Serena Williams defeats sister Venus, advances to Wimbledon quarters

The Williams sisters faced off for the 26th time in their careers and sixth time at Wimbledon on Monday morning. The match, like most between the two, had an awkward feel around it and it was Serena that notched the win in straight sets (6-4, 6-3) over Venus, giving her 15 wins over her sister in her career.

Serena was just too good for her sister to handle consistently, especially on her serve. She had seven aces on the match and just bombarded Venus with heavy serves — she was regularly over 100 mph even on second serves. Serena hit 67% of her first serves in play and won 78% of those points. Venus only had two break point chances, winning one of them, as Serena offered very few opportunities for Venus to really climb into the match.

Serena hit 35 winners to just 13 unforced errors and controlled the match from the beginning. Serena is looking to complete her second career “Serena Slam” and has a chance to achieve the calendar Grand Slam for the first time in women’s tennis since Steffi Graf in 1988.

The celebration for Serena, as it always is against her sister, was subdued and the two quickly packed up and walked off Centre Court at the All-England Club together after the match. After the match, Serena spoke on the mixed emotions of beating her sister.

“Yeah, it’s hard to feel excited about [beating] someone you root for all the time, no matter what, and who you love so much and is your best friend in the world,” said Serena. “It’s never easy, but you just play for the competition and enjoy the moment.

It definitely doesn’t get easier, but today I was out there and I thought, ‘wow. I’m 33 and she’s 35 and I don’t know how many more moments like this we’re going to have.’ I plan on playing for years, but you never know if we’re going to have an opportunity to play against each other. I just took the moment in and thought, ‘we’re at Wimbledon.’ I remember when I was 8 years old we dreamed of this moment. It was kind of surreal for a moment.”

Serena will face the winner of No. 23 Victoria Azarenka and No. 30 Belinda Bencic in the quarterfinals.