Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.

As Serena Williams’ future is again plunged into doubt, her older sister Venus again underlined her tremendous staying power in the top flight of women’s tennis by registering the 700th win of her career at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.

Venus, aged 35, became the ninth female player in the Open era to achieve 700 victories when she beat Germany’s Julia Goerges 6-4, 6-3 in the second round of the Chinese tournament.

She maintained she was unaware of the statistic before going on court for her match and said: “I’m glad nobody told me before – I would have been a little bit nervous.

“It was a good match, a quality player. I had never played her before, so that was also an experience in itself. But afterwards I was thinking, ‘How long would it take me to get to 800 now?’ Maybe that was my first thought! But it’s been a great 700 wins along the way.”

The former world no.1 who is currently ranked 24th on the WTA computer follows her sister Serena who passed the landmark earlier this year at the Miami Open but has a way to go to surpass all-time match win leader Martina Navratilova with 1,442 victories. Chris Evert follows with 1,309 wins in front of Steffi Graf (902).  The list continues with Virginia Wade (839 wins), Arantxa Sanchez Vicario(759), Lindsay Davenport (753), Conchita Martinez (739) and Serena (737).

And earlier today Venus set about getting to the next landmark by registering victory no.701 by beating world no.10 Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3, 6-4.

Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.