WIMBLEDON, England, July 5 — Serena Williams has looked up to her big sister, Venus, since they were little girls on the tennis courts of Compton, Calif. Today, though, it was Venus who stood and cheered while Serena received the accolades.

Serena Williams and Max Mirnyi of Belarus captured the Wimbledon mixed doubles title on Court 1 this evening with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Mirjana Lucic of Croatia and Mahesh Bhupathi of India. Lucic and Bhupathi defeated Venus Williams and her partner, fellow American Justin Gimelstob, in the semifinals Saturday afternoon.

Though they both are still waiting to win a Grand Slam singles title, the Williams sisters now have three Grand Slam trophies in their cabinet at home, all in mixed doubles. Venus won the first two, taking the championships at both the Australian and French opens with Gimelstob earlier this year.

Venus stood in the stands in a white dress and white sweater waving and smiling to her sister after match point, playing the role of cheerleader for a change. Thrilled, Serena started a little dance on the court, and Venus joined in from her seat.

Serena and Mirnyi won the title despite having to play two matches today — they beat Paul Haarhuis and Caroline Vis in a semifinal earlier in the day — and despite the fact that Serena wore a bandage on the calf she injured in singles play earlier in the tournament. The injury caused Serena to withdraw in the middle of her third-round singles match and to cancel plans to play doubles with Venus.

Novotna Wins Again
Jana Novotna capped her marvelous weekend with a second Wimbledon title, this one won with Martina Hingis, rather than despite her. Novotna and Hingis teamed up to defeat Lindsay Davenport and Natasha Zvereva, 6-3, 3-6, 8-6, in the women's doubles final on Centre Court this evening.

Novotna, who beat Hingis in the semifinals of the women's singles and defeated Nathalie Tauziat on Saturday to capture her first Grand Slam singles crown, admitted that her head was still in the clouds when she walked on to the All England club grounds today.

"It felt different after last night's celebration," Novotna said, laughing. "I wasn't myself at all until I walked on to the court."

Rios Stays Put
Goran Ivanisevic was not the only loser when Pete Sampras captured the men's singles title in five sets this afternoon. At home in Chile since his first-round loss here, Marcelo Rios had been hoping to see Sampras upset so that he could claim the men's No. 1 ranking for the second time this year.

The ATP announced earlier this week that it is switching to a new rankings format starting in the year 2000, one that rates players based on their performances from Jan. 1 forward, rather than over the past 365 days (the new rankings will not be used for tournament seedings). According to that system, Rios already would be No. 1 in the world, but he needed Sampras to lose here to move up under the current format.

The ATP also announced several other changes, including mandatory participation of all players in the Grand Slam events and the other top tier events, which fall under the description of "Mercedes Super 9." Those tournaments also will receive greater emphasis in the rankings system.