'Stopped years ago': Venus Williams spills on practice split with Serena

Venus Williams has explained why she doesn’t practice with sister Serena anymore, saying they haven’t hit the court to train together in years.

The Williams sisters are among the most famous siblings in world sport, with Serena winning 23 grand slam titles and Venus with seven of her own.

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With Venus at age 40 and Serena not far behind at 39, both sisters are well into the twilight of their careers.

Venus recently opened up about what it’s like playing alongside her sister on the professional tour for so long, revealing they no longer practice together.

“We stopped practicing many many years ago. We just like to work on different things,” she said.

“So in order for us to get our best practices we got to do different practices.”

Venus explained how the sisters like to focus on different aspects of their games and can never agree on what a practice session should look like.

“Serena likes to hit a lot of groundstrokes, I like to do a lot of other stuff,” she added.

“And also when we practice together we spend the whole time saying what do you want to do? Whatever you want. No what do you want?

“We don’t always hit. But sometimes we do, and those are the best practices.”

Australian Open ‘likely’ to be delayed

Venus and Serena might forced to wait a few weeks to take part in the 2021 Australian Open, with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews all-but confirming the event will be delayed on Wednesday.

“There’s a number of potential dates on the table. I've seen reports that suggest that it's likely to be delayed by a week or two. I think that's still most likely,” he said.

“But it's not the only option. As you know, the French Open was delayed by many months and Wimbledon didn't occur at all.

“I still think it's much more likely that it will be a shorter rather than longer delay.

“I don't want to unduly repeat myself but these are very complex negotiations.”

Tournament director and Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley on Sunday said the final dates for the Melbourne Park grand slam should be confirmed within two weeks.

Victorian Sports and Tourism Minister Martin Pakula later told AAP the event will “most likely” be delayed - but only by a week or two.

“We've got obviously a huge amount of complexity in negotiating with both Tennis Australia but also with the ATP and the WTA,” Pakula said.

“And then there's the conversations with the Department of Health and Human Services and Justice.

“So it's a very complicated set of conversations.

“I'm still confident we'll have an Australian Open and we'll have one in the early part of the year.”

The sports minister wouldn't be drawn on discussing the players' and their entourages' quarantine arrangements amid speculation the process may be shortened to only 10 days, other than to reaffirm that they would definitely be required to quarantine.

with AAP

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