Williams sisters rivalry

The Williams sisters rivalry was a tennis rivalry between sisters Venus Williams (born June 17, 1980) and Serena Williams (born September 26, 1981). They were coached by their father, Richard Williams, whose tennis knowledge came from reading books and watching professional matches. Venus and Serena are regarded as two of the greatest tennis players of all time. They met 31 times in professional tournaments between 1998 and 2020, with Serena leading their overall head-to-head 19–12, as well as 9–3 in finals, 11–5 at the majors, and 7–2 in major finals.

Both sisters have been ranked world No. 1 in singles: Venus for a total of 11 weeks, between 25 February 2002 and 7 July 2002. The next day, 8 July 2002, Serena would replace her sister at No. 1 and remain there for 57 consecutive weeks, until 10 August 2003. In all, Serena held the No. 1 ranking for a total of 319 weeks, joining Steffi Graf (377) and Martina Navratilova (332) as the only women to hold it for over 300 weeks. Venus has won 49 singles titles from 83 finals, and Serena won 73 titles from 98 finals, throughout their respective careers which spanned three decades.

The Williams sisters became the first two players in the Open Era, female or male, to contest four consecutive major finals: from the 2002 French Open to the 2003 Australian Open. Serena won all four of these finals. Serena and Venus remain the only women's pair to accomplish the feat, and did so at only 20 and 21 years old, respectively.

While the Williams sisters excelled at all four majors, their successes on the grass courts of Wimbledon were the greatest. One of Venus and Serena was in all but one Wimbledon singles finals in the 2000s, and they won eight of those finals. From 2000 to 2019, a span of 20 years, a Williams sister was in the singles final in all but four years. In the end, they would each have four runner-up finishes, and Venus would claim five Wimbledon crowns, while Serena owned seven, combining for 20 Wimbledon finals and a dozen Wimbledon trophies.

The sisters are nonetheless personally very close. Playing doubles together, they won 22 titles, including 14 majors from 14 finals, and three Olympic gold medals.

Serena and Venus Williams played their first professional match against each other in the second round of the 1998 Australian Open. Venus won 7–6(4), 6–1. The match was described as "subpar". They played again in the quarterfinals of the Italian Open, the first clay court tournament of Serena's career, which Venus won 6–4, 6–2. Together they won two doubles titles.

Their next match was almost a year later in the final of the 1999 Lipton International Players Championships in Key Biscayne, Florida. Serena was coming off her first two tournament titles, but Venus won the match 6–1, 4–6, 6–4. The match was the first singles final between sisters on the WTA tour and was described by their father as a "bullfight". Serena won her first professional singles match against Venus later that year in the final of the Grand Slam Cup. Serena was coming off her first Grand Slam championship at the US Open and defeated her elder sister, and defending champion, 6–1, 3–6, 6–3. Venus was the only top player up to this point that Serena had not yet defeated. Together, they won three doubles titles, two of them being majors: the French Open and the U.S. Open.

Entering their next match in the semifinals of Wimbledon in 2000 (their first match against each other on grass), Serena was the favorite. However, the victory went to Venus 6–2, 7–6(3), who would go on to win the Wimbledon trophy for her first Grand Slam singles title. They teamed up to win the Wimbledon doubles title and later the Olympic gold medal. Venus's career advantage now stood at 4–1.