Serena Williams’ older sister Venus Williams put an end to Serena’s comeback tournament with a 6-3, 6-3 victory on Monday night’s third round of the BNP Paribas Open. This was Venus’ first victory in over 23-time grand slam winner Serena, but Serena still leads their head-to-head 17-12 and has won eight of their last ten matches.
The Monday night’s match was also their first dual match at Indian Wells, 17 years after Venus withdrew from their semi-finals in the year 2001 as she suffered a knee injury. This victory over Serena has placed Venus in the fourth round, where she will face Anastasija Sevastova on Tuesday.
Although Venus has struggled sometimes in the past to find her service rhythm in the matches she played against Serena, she was fully charged this time, hitting her first serve of 121 miles/hour at her sister during the opening of the game.
A lot has changed in the past 17 years. When Serena went on the court on Monday night, she did so as a new mother while Venus walked out the court as a new aunt to Serena’s daughter. Notably, Serena has been away since the time she won the Australian Open in the year 2017. At that time, she was eight weeks pregnant.
She gave birth to her daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. six months ago. Last week, she had made an announcement stating her return. She said that she was eagerly waiting to make a comeback, but as there were complications from the birth, she was forced to miss training time, and she was also not physically ready to play for a full-on competition until now.
She was initially scheduled to return playing at the 2018 Australian Open, but she had to withdraw as she was not ready.
