Serena Williams-Venus Williams Rivalry Facts And Numbers

Two powers of the game, Serena and Venus Williams, meet this afternoon in Montreal for a spot in the 2014 Rogers Cup final. They two sisters have combined for a total of 24 Grand Slam titles and overall have amassed 106 career WTA singles titles.

Venus, now 34, and Serena, 32, first meet on a professional tennis court at the 1998 Australian Open as teenagers in a match won in straight sets by 17-year-old Venus.

Here are some more facts and figures from the WTA:
– Serena and Venus have met 24 times, with Serena holding a 14-10 advantage overall, including 7-5 at Grand Slams and having won the last 5 meetings
– Serena leads 8-3 in singles finals and 4-2 in semifinals. Venus leads 5-2 in all other matches
– They also met in the 1998 Roland Garros mixed doubles final as Venus and Justin Gimelstob (USA) defeated Serena and Luis Lobo (ARG)
– Serena leads 6-3 in three-set matches
– Serena leads 8-5 in tie-breaks. In every match where a tie-break was played, the player who won the tie-break won the match. Three of those were third set tie-breaks, with Serena winning two of them
– The most lopsided scoreline was Serena’s 61 62 win in the SF at 2013 Charleston. The only 6-0 set in the series occurred in round robin action at the 2008 WTA Championships, with Venus a 57 61 60 victor
– The winner of the first set has won all but three encounters. Those were Serena’s 46 64 62 win in the 2003 Wimbledon final, Venus’ 57 61 60 win in round robin action at the 2008 WTA Championships and Serena’s 57 64 76(4) win in round robin action at the 2009 WTA Championships
– They have met three times with one of them ranked No.1 in the world and the other No.2, with Serena winning all three of those match-ups

Numbers breakdown:
Hard courts: Serena, 8–7
Clay courts: Serena, 2–1
Grass courts: Serena, 3–2
Carpet: Serena, 1–0
Grand Slam matches: Serena, 7–5
Grand Slam finals: Serena, 6–2
Year-End Championships matches: Serena, 2–1
Year-End Championships finals: Serena 1–0
All finals: Serena, 8–3

On playing her sister, Serena says:
“I definitely don’t like playing her – I think I’ve lost to her more than anyone else on the tour,” Serena said. “So it’s definitely not a fun match for me, to be honest. But she’s tough. She has a great serve. She runs every ball down. She has a great backhand. She hits winners off the forehand.

“She just does everything well, so it’s not an ideal match-up for anyone, to be honest.”

On playing Serena, Venus says:
“I have to play well. That’s pretty much it,” Venus said. “There’s no secret or science to it. I think that’s anyone who has gotten any wins against her, they’ve pretty much played the match of their life.

“Hopefully I won’t have to play the match of my life. That’s tough. But I need to play well.”

The Williams Sisters Head-to-Head breakdown: