Serena too hot for Venus to handle

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Serena Williams can stomach her  sister’s name emblazoned on the singles trophy, she even  accepted the smaller room in their rented house, but she put her  foot down to snatch back the Wimbledon title yesterday.

Her emphatic 7-6 6-2 victory over 29-year-old Venus to  capture an 11th grand slam singles title on Independence Day  will not make any classic Wimbledon compilation DVDs, but it was  razor-sharp, ruthless and just too hot for her elder sibling.

Venus strode out on a sunlit Centre Court having not dropped  a set at the grasscourt grand slam since the third round in 2007  and relinquished 19 games to reach the final this year.

She seemed poised to complete a hat-trick of women’s singles  titles last achieved by Steffi Graf in 1993 but in the end she  was forced to play second fiddle in the 21st career meeting of  the siblings since they took tennis by storm.

Later in the day, as the sun dipped down behind Centre  Court’s roof, Serena and Venus teamed up to win their fourth  Wimbledon women’s doubles title, defeating Samantha Stosur and  Rennae Stubbs of Australia 7-6 6-4.

It was consolation of sorts for Venus, who has now lost six  of the eight grand slam singles finals she has played against  Serena, three of them at Wimbledon.

She had looked the more composed yesterday until the  first-set tiebreak, which Serena won with a sublime lob, but  then seemed powerless as Serena blazed away to raise the Venus  Rosewater Dish for a third time.

“I didn’t think about Venus at all today. I just saw her as  an opponent,” said second seed Serena, who walked in to meet the  world’s media wearing a cheeky T-shirt asking “Are You Looking  at My Titles?”

It is unlikely that smooth Swiss Roger Federer will turn up  wearing anything quite so brash on Sunday should he beat  American Andy Roddick in the men’s singles final and claim a  record 15th grand slam title — one more than Pete Sampras.

Serena’s next major title, if and when it comes, would draw  her level with fellow American Billie Jean King, who watched  from the Royal Box, in sixth place in the list of all-time  women’s grand slam singles winners.

“It’s unbelievable,” said the 27-year-old who now holds  three of the four slams. “I’m looking at the next goal of  someone like Billie Jean King, who is completely my idol. To get  to her level and have 12 would be even better.”

Venus lags behind Serena with seven grand slam titles but  would have had an awful lot more if her sister had not followed  her on to the tennis courts of Compton 20 odd years ago.

“It’s a wonderful achievement,” she said of her sister’s  glittering haul. “She’s played so well so many times. You know,  a lot of the times actually at my expense.”

The siblings’ previous three clashes in the Wimbledon final,  with the possible exception of last year’s tussle, failed to  really engage the Centre Court spectators who never seem to  quite know who to support.

It was no different this time.

Unlike Serena’s epic against Russia’s Elena Dementieva on  Thursday, when she saved a match point before prevailing in the  longest women’s semi-final at Wimbledon, there was no ebb and  flow, few rallies that really stood out.

I shove
The bish-bash-boom nature of the contest was almost entirely  without subtlety although the power exchanges between the  finalists did have a certain beauty of their own.

“I’m a shover. Some people push, but I shove,” Venus  responded to one question about her tactics. “That’s my  mentality. I have to just hit, and I can’t help it. It’s just  hard to change my mind.”

Serena pounced in the tiebreak, taking a 6-2 lead. Venus  saved the first after Hawkeye showed a Serena forehand had  landed just out but on the next point she was forced forward by  a low netcord and Serena fizzed a topspin lob over her head.

It seemed to crush Venus’s resolve and although she hung on  grimly at the end, saving three match points, she failed to  clear the net with a backhand on the forth and the title was  Serena’s again after a six-year wait.

“I felt like my name should have been there at least once  more,” said Serena. “At least I got in another one.”

Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia made  sure July the Fourth did not belong totally to Americans,  beating twins Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6 6-7 7-6 6-3 to retain the  men’s doubles title.