Serena Williams Defeats Venus Williams to Win Her 7th Australian Open Title

The Williams sisters hugged each other after the game

Serena Williams won her seventh Australian Open singles title and reclaimed the No. 1 world ranking with a 6-4, 6-4 victory on Saturday over her older sister Venus Williams.

Serena’s latest triumph in tennis’s great sibling rivalry also gave her a 23rd Grand Slam singles title, breaking her tie with Steffi Graf for the most in the Open era and putting her within one victory of Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24.

“Good on her if she’s good enough to do it,” Court said this week in Melbourne.

Serena Williams has closed in on Court with an unprecedented run of success at an age when most great women’s tennis players of the past had already retired.

Saturday’s victory was Williams’s 10th major singles title since turning 30, and she has broken her own record, set at Wimbledon last year, by becoming the oldest woman to win a Grand Slam singles title in the Open era. Venus, 36, became the oldest finalist in Grand Slam singles in the Open era.

“There’s no way I would be at 23 without her or 1 without her,” Serena Williams said of her sister in the on-court ceremony after their match. “Thank you, Venus, for inspiring me to be the best player I could be.”

At 35, Serena Williams is back on top after playing little in 2016 outside the Grand Slam events and losing the No. 1 ranking to Angelique Kerber, who defeated her in last year’s Australian Open final.

Williams appeared unaware that the ranking was at stake on Saturday. She looked shocked when it was announced on court that she would return to the top spot. Her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, later explained, a tad sheepishly, that he had not answered truthfully when Serena inquired about the ranking. He said he wanted to avoid adding extra pressure to a tense occasion.

Source: The New York Times