It Seems Sisters Are Taking It for Themselves, Again

By Brian Dick

The Williams sisters will hope the seas of women’s tennis continue to part at their feet this afternoon when they take the latest step towards yet another Wimbledon final showdown.

The American siblings are now just two matches from a third meeting on the most illustrious stage in world tennis after yesterday coming through fourth round ties that might have looked tricky on paper yet proved anything but on grass.

And with the top four seeds dispatched to various points of the globe, very little now stands between the Venus and Serena and their first Grand Slam final in five years.

Neither has lost a set in reaching the quarter finals, nor have either of them played especially well thus far but with all of the other leading challengers taking to the surface with all the comfort of a fish and the first signs of the Williams’s games coming back to their best, it is difficult to see anything other than this Saturday’s final being a family affair.

Having breezed through 6-3, 6-4 against Alisa Kleybanova Venus, the elder by 15 months, now faces Tanasugarn a player making her first appearance in the last eight of a major. Beyond that a potential meeting with Elena Dementieva or Nadia Petrova would not fill the defending champion with anything other than keen anticipation.

Serena strolled, and grunted, her past compatriot Bethanie Mattek yesterday, the 6-3, 6-3 scoreline demonstrating perfectly how easily Mattek was overpowered. The 26-year-old now faces Agnieszka Radwanska in her quarter final and neither potential semi final opponent Jie Zheng nor Nicole Vaidisova, well though they have played to get this far, are capable of beating the rather inappropriately named double champion who treats challenges to her supremacy with all the serenity of a steam-roller.

The prospect of another sister act does not fill may neutrals with joy, however. They met here in the final in 2002 and 2003, both of which were won by the younger sibling and produced a featureless spectacle of thunderous ground-strokes and even louder shrieking.

It would be wrong to suggest, as some have tried, there is any collusion between two competitors who are so close off the court but the maxim that the best boxing matches are made by fighters with contrasting styles, holds true in tennis too.

From an entertainment point of view the sisters’ biggest problem is that they have been coached by the same man, their father Richard, and have almost identical styles. While Serena tried to argue after her victory over Mattek that they have very different games, she was unable to do so with any conviction.

“I think Venus hits the serve harder than I do – though I’ve tied her record,” she said.

“We both run fast. I play more trick shots and I don’t hit as hard as V.” There you have it, totally different.

Both tried to play the Next Match in Front of Me card yesterday, which Venus did only slightly more convincingly, though Serena allowed herself to be drawn on what it’s like to play a family member for such a coveted title.

“I feel good that I’m in the final, then I don’t feel so good because I’m playing probably the toughest player in the draw for me,” she said.

The pair met most recently in March and produced a three-set match that resulted in victory for Serena and an 8-7 lead in matchups.

Mercifully their encounters have become rather more sporadic in recent years.

Outside interests, motivational and injury issues mean that encounter was the first for three years. Serena also leads the way in Slams won too, 7-6, though there is no doubt who has fared better at Wimbledon with Venus 11th on the all time list with four titles in seven years.

To gain a fifth she must avoid the disease that has destroyed so many seeds this tournament.

Once she’s done that, she’ll leave aesthetic misgivings to others. “I’m not really worried about that. It is not my concern

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