Saturday, July 4, 2009

Williamsdon

Once Serena won that first set tiebreak, you kind of knew the match was hers.
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The sisters were pretty evenly matched throughout the first set. Did anyone else get the feeling that the match hadn't really caught alight until maybe 5-all-ish, when they had a real crack at each other? It was almost automatic, the way they'd serve out their games to love or 15 or so. But then once the breaker came, it was time for somebody to step up. And it was Serena.
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In a way, I think that fight against Dementieva in the semis gave her an edge. Venus cruised the tournament pretty easily. Sure she faced some big names - Safina and Ivanovic came to mind - but she steamrolled them. Serena had some bigger tussles - Azarenka was tough, and then Dementieva was a friggin' mountain she had to climb - and I think it might have meant she was more in the right frame of mind. Not that one ever wants to question the amount of fight Venus has - she's a Williams, hello! - but I think Serena might just have it over her.
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I was pretty indifferent as to which one of them won - I suppose I might have had a slight preference for Venus, given that this is the one Slam she regularly does very well in whereas Serena does better all round - but I think we can say that the best woman won today. Serena Williams now holds three of the four Slam titles - the only one she missed out on is Roland Garros, and if Svetlana Kuznetsova hadn't got her in the quarters, who knows what might have happened there? I don't know if the legacy that the Williams sisters have left on the game has ever been truly appreciated - they've changed it completely. I used to think that their game was all about power and nothing else, but that's not the case. Just watching these two play... these girls have got some shots. Some serious shots.
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And then they backed it up to win the doubles, just like last year. Once again, the women's draw of Wimbledon was Williamsdon, just as it has been for pretty much the majority of this decade. No matter what one thinks of the sisters, one has to admire them for their sheer consistency over the last decade - particularly here, at this greatest of tournaments.
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Today's Results
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The Championships (Wimbledon)
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Women's Draw
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Serena Williams def. Venus Williams, 7-6 (7-3) 6-2

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