Serena Williams recently recalled the 2003 Australian Open final against her sister Venus Williams.
Williams has won 23 Grand Slams, but some of the toughest finals he played were against her sister, Venus Williams. They played 31 matches in total before Serena retired, and 16 of those happened at Grand Slams.
Nine of the 16 were played in the finals of majors, and Serena generally did better, winning seven of those. Venus has only beaten her sister twice in a Grand Slam final, but according to Serena, it should be three times.
Serena thought her sister should have won the 2003 Australian Open final. It was a three-set match that lasted well over two hours, and Serena won 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-4, but it could have gone the other way.
Recalling the match during an appearance on the Hot Ones, Serena admitted it was one of the most tense matches she’s ever played.
“Oh man! The most intense match, I don’t know for me the most mentally like mine was Australia 2023, I mean goodness 2003 (laughs). That final was so huge because it was the first time I could win four Grand Slams in a row which would be dubbed as a ‘Serena Slam’.”
“That was a tough match cuz she [Venus Williams] actually played really really really well and to be honest she should have won. I remember she missed a shot that she wouldn’t have missed in any other match, in any other setting and I think, I even looked at her across the side of the net thinking like, ‘How could you miss that? like yikes.”
Williams further admitted that pressure got to her sister because she started to struggle as the match went on. It was hard to maintain a ruthless mentality during the match, but she was able to do so and ultimately won the match.
“I think from then it was just like, I won the second set and she started to crumble a little bit after that. And I could see that something had either the focus or something had just fallen even for a split second. I was like. ‘Oh this is my chance to win this.’ This is how you have to think as an athlete but it was tough.”
