Wimbledon 2015: The rivalry between the Williams sisters has been one to savour

It’s terrible playing against your sibling. Even more so if it’s at a major international tournament and even more so if it’s at Wimbledon. Playing your sibling is the worst thing that can happen. You both want to win, but at the same time you don’t want the other to lose. It can spur you on when you’re losing and provide for some fiery moments and bring you back from sure loss. It’s the most motivating thing in the world, trying to beat the person who knows your game inside out. Nobody knows this (better) than the two Williams sisters. One is 33 the other 35 years of age. Both have five Wimbledon titles each, four Olympic gold medals each and a combined total of 27 grand slam titles. [caption id=“attachment_2331320” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A sibling rivalry like no other. Getty[/caption] It’s been 6 long years of waiting for Venus and Serena to face-off against each other again, through anguish and loss for one, victory and accolades for the other but the two sisters finally took the court against each other in the round of 16 at Wimbledon on Monday (6 June). This was their 26th showdown on tour (Serena leads 15-11), their 13th at a major (Serena leads 8-5), and their sixth at Wimbledon (Serena leads 4-2). Venus vs Serena will and should go down as one of the greatest sporting rivalries of all time. No other sibling rivalry has reached the pinnacle of any sport, especially one where they are facing off against each other across the net. While the final score - 6-4, 6-3 - makes it appear that Serena coasted, the truth is Venus had her moment. Each point was hard-fought despite Venus’ Sjogren’s syndrome, an auto-immune disease that zaps the energy from her. The WSJ points out some crucial facts, “Serena hasn’t lost more than seven matches to any other player in her career. Venus also lost 14 matches to Lindsay Davenport, but she beat Davenport 13 times. Ten of the Williams sisters’ matches have lasted three sets. That is 40%. Some context: Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, who played each other 80 times and arguably had the most compelling rivalry in the history of tennis, men or women, played 28 three-set matches (35 percent).” Venus being the only person to ever challenge Serena, brought her younger sister out of her lethargic stupor that she showed us against Britain’s Heather Watson, during the third round match at Centre Court where she had to dig really deep to beat Watson. Both sisters played a reserved and subdued game. Serena’s killer forehand making up for the lack of anything else coupled with Venus’ devastating serves. Though Venus controlled the game for a short while in the second set, it was the younger Williams who closed in on the kill as Venus’ unforced errors gave her time to create, prepare and hit home the victory. The match was a vintage Williams clash. The last time they faced off against each other was last year at the Rogers Cup where Venus Williams defeated her sister Serena 6-7 (2), 6-2, 6-3. There was a point before 2009 where a Serena-Venus clash was a sure thing to expect. But now everyone from pundits to statisticians have been declaring that the end of this rivalry is near and this is probably our last chance to appreciate it. Like the NY Times very poignantly says, “The rivalry was back, if only for a brilliant moment. It was to savor. To soak in. To respect.”