Venus Williams has one in every of tennis’ most iconic celebrations. She steps onto the courtroom, raises a hand to acknowledge the group, takes just a little skip and twirls round, absorbing the applause.
And when her doubles accomplice Leylah Fernandez ushered her onto the courtroom to have a good time after they reached the last 16 on the US Open on Saturday, it appeared as if Williams was twirling back time.
Not because the 2018 French Open has the 45-year-old reached this stage of a grand slam. But she has shaped a strong partnership with Fernandez, upsetting No. 6 seeds Lyudmyla Kichenok and Ellen Perez in the primary spherical earlier than defeating Ulrikke Eikeri and Eri Hozumi 7-6(1), 6-1 in the second spherical on Saturday.
Fernandez, the 22-year-old Canadian who reached the US Open singles closing in 2021, copied her accomplice’s celebration, paying tribute to the seven-time grand slam singles winner.
“She’s such an inspiration,” Fernandez mentioned in her on-court interview afterward, earlier than 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 discovered themselves 3-1 and a break down early in the primary set, earlier than they fended off two extra break factors – each sealed by volley winners from Williams – to keep away from the double break.
At that time, Williams was so fired up she even gestured to the group to rile them even additional. “I actually have never done that,” she mentioned afterward. “But we were down, so we wanted the energy that you guys bring. We needed that.”
They broke back in the following sport, a lot to the delight of the partisan crowd at Flushing Meadows and took the primary set in a tiebreak after successful seven consecutive factors.
After such a intently fought first set, Eikeri and Hozumi appeared to lose a few of their depth in the second, and Fernandez and Williams gained all however one sport.
They will now face both No. 12 seeds Ekaterina Alexandrova and Shuai Zhang or British pair Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal for a spot in the quarterfinals.
Earlier this week, Williams turned the oldest singles participant on the US Open since 1981 when she confronted No. 11 seed Karolína Muchová and performed arguably her finest tennis in years throughout a 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 defeat.
She solely returned to competitors in July after 16 months away and has impressed the likes of two-time US Open champion Naomi Osaka at this event.
“It’s incredible to still see Venus on the court,” Osaka instructed reporters. “I do know that when individuals discuss her, they point out her age first, however I really feel like we needs to be appreciating a lot that she’s nonetheless enjoying and he or she’s nonetheless giving inspiration to so many individuals.
“I watched her match against Muchova, and I thought that it was incredible how well she played and how well she moved.”