Pics: The ultimate sister act on Court 5

WIMBLEDON – Venus and Serena Williams don’t often practice together – at least not at tournaments.

They may often hit at the same time (usually early in the morning), and sometimes they follow each other on court (Venus usually first). But it’s fairly rare.

No doubt that’s by design. Both travel with hitting partners, so it’s not as though they need to find another player to hit with. And given that both are so competitive, it’s probably a little thing they can do to avoid putting themselves in that situation against each other.

It’s probably why, after all these years out there, they remain as close as two sisters can be.

But sometimes it happens at Wimbledon.

Sister act at Wimbledon

Here they are back in 2010, when your tennis.life correspondent walked into the All England Club straight off the plane one day the week before the tournament, and began wandering around the courts.

Can’t even remember which court this was on, not knowing the grounds as well as we do now. It may actually not even be there any more. We’re remembering (vaguely) that it was sort of elevated and it felt as though there were several twists and turns to reach it.

They each had a coach with them. But that was it.

Fast forward to 2018, and there the sisters were on Saturday, hitting together.

The group of people around them has grown exponentially.

Venus, seeded No. 9, will play Johanna Larsson of Sweden in the first round on Monday. Serena, upgraded to a No. 25 seed, will face Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands (also Monday).