Why The Worst Of Wimbledon Is Still To Come For Serena Williams

ByMELISSA ISAACSON
July 3, 2015, 6:01 PM

— -- LONDON -- Serena Williams looked into the abyss of Wimbledon's Centre Court heartbreak Friday, into her very psyche and the raw fear of failure that no one but the greatest can understand, and persevered to face a scenario she might dread even more.

Such is the level of angst that exists for a woman pursuing both tennis history and a sibling rivalry that inspires and tortures her at the same time.

Mere seconds after walking off the court following her harrowing 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 victory over Great Britain's Heather Watson on a challenge and her third match point, Serena gave her sister Venus the upper hand in their upcoming fourth-round showdown.

"She's in better form than I am, so think she has a little bit of an advantage going into that match," Serena said. [But] at least one of us will be in the quarterfinals."

Initially Friday, it seemed the only suspense was which Williams sister would take care of third-round business first, Venus racing toward her 6-3, 6-2 victory over Aleksandra Krunic and Serena whipping through her first set against Watson in just 25 minutes.

But this round went to Venus, who finished up in 1 hour, 11 minutes, a good hour before her kid sister. And now it is left to both to eliminate the other.

Serena versus Venus has been a lot of things over the course of their 17-year, 25-match series. Seldom pleasant for the participants, highly anticipated for observers. This next one is perhaps the most interesting and most awkward of them all.

This will be the 13th time they meet in a Grand Slam tournament, the first Slam in six years (Serena won the 2009 Wimbledon final) and the first Williams-Williams match anywhere since last summer, when Venus won a semifinal in Montreal.