New York – Far from a family feud, matches between Venus and Serena Williams create a family crisis.
This time neither of their parents could watch.
Artistry gave way to sheer slugging again in Sister Act XIV, the ongoing saga of siblings who hate to play each other – especially if it’s not for a Grand Slam title.
Venus’ 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 victory Sunday to reach the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open evened their head-to-head matches at 7-7 and gave the elder sister her second win this year after losing six straight to Serena.
It was the ninth time they met in a Grand Slam match, and the earliest since Venus won the first clash in the second round of the 1998 Australian Open. Serena had won their past five matches in majors – all in finals.
The 25-year-old Venus, who won her third Wimbledon two months ago and is going for her third U.S. Open title, could see that Serena, three weeks shy of 24, was struggling to control her shots and temper.
“When she doesn’t play her best is the best time to get a win against her,” said Venus, who next plays No. 4 Kim Clijsters, a 6-1, 6-0 winner against Venezuela’s Maria Vento-Kabchi.
Women’s top seed Maria Sharapova had no trouble dismissing Sania Mirza, 6-2, 6-1, and next plays fellow Russian and No. 9 Nadia Petrova, a 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 victor over Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic.
Serena was in trouble from the start, losing the first three points on her serve in the opening game, but kept scrambling back – often with the help of Venus’ errors. Venus broke her for a 4-3 lead in the first set and served for the set at 5-4. After winning 11 straight points on serve in previous games, she hit two double faults and made two errors to even the set.
The tiebreaker was filled with mini-breaks before Venus won it when Serena dumped a backhand into the net. Serena bounced her racket onto the court and stalked angrily to the chair.
Neither sister was happy with their play.
“I had some bad patches,” Venus said. “I think Serena had some tough patches, too, and then some good ones. It was tough.”
Serena was limping near the end but said she didn’t reinjure the left knee that swelled up last month, or the left ankle that bothered her earlier this year.
“I was just having problems at the end because I was moving a lot and stopping a lot,” Serena said.
They both used the same term – “bizarre” – to describe playing each other this early in a tournament. It was almost inevitable, though, since their rankings had dropped. Serena was seeded No. 8, Venus No. 10.
“It was distracting for both of us, to be honest,” Venus said. “I’m really dedicated to get my ranking up. I’m tired of being ranked this low. I just know myself that I’m better than No. 10. We were sad when we heard the draw. We didn’t talk about it until now. It’s hard because I want her to be in the tournament. I want her to win just as much as I want to. If it’s a final, it’s obviously different. It was super strange, for sure.”
American Taylor Dent produced some of the best tennis of his career before going down to third-seeded Lleyton Hewitt, 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (2-7), 6-2, 7-5.
The Australian Hewitt, the 2001 U.S. Open champion and last year’s runner-up to Roger Federer, was pressured constantly by Dent’s net charges and 19 aces in a classic match between a baseliner and a serve-and- volleyer.
Hewitt also suffered from his own poor serving – eight double faults, including at least one in each of the five games he was broken.
The match seesawed for more than three hours before coming down to a few points that could have gone either way.
Defending men’s champion and top seed Roger Federer advanced to the round of 16 with a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 victory over Olivier Rochus. Federer next plays Nicolas Kiefer.
One-on-one
How the Williams sisters have fared in matches against each other. Their series is tied 7-7:
1998
Australian Open – Venus, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1
Rome – Venus, 6-4, 6-2
1999
Key Biscayne – Venus, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4
Grand Slam Cup – Serena, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3
2000
Wimbledon – Venus, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3)
2001
U.S. Open – Venus 6-2, 6-4
2002
Key Biscayne – Serena, 6-2, 6-2
French Open – Serena, 7-5, 6-3
Wimbledon – Serena, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3
U.S. Open – Serena, 6-4, 6-3
2003
Australian Open – Serena, 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-4
Wimbledon – Serena, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2
2005
Key Biscayne – Venus, 6-1, 7-6 (10-8)
U.S. Open – Venus, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2
Sisterly love
How the Williams sisters performed in their fourth-round match at the U.S. Open:
Venus | Serena
First-serve pct. 69 63
Aces 1 6
Double faults 4 6
1st-serve winning pct. 76 64
2nd-serve winning pct. 43 41
Winners (inc. service) 19 17
Unforced errors 29 30
Net points 9-11 5-11
Total points won 79 67
(Time of match: 1 hour, 28 minutes)
U.S. OPEN/GLANCE
Weather: Sunny and mild. High of 82.
Attendance: Day: 35,242 (record). Night: 23,332. Total: 58,816 (record).
Results: Men, third-round winners – No. 1 Roger Federer, No. 3 Lleyton Hewitt, No. 11 David Nalbandian, No. 15 Dominik Hrbaty. Women, fourth-round winners – No. 1 Maria Sharapova, No. 4 Kim Clijsters, No. 9 Nadia Petrova and No. 10 Venus Williams.
Stat of the day: After losing to Hewitt, Taylor Dent is 0-8 against players ranked in the top 10 in Grand Slam tournaments.
Quote of the day: “I feel like I lost that match for the same reason I’ve lost 99 percent of matches over the last year and a half or so. My serve just really let me down today.” – Dent, who lost in five sets to Hewitt
On TV: KCNC-4, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; USA, 5-9 p.m.
