Family Affair

The Williams sisters won the doubles tournament and played for the singles title

The Wimbledon women's tournament ended in absolute triumph for the American Williams family. Serena and Venus first won the final match in doubles, defeating Lisa Raymond (USA) and Samantha Stosur (Australia), 6:2, 6:2, and then faced each other in the decisive singles match. Here success was on the side of the older sister Venus - 7:5, 6:4. She won the British Open for the second year in a row. In total, she already has five such titles to her name. As for the personal relationships of the dark-skinned "lightning", the score of the meetings was equal - 8:8. Interestingly, in the two previous Wimbledon family finals (2002, 2003), success was on Serena’s side.

In Saturday's meeting, the debut went to the younger sister. Serena immediately broke and led 2:0. Then she was in the lead 4:2, but Venus increased her speed of movement around the court, the power and accuracy of her shots, turning the tide of the game. In the second set, the third game lasted just over a quarter of an hour - which is a very long time for playing on a fast grass surface. Serena earned a point from the sixth (!) break point, but then Venus made a return break - 2:2. Then the opponents won games on their serve, and this continued until the score was 5:4 in favor of the now five-time Wimbledon champion. Serena made a couple of unforced errors in a row, allowing Venus to earn a double match point. She was unable to implement the first one, since she was powerless to do anything at the reception, but the second attempt, thanks to another inaccuracy of her younger sister, turned out to be successful.

“The game took place in rather difficult conditions, as the wind was blowing across the court all the time,” admitted Venus. - Moreover, the gusts went in one direction, then in the other, and it was almost impossible to adapt to this. In addition, it is psychologically difficult to play against your own sister. There are no draws in tennis, and someone had to lose. If I had defeated any other opponent, I would have expressed my joy in full. And in this situation, my wild glee was inappropriate. I thank Serena for a great game. It took me a lot of effort to overcome her. I hope the fans appreciated the spectacle of our uncompromising match.”

The head of the Williams family, Richard, the father of two famous tennis players, was not present at the title match. He left Foggy Albion after the semi-final fights, declaring that the job was done. If we talk about the girls’ success in doubles, this is their first tournament victory since 2003, when they celebrated success at Wimbledon. This season, before the British Open, the girls performed together only twice - in January at the Australian Open and two months later at competitions in Bangalore, India. That is, Serena and Venus do not have constant practice in this tennis discipline, which does not prevent them from beating those who specialize in playing doubles.

Among men, the title went to narrow-profile players. In the final, Serbian Nenad Zimonjic and Canadian Daniel Nestor defeated Kevin Ulyett (Zimbabwe) and Swedish all-rounder Jonas Bjorkman - 7:6 (14:12), 6:7 (3:7), 6:3, 6:3. Moreover, the representative of Canada is Serbian by nationality. He was born in 1972 in Belgrade and until the age of four, when his family moved overseas, he bore the surname Nestorovic. With his current success at Wimbledon, Daniel has amassed a complete collection of doubles titles at major tournaments. He won every Grand Slam competition, the Olympics (2000) and the Masters Cup (2007). Zimonjic, also from Belgrade, played in the final of a Grand Slam competition for the tenth time. Previously, his track record included only victories in the mixed doubles (including with our Elena Bovina at the 2004 Australian Open), but in the men's doubles combination he achieved the title only on his fourth attempt.

The junior tournaments were won by Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov and Laura Robson (Great Britain). Tennis fans of Foggy Albion now have another hope that in the foreseeable future they will have the good fortune to celebrate the victory of their player in adult competitions.

Vladimir BORISOV