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.

And even bigger picture, it’s 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.

More to come...