Serena Williams and Venus Williams tee up US Open meeting
Thursday 30 August 2018 06:31, UK
Serena Williams set up a third-round encounter with sister Venus as she defeated Germany’s Carina Witthoeft in emphatic fashion at the US Open.
The two former world No 1s will meet for the 30th time in their illustrious careers after the 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena won 6-2 6-2 in the opening match of the night session on the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Six-time champion Serena, who missed last year's edition to give birth to her first child, impressed as she mixed 30 winners with 13 aces to progress in 67 minutes against the world No 101.
Having opened up a double break lead, 36-year-old Serena was forced to save three break points in the seventh game before she wrapped up the opener on the Witthoeft serve.
After an even start to the second set Serena found an extra gear to win three games on the spin, including two further breaks of serve, to thrill the New York crowd and book an expected night session match-up with Venus, seeded 16th, on Friday.
Venus had earlier defeated Italy's Camila Giorgi, who pushed Serena to three sets at Wimbledon last month, 6-4 7-5 to maintain her hopes of a third US Open singles title.
The Williams sisters have not met at such an early stage of a Grand Slam since their first professional meeting at the 2nd round of the 1998 Australian Open.
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Tennis is back on Sky Sports screens with the Laver Cup in September while we will also have coverage of the ATP Finals in November with every match live on Sky Sports. But first, we will be across the final major of the year in New York as the US Open right through to the final with live blogs, reports, features and reaction.
