Sibling smash:
Serena bests Venus to win
Wimbledon
Wimbledon, England - In
an overpowering performance, Serena
Williams bested her older sister,
Venus, in straight sets to win the
title at Wimbledon for a third time.
The 27-year-old Serena denied
her sibling a three-peat at the All
England Club with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-2
triumph.
The Williams sisters have
combined to win eight of the 10
Wimbledon singles titles this
decade. The second-seeded Serena
also had championships in 2002 and
'03. She lost to Venus in straight
sets last year in the final.
Appearing in her 14th Grand
Slam final, Serena added to her
championship lore. Including a
victory at the Australian Open this
year, this was the 11th Grand Slam
title for Serena, who has 34 overall
championships. She essentially came
off the mat to win Wimbledon this
year, fighting off a match point in
Thursday's semifinals to beat Elena
Dementieva in three sets, a match
that lasted nearly three hours.
"I feel so amazing," said
Serena during the trophy
presentation. "I feel like I
shouldn't be holding the trophy. I
can't believe I'm holding it and
Venus isn't."
The trophy is named the Venus
Rosewater Dish, which Serena held
tightly during the award ceremony on
court.
"She always wins," Serena said
of her sister. "It hasn't settled in
that I won yet."
The 29-year-old Venus, seeded
third at the tournament, was denied
her sixth Wimbledon crown. She also
had a 34-set winning streak at
Wimbledon snapped. It was the
longest such streak since Martina
Navratilova won 40 straight between
the 1982 final and 1985 final.
"Today she was too good. She
had the answer for everything," said
Venus. "She played the best tennis
today."
It was the fourth time the duo
played against each other in a
Wimbledon finale. Serena has won
three of those encounters, and on
Saturday she lost just eight points
on her serve the entire match. The
younger Williams also held a 12-2
advantage in aces and amazingly won
points on 31 of her 33 successful
first serves.
This was also the 21st overall
meeting between the sisters with
Serena grabbing an 11-10 edge.
Serena, also the runner-up here in
2004, is 5-3 when they've met in
Grand Slam finals.
Just like her sister, Venus
played in her 14th Grand Slam final
and was gunning for her eighth major
championship. She owns 41 career
titles and settled for the $695,000
runner-up prize, while her sister
took home $1.39 million.
Incredibly, Saturday's result
also marked Venus' first loss on
Centre Court since 2004.
Playing with a bandage on her
left knee, Venus, participating in
her eighth Wimbledon final, couldn't
maintain her balance on a few points
and clearly was a step behind her
sister.
Both players were dominant on
their serves in the first set, which
featured plenty of short rallies.
Venus had a perfect opportunity to
take a service break in the eighth
game, but she squandered the chance
by firing a return long despite
having her sister leave the the
court wide-open. Serena won the
final four points of that game to
pull even at 4-4.
Serena's backhand winner ended
one of the longest rallies of the
match, evening the 11th game at
15-15. Venus faced a deuce for the
first time on her serve in that
game.