Venus Williams Makes Bold Serena Williams Admission About Doubles Partner at US Open

While Venus Williams may not have made it past Karolina Muchova in the first round of the singles tournament, she is having a great time playing doubles at the US Open, and is more than happy with her partner, Canada’s Leylah Fernandez. Of course, there’s no replacing the 14x Grand Slam doubles winning partnership she had with her sister Serena. But it’s not like Fernandez has left her wanting for much.

In the post match interview after Williams and Fernandez managed to win over Lyudmyla Kichenok and Ellen Perez in a two set battle that amounted to 7-6, 6-3, Williams was asked to share her thoughts on her 22 year old doubles partner, whom she personally asked to join her for this tournament, and lets just say, Williams had some seriously high praise. “I never really played with a partner outside of Serena, obviously, who had that kind of mentality. So it was really fun.” Williams said of her and Fernandez being  equally determined and “focussed and dialled in on every single thing.” And the adulation began even earlier, on the court!

“She’s the best partner I ever played with besides Serena. We play the same style. I’m just a little bit bigger.” Williams said moments after their impressive win, and didn’t miss the opportunity to joke about their height difference. Williams stands at an impressive 1.85m while Fernandez is a more petite 1.63m. In response to Williams’ praise, a gushing Leyla Fernandez, who also compared Williams asking her to be her doubles partner to being like a kid on Christmas morning, said, “It’s probably the biggest compliment I’ve ever gotten.”

This is a developing story…Meanwhile, for minute by minute updates from the US Open, head to EssentiallySports’ Live Blog