Serena Williams Believes Venus Kept Her From Winning 30 Grand Slam Titles
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Serena Williams is broadly recognized as the greatest women's player ever, but the American thinks she would have had even more success had it not been for her sister, Venus Williams.
Serena and Venus' rivalry was one of the greatest in tennis history. Their emergence in the 1990s changed the course of women's tennis. Venus recently celebrated 30 years since her first professional appearance as a 14-year-old in 1994.
The power and athleticism they brought at such a young age was incredible. Their powerful baseline hitting has become the style most players employ on the WTA and ATP Tours.
Serena and Venus Williams played 31 professional matches against each other, with Serena finishing the head-to-head with a 19-12 lead. Their rivalry spanned from 1998 until the final meeting in 2020.
Venus won the first final they played at the 1999 Miami Open. Since then, there have been rumors that their father, Richard Williams, determined the outcome of that contest, but he has strongly refuted that speculation.
Although Serena finished her career as the more successful player, securing 23 Grand Slams to Venus' 7, there were occasions when the sisters were the two best players in the world and felt like the most likely winners of each tournament they entered.
That was mainly the case on grass and hard courts when Venus was in her prime. Justine Henin, who won four French Open titles from 2003 until 2007, lessened the sisters' success on clay.
Serena bid farewell to tennis at the 2022 US Open. She now works as an investor and spends more time with her family. However, she recently admitted to missing tennis like crazy.
Venus, despite being 44 years old and the older of the two sisters, is still not retired. In 2025, she plans to pick and choose her tournaments, something the five-time Wimbledon champion has earned the right to do.
Rick Macci, a hall-of-fame coach who used to coach Serena and Venus, recently suggested that Venus would have won between 15 and 20 Grand Slams had her younger sister not repeatedly stopped her.
Serena, speaking at the New York Times DealBook Summit, agreed with Macci that Venus would have claimed a minimum of 15 Grand Slams without her presence. However, she also thinks Venus is the reason she did not win 30 Grand Slams.
"We had this rule that if we played against each other before the final, we had to win the title. I think Venus would have had a minimum of 15 Grand Slams if we didn't play. I would have had 30."
The 23-time Grand Slam champion also discussed how the pair managed to be rivals on the court but sisters off it. Serena thinks the long time the two sisters lived together helped them cope with that.
"There was no separation at all. Looking back, I don't know how we dealt with that. We were so close, we grew up so close. My family was like, 'No fighting, you girls are always going to be sisters and that's that.'"
"But we actually lived together until I got married, which wasn't that long ago. We just always lived together. I think that helped our relationship. We had to figure out a way to work it out."
"We had to communicate, you know, we had to have those difficult conversations. I think we just, without even realizing, leaned into that. As long as I was winning."
