Venus Williams turned back the clock to defeat her sister Serena for the first time since 2009 and reach her biggest final in four years.
The older Williams star needed two hours and one minute to take out Serena 6-7 (2), 6-2, 6-3 in the semi-finals in Montreal to make her first final at a WTA Premier 5 since she reached the same stage in Madrid in 2010.
It was also Venus’ first win over a reigning world No1 since she beat Dinara Safina in the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2009 and it represented her 11th victory in 25 meetings with her sibling.
Serena, who was on a 14-match winning streak at the Rogers Cup, hadn’t lost to Venus since their semi-final in Dubai five years ago and was looking to build on her title run in Stanford last week.
But the world No1 was taken aback by her sister’s aggression early on, getting broken in the opening game of the match and went on to trail 1-3.
Still Serena struck back to force a tiebreak, which she blasted through to take a one-set lead.
Venus broke twice in the second set to level the match and she broke in the sixth game of the third to put one foot in the final. It was all the 34-year-old needed to advance though as she remained calm and collected en route to victory.
Serena fired 35 winners including 19 aces but she also struck 32 unforced errors.
“The level of game we played was pretty high,” said Venus, who will return to the top-20 when the new rankings are announced tomorrow.
“We’re both serving well, returning well, moving well – everything is happening so well that all of our matches seem to be very competitive.”
Venus has been close to her best all week, taking out in-form players like Angelique Kerber and Carla Suarez Navarro, and although she had never won a match in Canada prior to this week and is making her Montreal debut, the American looked at home as she powered into her 74th career final.
She is now gunning for a second title of the season, having won at the Premier Mandatory event in Dubai earlier this year.
Asked about the secret behind her resurgence in 2014, Venus said: “I think a lot of it is physical and a lot of it is mental, too,” she said. “I’ve been working hard. And more importantly, I’ve been feeling better. I hope I can keep some of this control in my life – if I have that control, I can enjoy being on the court, and I can win as well.”
