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Last night marked the US Open quarterfinal on ESPN. Of course, the eagerly anticipated face-off between Serena Williams and her sister Venus ranked as the second best ESPN tennis rating ever. Programming peaked at a 5.6 rating between 10 and 10:15PM ET. The entire broadcast scored 2.7, a strong improvement from last year’s rating, however, a far cry from Serena and Venus’s peak performance.

Serena Williams has been the recipient of much media attention lately as she’s taken win after win, on her journey to staggering success. Winning three sets against her sister Venus, she now holds a place in the semifinals. Ms Williams is now only two wins away from completing the first grand slam of her career. This could also be the most recent grand slam feat since Steffi Graf in 1988. No man has completed a grand slam since Rob Laver in 1962. Her supporters rally behind her as she gears up for one of the greatest runs in professional tennis ever. Considering that she is already 33 years old, experts claim that her recent feats are even more impressive as she enters an “advanced age” for the game of tennis. More staggering yet is the vast distance between Serena’s No. 1 position tally of 12,721, and world No. 2 opponent at 6,130.

Only two years apart, sisters Serena and Venus Williams have rocked the Tennis world since the mid 90s. Today, they’ve played against one another numerous times. According to Serena, “[Venus is] the only player in the draw I don’t want to play, not only because she’s my sister, but for me she’s the best player.” 

If Serena wins this Saturday’s final, it will set her to pace with Steffi Graff’s Open Era record.

“Everybody who plays me plays me so hard because they always want to beat me.”
— Serena Williams at the Hong Kong exhibition.