Venus Williams admits seeing Serena Williams become a Grand Slam champion at the 1999 US Open was “huge” for her as well. In 1999, a 17-year-old Serena lifted her maiden Grand Slam title after beating Martina Hingis in the final at Flushing Meadows.
The following year, Venus also became a Grand Slam champion at the age of 20 as she won the Wimbledon and US Open titles. Now, Venus is a seven-time Grand Slam champion in singles, while her sister Serena retired with 23 Majors in her pocket.”Serena winning that Grand Slam and seeing her do what she did was huge for me.
She showed me the way even though she was the younger sister. It’s great to have role models around you, don’t feel bad, if your friends and and colleagues are doing amazing things, learn from that, you can be better, you can be everything you want to be; don’t be afraid if you fail or if I’ve had bad moments, it’s just a moment, it’s not forever and those are moments you could learn and grow from,” Venus said in the latest video uploaded on her YouTube channel.
Venus & Serena Williams nearly met in the 1999 US Open final
In the 1999 US Open semifinal, Serena defeated Lindsay Davenport but Hingis defeated Venus 6-1 4-6 6-3 to prevent what would have been the Grand Slam final between the Williams sisters.
Recalling that loss to Hingis, Venus admits she was too passive and just didn’t go for it. “My biggest mistake in this match was hoping that Martina would miss and that somehow, she would give me the win. And what’s the right thing to do? You gotta go for it, you gotta take it.
You gotta do the work, you gotta do the right things. When you do go for it and take it, if you’re going for it the right way, you get it because you deserve it. So, unfortunately for me, she deserved it more, she was willing to go for it more than I was, and she took the win,” Venus explained.