Venus Williams has one of tennis’ most iconic celebrations. She steps onto the court, raises a hand to acknowledge the crowd, takes a little skip and twirls around, soaking up the applause.
And when her doubles partner Leylah Fernandez ushered her onto the court to celebrate after they reached the last 16 at the US Open on Saturday, it seemed as if Williams was twirling back time.
Not since the 2018 French Open has the 45-year-old reached this stage of a grand slam. But she has formed a solid partnership with Fernandez, upsetting No. 6 seeds Lyudmyla Kichenok and Ellen Perez in the first round before defeating Ulrikke Eikeri and Eri Hozumi 7-6(1), 6-1 in the second round on Saturday.
Fernandez, the 22-year-old Canadian who reached the US Open singles final in 2021, copied her partner’s celebration, paying tribute to the seven-time grand slam singles winner.
“She’s such an inspiration,” Fernandez said in her on-court interview afterward, before addressing Williams. “You have motivated me to keep going on this journey through the good and the bad so seeing you play out here, having fun, playing because you love the sport, it’s motivating, it’s inspirational.”
Williams and Fernandez found themselves 3-1 and a break down early in the first set, before they fended off two more break points – both sealed by volley winners from Williams – to avoid the double break.
At that point, Williams was so fired up she even gestured to the crowd to rile them even further. “I actually have never done that,” she said afterward. “But we were down, so we wanted the energy that you guys bring. We needed that.”
They broke back in the next game, much to the delight of the partisan crowd at Flushing Meadows and took the first set in a tiebreak after winning seven consecutive points.
After such a closely fought first set, Eikeri and Hozumi seemed to lose some of their intensity in the second, and Fernandez and Williams won all but one game.
They will now face either No. 12 seeds Ekaterina Alexandrova and Shuai Zhang or British pair Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal for a place in the quarterfinals.
Earlier this week, Williams became the oldest singles player at the US Open since 1981 when she faced No. 11 seed Karolína Muchová and played arguably her best tennis in years during a 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 defeat.
She only returned to competition in July after 16 months away and has impressed the likes of two-time US Open champion Naomi Osaka at this tournament.
“It’s incredible to still see Venus on the court,” Osaka told reporters. “I know that when people talk about her, they mention her age first, but I feel like we should be appreciating so much that she’s still playing and she’s still giving inspiration to so many people.
“I watched her match against Muchova, and I thought that it was incredible how well she played and how well she moved.”
