(September 1, 2025) FLUSHING, NY – Team “VeeLah” keeps rolling along. That’s the wild card doubles team of Venus Williams and Leylah Fernandez upset the No. 12 seeds Ekaterina Alexandrova and Zhang Shuai 6-3, 6-4 in their third-round match Monday in front of a packed house at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
It took only 74 minutes for the 45-year-old American and 22-year-old Canadian to claim the win.
“We’re on the same wavelength, and hopefully we can keep it going,” Williams said.
“I have full confidence in Venus, and I hope she has full confidence in me during our match,” Fernandez said. “We’re just going out there, playing our game: Be offensive, aggressive and ready for the ball.”
Venus talked about her family watching the matches.
“I just got a video of my nieces watching the match and yelling my name,” Williams said. “The little one is barely two, not even two yet — or she is two. She’s just yelling, and so I feel like I’m getting quality time with them still, even though I’m not there.
“If she (Serena) came, it would be a dream for both of us and we’d have her on the court coaching. We’d force her to hit, even though she doesn’t hit often. It’s probably best she doesn’t come because we’d probably bully her.”
“Doubles was very important to us (Serena and Venus), and we focused always playing at the majors because we wanted the major titles. We didn’t play very often in tour events. We would only play tour events so we could warm up so we’d play well at the majors. And we wanted the Olympic golds, too. So doubles has been a huge part of our career because those were titles that, you know, they have your name by them and that’s a wonderful feeling.
“Also, to be in the Olympics and play for your country and just to compete at all is amazing. Those were honors for us. We wanted to really show up huge for that. Doubles has been really pivotal.
“Now it’s an interesting way to start playing doubles again, right? So sometimes it’s the place to start and the place to finish, too. “
More to follow….
