PARIS — First it was Serena Williams’ turn to overpower an opponent 6-2, 6-1 on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

Shortly after that was over Thursday, her older sister Venus entered the very same French Open arena and won by the very same score.

A bit like old times?

“It’s a little surreal sometimes, because it has been so long. They’ve both been out here almost 20 years,” said their sister, Isha Price, who was in the stands for both matches.

“It was nice to have them play back-to-back and not have to move,” Price added with a laugh. “It’s so interesting that their scoreline was the same. It was really nice to be there for that.”

Back in 2002, when neither was yet 22, the American siblings contested the final at Roland Garros, one of their eight all-in-the-family Grand Slam title matches – and they haven’t played each other at any stage in Paris since.

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That’s due in part to Venus’ troubles at the clay-court tournament, where, now nearly 36, she moved into the third round for the first time since 2010 by relinquishing only three games in 54 minutes against American qualifier Louisa Chirico. Defending champion Serena’s similarly simple victory against 81st-ranked Teliana Pereira of Brazil lasted 12 minutes longer.

“We’re unfortunately really focused on our match. And I say ‘unfortunately,’ because in a few years, we’ll be like, ‘Wow, that’s a great moment,'” the 34-year-old Serena said. “But right now, we have to be focused on what we want to do in going out there and winning the match.”

Venus agreed. “We focus more on the match at hand, and we both have a job to do, and that’s to try to get to the next round,” she said. “We focus less on the significance of us playing and more of like, ‘Can you win this match?'”

It would take three more victories apiece, but – on the half of the draw already missing No. 3 Angelique Kerber and No. 5 Victoria Azarenka – there is the potential for a Williams vs. Williams semifinal next week. They have not met that deep into a major tournament in seven years, although Serena did defeat Venus in the U.S. Open quarterfinals in September.

When it comes to milestones, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal both achieved notable ones Thursday.

No. 1 Djokovic became the seventh man with 50 match wins in the French Open, moving to the third round by overcoming 42 unforced errors to beat qualifier Steve Darcis of Belgium 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.


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