At 45 years old, Venus Williams is still competing at the highest level. While she is no longer in contention for the women's singles title at the 2025 edition of the US Open, Williams remains alive, along with Leylah Fernandez, in the women's doubles tournament.
On Monday, Williams and Fernandez toppled the pair of Ekaterina Alexandrova and Shuai Zhang in the third round to the tune of a 6-3, 5-4 score, at the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, New York City, to advance to the quarterfinal phase of the tourney.
Williams is clearly having fun on the court with Fernandez, but that has also seemingly left her sister, Serena Williams, a little jealous — in a hilarious way.
Over the weekend, Serena posted a video on TikTok showing Venus and Fernandez together. Serena captioned the clip with “When you see your sister @VenusWilliams has a new doubles partner @leylahanniefernandez and you are really happy she’s winning with someone else.”
Venus finally got to respond to that video when asked about it following the win with Fernandez.
“Honestly, I think she had a very funny TikTok, Venus said. “But really, she’s so happy for Leylah and me, and she’s given us advice, and we just need her in the box. So my message is, ‘Serena, you need to show up.'”
"My message is: Serena, you need to show up."
Venus Williams wants her sister in attendance for the next round as she advances with her doubles partner Leylah Fernandez at the US Open 😂 pic.twitter.com/Fz9neZNw5z
— ESPN (@espn) September 1, 2025
Venus and Serena had a decorated doubles resume, as they teamed up for 14 major championships together. But with Serena already retired from tennis, Venus Williams had to find a different partner to continue her doubles career. This is also the first time that Venus made it to the US Open doubles quarterfinal round since 2014. Additionally, this is her first appearance in a quarterfinal portion of any Grand Slam tournament since 2017.
Venus and Fernandez will have a tough assignment ahead, as they are scheduled to face the top-seeded pair of Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakova this Tuesday.
