Williams sisters rivalry

This article is about the performance of the Williams sisters as opponents. For when they play doubles matches together, see Williams sisters.
Venus Williams (left) and Serena Williams (right).

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.

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