Williams’ Wimbledon: Third Time Charm for Venus?
Oh bother, they’ve done it again. We should really just start calling this tournament the “Williams’ Wimbledon”. Both Serena and Venus Williams handled their semifinal opponents in straight sets to book their third meeting in the Wimbledon final. The last time the duo was in a Wimbly final was in 2003. Serena won that title in defense of the trophy she picked up a year earlier, also at her sister’s expense.
This is five years later, however, and both of the Williams’ are playing at about the same level.
Venus ousted fifth-seeded Elena Dementieva 6-1, 7-6(7-3), and Serena dispatched surprise semifinalist Jie Zheng 6-2, 7-6(7-5). Anyone else notice the almost identical scores from the two matches? And neither sister has dropped a set en route to this final.
Both players have big serves. While I think Venus falls slightly behind Serena in the power category, she more than makes up for it with her height-induced range. Serena does hold an 8-7 career advantage but that statistic should be voided considering how long it has been since they’ve faced each other competitively. At the same time, just because it’s been years since they’ve been on the big stage together, it doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten a thing about the other’s game.
How disconcerting would that be? Knowing when you step on the court, the person who knows the most about your game outside of yourself is on the other side of the net. There are no tricks, secret shots or special formulas to whip out at a critical moment because they don’t exist in a match where the opponent already knows everything.
But – even though I’ve spent the last two paragraphs hyping up this match – I don’t think it will be amazing. I hope I’m wrong. I’m begging the tennis gods that I’m wrong, because there’s nothing better than a knock-down fight at a Grand Slam final. These are the Williams sisters though. Maybe it’s like having a double negative: too much firepower on one court really does cancel the other one out and leaves the crowd with a dud of a match.
