Latest update September 28th, 2026 10:20 AM
Serena Williams beats Venus Williams to reach U.S. Open semis
USA TODAY Sports – NEW YORK — No matter what Serena Williams faces tomorrow at the U.S. Open or – should she make it that far – Saturday in the final, no match can match what last night felt like against her sister Venus inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Serena Williams and Venus Williams prior to their match during the 2015 U.S. Open. (Photo: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports)
Squaring off against Venus for the first time in New York since 2008, Serena won 6-2, 1-6, 6-3, keeping alive her quest for the Grand Slam, now just two matches away.
“It’s a really great moment,” Serena said on court after the win, her 26th in a row at the U.S. Open, dating to the 2011 final. “[Venus] is the toughest player I’ve ever played in my life and the best person I know. It’s going against your best friend and going against the greatest competitor in women’s tennis.”
It was a match that was built up – even by Williams-sisters standards – to proportions unseen before. Serena, 33, marches a step closer from winning all four majors in a calendar year, not done in tennis since 1988.
Tomorrow, Serena could have a less stressful day at the office. She next faces 43rd-ranked Roberta Vinci, who at 32 is making her debut in a Grand Slam semifinal. Williams owns a 4-0 head-to-head record over the Italian, including a straight-sets win last month in Toronto.
Vinci beat Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic earlier yesterday.
In a year where Serena has gone 53-2, this win is perhaps the landmark one. She won for a 16th time against her sister in 27 meetings, including seven out of the last eight.
In front of a jam-packed Arthur Ashe – a crowd that included Oprah, Donald Trump, Billie Jean King and a host of Hollywood A-listers – the Williamses traded lop-sided sets. Serena won the first when Venus sent a backhand return into the net, 33 minutes in.
But Venus wasn’t done, holding at loving and then breaking Serena two games later on a Serena double fault. Venus won a 6-1 set vs. Serena for just the sixth time in their 27 career matches over 65 sets played.
“When I’m playing her I don’t think of her as my sister,” said Williams, who is now 9-5 vs. Venus in majors. “When you’re in the moment, you don’t really think about it. We’ve trained our whole lives for this moment.”
Steffi Graf was the last player – man or woman – to sweep the majors in one calendar year, doing so in 1988. No American has done so in the Open era of tennis, which began in 1968.
Serena, for her part, has won two “Serena Slams,” or four consecutive majors outside of a single season. She did so in 2002 and 2003, then completed said feat in July once again, having won the 2014 U.S. Open, Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon.
Her last Grand Slam loss was to Frenchwoman Alize Cornet in the third round of Wimbledon 2014.
Today the bottom half of the women’s draw plays its quarterfinal matches, as No. 2 seed Simona Halep meets two-time U.S. Open finalist Victoria Azarenka and Petra Kvitova, twice a Wimbledon winner, battles Flavia Pennetta of Italy.
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