Venus Williams and Leylah Fernandez storm into US Open doubles quarterfinals

Venus Williams and Leylah Fernandez have been lighting up the courts of the US Open this year with their run through the doubles draw, and they kept it going on Monday evening.

The American-Canadian duo are into the quarterfinals of the last Grand Slam tournament of the season after a 6-3, 6-4 third-round upset of No. 12 seeds Ekaterina Alexandrova and Zhang Shuai.

They had already taken out No. 6 seeds Lyudmyla Kichenok and Ellen Perez in the first round, 7-6 (4), 6-3, and haven’t dropped a set in any of their three wins to reach the last eight.

It’s the pair’s first time playing doubles together.

For Venus, this run is definitely a renaissance of sorts.

It’s her first Grand Slam doubles quarterfinal since Wimbledon in 2016, when she and Serena won the title—it was actually their 14th and most recent Grand Slam doubles title together.

It’s also her first US Open doubles quarterfinal since 2014, when she and Serena fell at the last-eight stage to Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, who went on to win the title that year.

Venus was asked in her post-match press about what playing doubles with Serena meant to her throughout her career.

"Doubles was very important to us," she said. "We focused always playing at the majors because we wanted the major titles. We didn't play very often in tour events. We would only play tour events so we could warm up so we'd play well at the majors. And we wanted the Olympic golds, too. So doubles has been a huge part of our career because those were titles that, you know, they have your name by them and that's a wonderful feeling.

"Also, to be in the Olympics and play for your country and just to compete at all is amazing. Those were honors for us. We wanted to really show up huge for that. Doubles has been really pivotal.

"Now it's an interesting way to start playing doubles again, right? So sometimes it's the place to start and the place to finish, too."

Even bigger picture, this is Venus' first Grand Slam quarterfinal in any discipline—singles, doubles or mixed—since the 2017 US Open, when she reached the semifinals in singles, falling to Sloane Stephens, who went on to capture her first major title.

Up next for the Williams-Fernandez duo will be the No. 1 seeds, Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, who won their third-round match later on Monday, 6-2, 6-2, against Colombian-Chinese pair Camila Osorio and Yuan Yue.

The quarterfinal clash will take place on Louis Armstrong Stadium, not before 4pm local time.