Venus and Serena Williams both won their Tuesday’s matches at the Western and Southern Open – Venus battling past the London Olympic singles semifinalist Maria Kirilenko 6-3 6-7(5) 6-2 in the first round and Serena, gold medalist in singles, beating Eleni Daniilidou 6-3 6-4 in the second. In the post-match interview, Venus revealed that her goal is to qualify for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 and she would play even if crippled, while Serena, winner of 44 titles, couldn’t believe that the Cincinnati title is not in her résumé.
At present, Venus is dealing much better with her Sjögren’s syndrome and the 32-year-old is nowhere near ending her career:
I’m very excited about Rio. That will probably be my last one. By that time I’ll be creeping up in age. That would be an awesome career. I figure I’m going to spend more time retired than pro, so while I’m here I’m going to go for it. If I’m on one leg and I get to Rio, that’s great, too. That’s my whole goal: continue to work on my health and stay as healthy as possble – if that happens, I believe I can get to Rio.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Venus won women’s doubles gold with Serena.
Here’s how the younger sister got lost in the numbers:
I’ve won this tournament. I have. When it wasn’t this big. But it counts. I did win this tournament, didn’t I?
Maybe I didn’t. I can’t keep up. I don’t think I did. Okay, whoops. Yeah, I didn’t win this tournament. I thought I did. I really thought I did.
So many titles, who wouldn’t lose track! (photos courtesy of Moo’s Tennis Blog)
