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For Sisters, Now Is When Things Get Complicated
Venus, left, and Serena Williams talk tactics at Wimbledon during their doubles semifinal victory over Nathalie Dechy of France and Casey Dellacqua of Australia.
(By Alastair Grant -- Associated Press)
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"I personally want everything that Venus has," Serena said last week. "She wins a trophy? I would desperately want it. This is the finals of Wimbledon. Who doesn't want it?"
Never have Wimbledon finalists known each other better.
In terms of family dynamics, Serena, 26, is the baby who always gets what she wants. Venus, 28, is the older sister who comforts her when she doesn't.
But on the court, they are as equal now as they have ever been. Both swept into Wimbledon's final without losing a set, overpowering opponents with booming serves, thunderous groundstrokes and aggressive tactics.
It's the game their father taught them on the public courts of Compton, Calif., defying convention in this most conventional sport. Richard Williams's younger daughters didn't compete in the junior ranks but practiced against each other. Six Wimbledon titles later, the sisters still practice together and list their parents as their co-coaches.
Luke Jensen, who teamed with his brother Murphy to win the 1993 French Open doubles title, believes the sisters' pioneering route created an "us against them" mind-set that served them well in their early charge up the rankings. But that got turned on its head, he suspects, when they realized their childhood dream of becoming the world's best and found themselves facing each other for the sport's major trophies.
"What happens when 'us versus them' becomes 'us versus us'?" Jensen mused. "What happens when your greatest victory will be at the expense of the person who has been on your side?"
Richard Williams finds it so awkward that he flew home from Wimbledon on Friday, unwilling to sit through Saturday's championship.
"It's like watching your family fight each other, to me," Richard Williams said.
But their mother, Oracene Price, will be in the stands. So will their sister Isha, who predicts it will be one of their most competitive Grand Slam finals yet.
"In the beginning it was a lot more difficult because they were younger and obviously they both wanted it," Isha Price said. "They still want it. But there is a level of maturity now that maybe they didn't have before. They have both won here. Both of their names are on [Wimbledon's] Venus Rosewater dish. Both of them will go down in history."
