LEXINGTON: Serena Williams survived another scare to beat older sister Venus 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday in the latest battle of their reluctant on-court sibling rivalry to reach the quarter-finals of the inaugural Top Seed Open in Lexington, Kentucky.

Serena, who in her first-round match of the spectator-free tournament was five points from defeat against world number 60 Bernarda Pera, had to rally back from a set down and 4-2 final set deficit to prevail in a thrilling battle.

With the win, Serena improved to 19-12 in career head-to-head meetings with Venus.

“It was a very high quality match,” said Serena. “There was a lot of long points, running me around and then at one point it was just big serves and so I thought that was really interesting as we both started serving really well and returning well.”

Top-seeded Serena was locked in early in the final set as she earned a quick break to go ahead 2-1 before Venus grabbed momentum by taking the next three games and moving closer to her first victory over her sister since 2018 at Indian Wells.

But Serena found her way back and eventually used a fierce backhand winner to get to 5-4 before going on to serve out the match on her first match point.

Serena made a fast start to the match and had break point chances for a 3-0 double break lead but Venus stormed back with a five-game win streak and then closed out the opening set with a powerful serve.

In the second set Serena broke Venus with an inside-out backhand winner to pull ahead 4-2 and then closed out the frame with ease to force the decider.

“I wanted to win this for my game and my confidence,” said Serena, whose only title as a mother came in January at Auckland.Serena advanced to a quarter-final on Friday against fellow American Shelby Rogers, who ousted Canadian teen Leylah Fernandez 6-2, 7-5.

Venus, ranked 67th, had six aces with 11 double faults. The seven-time Grand Slam champion ousted Victoria Azarenka in the first round.

Also into the last eight was Jil Teichmann, who eliminated Kazak fifth seed Yulia Putintseva 6-2, 6-2. The Swiss next plays Catherine Bellis, who beat US compatriot Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-2.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2020