at 1-2, Venus reared back and drilled a forehand winner that not only won her the point, but took the wind out of Serena’s sails as well. Serena showed her first sign of nerves on the next point, when she pulled up on a forehand and dropped it in the bottom of the net. She showed a second, and much bigger, sign when she double-faulted and was broken. From there, Venus was home free in the second set.

Serena said before the match that she expected her toughest test to come from Venus, and she may not be far off. Again, though, Serena rose to that test. In the third set, she did what she has done against all of her opponents this season, whether they’re family members or not: She gathered herself and left her nerves and errors behind. It began as it often does for Serena, with a pair of aces, this time in the opening game of the third set. Now it was Venus who had the wind taken out of her sails.

As far as Serena was concerned, if her sister was going to return her normal serves, than she was going to make them better than normal. In the final set, she closed each of her service games with an ace. As both sisters learned from their early idol Pete Sampras, if your opponent is doing good things with a racquet, the best solution is to take the racquet out of her hands.

When the 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 match was over, it made sense that Serena's sister, the woman who knows better than anyone why she has a chance to win the calendar-year Grand Slam, would sum up her game more concisely than anyone else.

“She has of course a wonderful mental game,” Venus said of Serena, “but she also has the ability to come up with a great shot when she needs it. That’s just been the hallmark of her game.” Unfortunately for Venus, finding the big shot when she needed it was the hallmark of Serena’s game again tonight.

It was only when the last of those big shots was hit, and Serena had unclenched her first and come out of her victory crouch, that they could be family again. Venus smiled and gave her younger sister, the one she had always looked out for, a long hug.

"I just said, 'I'm so happy for you,'" Venus said later.

"I'll look back on it fondly," Serena said, in a rare show of sentimentality. "It means a lot to me. Obviously we are very, very tough competitors on the court, but once the match is over and the second it's done, you know, we're sisters."

As Venus and Serena embraced, the crowd stood and made it first full-throated roar of the evening. There was nothing awkward about it.