MELBOURNE, Australia—When a euphoric Venus Williams picked up the pace of her celebratory pirouette and the crowd responded with thunderous applause, Serena Williams waited quietly in the adjacent corridor for the buzz to subside.
She was thrilled that her older sister beat CoCo Vandeweghe and was returning to a Grand Slam final for the first time since their Wimbledon decider in 2009, but couldn’t really react because she had a job to do, too.
When one Williams walked out the exit, the other entered for her semifinal against Mirjana Lucic-Baroni and the sisters barely exchanged glances. An hour later, Serena ensured had there'd be a ninth all-Williams Grand Slam final—and first in Australia since 2003.
It couldn’t have been easy, surely, just to look away from a sibling who had been through so much coming back from illness and being written off as a Grand Slam contender?
“It’s a semifinal of a Grand Slam, and I was playing someone that is really good,” Serena said. “So it’s just a moment.”
“In sport, you have to focus. It’s also a great moment because you realize that we’re so close, we’re family. But it’s that focus that you have to have, and the discipline.”
The Williams sisters often travel together and practice together, just as they have on tour for two decades.
And so Friday, the eve of the Australian Open women’s final, the sisters practiced together again at Melbourne Park.
Serena finalizing her bid for an Open-era record 23rd Grand Slam. Venus targeting her eighth major title—and first since Wimbledon in 2008.
