Sibling rivalry at it's best! A Lesson from the Pros

I love Venus' last statement about her sister, in the article below~

Sept. 2008 at the U. S. Open

Serena Williams Wins Wimbledon 2009

Serena Williams serves during her victory over her sister Venus in the Wimbledon final.

Williams beats her defending champion sister Venus 7-6 (3), 6-2 to win her first singles Wimbledon title in six years.

By Chuck Culpepper 8:55 AM PDT, July 4, 2009

Reporting from Wimbledon, England --

Heightening a second, separate phase of Grand Slam dominance in a long and still-burgeoning career, Serena Williams won Wimbledon today and completed a Serena Near-Slam.Six years after she held all four Grand Slam titles at age 21 and fully six years after her previous singles Wimbledon title, Williams holds three of the four most coveted prizes -- and almost the fourth -- after defeating her two-time defending champion sister Venus 7-6 (3), 6-2, on a sunny, blustery day on Centre Court.

Her third Wimbledon title and 11th Grand Slam title came an hour and 27 minutes into a quirky match with funny bounces and inconvenienced service tosses, when a fourth match point found Venus ripping a backhand into the net. As Serena prepared to answer from behind the baseline, she instead fell to her knees and bent over backward in the elation of a wait curtailed, before rising to run up and hug her older sister.



"I feel like I shouldn't be holding the trophy," Serena said on court afterward in an allusion to her sister's five-title dominance here, yet her intent across the last 12 months has suggested otherwise.

Wimbledon 2008

Ever since a loss to Venus in the 2008 final left her reeling, she has blasted to a U.S. Open title, an Australian Open title and a Wimbledon title in which she became only the second player in the Open Era (after Venus) to win after running across a match point, the one she dug out in a 6-7 (4), 7-5, 8-6 semifinal win over Elena Dementieva. She also came within shots here and there of surpassing a French Open quarterfinal with Svetlana Kuznetsova that would have left Serena a favorite to win the title from there.

Venus wins the Wimbledon crown in 2008

Yet as Serena found her sister in a second straight Wimbledon final and fourth overall, she found a player whose tear through the tournament had been so sublime that it had extended her consecutive-sets run to 34. In a semifinal on Thursday, Venus roared through Dinara Safina in the most lopsided win over a No. 1 player, according to WTA Tour records, requiring only 51 minutes.


After 51 minutes today , Venus found herself embroiled in a first-set tiebreaker with an opponent considerably upgraded from the thicket against Dementieva, and one who beat Venus in two tiebreakers to win a stirring U.S. Open quarterfinal last September. Adding to her usual role of big-point prowess, Serena played exceptionally well in the tiebreaker, dominating most points and winning on a backhand lob that curled across the court and smacked down in the corner.


It ranked among the 25 winners Serena hit to Venus' 14 to go with the unexpected 12-2 edge in aces, plus the winning of 31 of 33 first-serve points.


"She had an answer for everything," Venus said on court afterward.