Serena Williams’ Coach Comes to Venus Williams’ Defense After Controversial Comment on Maya Joint

Serena Williams made her much-awaited singles comeback at Wimbledon, only to lose to Maya Joint. In the first round, the Australian Open easily won the first set, but the tennis legend dug deep to take the second set, but eventually ended up losing with a scoreline of 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-3.

During the match, Serena suffered a knee injury due to which she and Venus Williams were forced to withdraw from their doubles match. It’s uncertain where the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion will play next, but Venus is currently in Washington playing the Citi Open.

At the press conference ahead of her campaign, Venus was asked about her sister’s level during that match against Joint. The seven-time Grand Slam singles champion called Serena “unlucky,” and on Joint, Venus made a bit controversial statement, saying, “you play players who are on fire, and they don’t seem to maintain that level afterwards.” But Serena’s coach, Rennae Stubbs, backed Venus for her assessment of Joint.

She’s not wrong. Serena played well. We know what happened with the knee. She was very much hobbled. That was definitely a problem, certainly in the third set. Maya Joint played the match of her life. She played the best match this year and then subsequently lost the next match the following day. Played a great first set and then just fell away.

Rennae Stubbs said on The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast

Joint reached the second round but lost in three sets to Filipino sensation Alexandra Eala, with whom Venus paired up for the Citi Open doubles. Eala later withdrew to focus on singles, which saw Venus team up with Diana Shnaider.

What Venus is saying, I have no problem with her saying that because it was correct. I think Venus is being very protective of her little sister, and I’m okay with it because she didn’t say anything that was not correct.

Rennae Stubbs added

Venus competed in both singles and doubles at the Citi Open. In singles, Anastasia Potapova beat her in straight sets in the first round, while in doubles, she and Shnaider defeated Quinn Gleason and Ulrikke Eikeri in their opening round.

Leylah Fernandez says Venus Williams has a welcoming aura

Leylah Fernandez, who faced defeat at the hands of Emma Raducanu in the final of the 2021 US Open, joined forces with Venus Williams in last year’s New York Slam. They reached the quarterfinals and succumbed to a straight-set defeat to first seeds Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakova.

The American-Canadian players also teamed up for this year’s Miami Open, but they crashed out after losing the first round. Fernandez is also in Washington and competed in both singles and doubles. At the pre-tournament press conference, Fernandez spoke glowingly about the 46-year-old.

It’s been super fun. Venus has definitely a welcoming aura where she always wants to support and help as much as possible. I always see her or her husband or someone from her team sometimes watching my matches. At the end of my matches, they would send me a message either congratulating me or, like, telling me to keep my head up.

In singles at the Citi Open, Fernandez beat Magda Linette in the first round, but Alexandra Eala ended her title defense in the second round. Eala is chasing her career’s first title in the WTA 500 tournament in Washington. In doubles, Fernandez and Anna Danilina crashed out after their defeat to Xu Yifan and Tang Qianhui in the first round.

Fernandez hasn’t yet won a title this season. Last year, she lifted two singles titles: the Citi Open and the Japan Women’s Open, defeating Anna Kalinskaya and Tereza Valentova, respectively.

Also read: Greg Rusedski Blames Two-Week Masters 1000 Format for Jannik Sinner’s Canadian Open Withdrawal: “He Doesn’t Want to Burn Out Before US Open”