Written by Richard Pagliaro | @Itenisi_Manje | Tuesday, October 1, 2024
Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty
Serena Williams you know what it’s like to share the court with family.
The 23-year-old Grand Slam champion Serena was pregnant when she beat her older sister Venus Williams winning the 2017 Australian Open tournament.
Together, the Williams sisters have won 14 major titles and three Olympic gold medals in doubles.
However, Serena says that her top memory of the powerful doubles with Venus is not a win, but a loss. And not just any loss.
In a new interview no Glamor Serena Williams Unveils Every Tennis LegendSerena shares her top double memory: The day Venus lost in court which made Serena laugh uncontrollably.
“Obviously he won the Olympic gold [in doubles] three times was really cool,” Serena told Glamour. “One of the things I remember most in doubles is that we lost and Venus just lost her mind on the court because she was calm.
“And I was laughing the whole time. And we lost by four points because I couldn’t stop laughing.”
Playing alongside her older sister was both a blessing and a burden, Serena said.
“Honestly, I think for me the double might be a little difficult [than singles] because I never wanted to let my partner down, which was Venus,” said Serena, who partnered with James Blake to lead Team USA to the Hopman Cup and was a strong contender for the Fed Cup (now the Billie Jean King Cup). “Like singles, if you make a mistake, it’s one thing, it’s on you. But if you make a double mistake, it’s like: Oh, I’m letting my partner down.
“That really depressed me because I didn’t want to disappoint him.”
The Williams Sisters are famous for going out Verena Slamsweeping four consecutive Grand Slam doubles tournaments—2009 Wimbledon, 2009 US Open, 2010 Australian Open and 2010 Roland Garros—to hold all four major crowns simultaneously.
Venus and Serena have held 14 major tournaments together, including six Wimbledon titles.
Another reason why they won Wimbledon four more times than their home Slam, where the sisters won two US Open titles twice, is simple, Venus said. US Open schedulers often put doubles matches for the Williams sisters at night, which Venus said has reduced their time off and singles.
As a result, the Williams sisters pulled the plug on the US Open twice.
“We haven’t played much at the US Open,” Venus Williams said on her YouTube channel. “One of the reasons was that they were giving us really difficult programs.
“So they would put us to play a double night game. And then we’ll have to turn around—you get to Queens—and you go back to the city. You don’t finish until midnight. Turn up the next day and you have to play a singles match and a doubles match.
“[The US Open] He never gave us a good double edit. So we didn’t play often [at the US Open] because physically you cannot do that….
“In fact, planning cost us sometimes in singles and doubles because of the way they planned us. So we had to stop playing [doubles at the US Open] very much.”
He answered Glamor audience questions, Serena gives her thoughts on:
*Skirts vs. Short
*Why Grunting works
*Off court areas you will see him wearing tennis gear
*Playing Wii Tennis
Serena Williams, who received a standing ovation from fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium when she returned to the US Open earlier this month, shares her thoughts on tennis vs. pickleball. Serena says that many good tennis players can be good pickleball players, but questions whether the opposite is true.
“I don’t play pickleball. “But I think if you play good tennis, you can play pickleball well,” said Serena. “If you play pickleball, you’re probably not going to be a tennis player. Because tennis is a different sport.
“Like you can go from tennis to pickle. I don’t think you can go from pickle to tennis. So that’s a myth there.”
