Posted on 01/24/2003 11:25:01 PM PST by Bear_in_RoseBear
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Serena Slam or Sister Slam - no matter what you call it, Serena Williams is truly grand.
Williams survived an error-filled match to beat elder sister Venus 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4 Saturday to win the Australian Open for her fourth straight major championship.
Serena added the title to the French Open, U.S. Open and Wimbledon crowns she won last year, all against her sister.
This marked only the sixth time a woman has held all four of tennis' major championships at the same time, and the first since Steffi Graf in 1994.
After Venus slumped through four straight errors in the final game, the two hugged at the net. Serena blew kisses to the crowd and then slumped in relief in her chair.
Throughout the 2-hour, 22-minute match, Serena showed how intent she was on winning. Even so, Venus tested her more than in their previous three matches, which Serena won in straight sets.
After losing her serve for 4-5, Serena threw her racket.
In the first-set tiebreaker, she took a ball she thought was out and hit a forehand past Venus, who had stopped playing.
Then she turned on the line judge and shouted, "You just don't call them out, do you?"
After failing to cash in five break points in the final set's eighth game, Serena gave her sister a game point with a netted forehand and slammed down her racket.
Serena had 54 errors to Venus' 51, but beat her 37-28 on winners.
The match was played under cover in the Rod Laver Arena due to the extreme heat in Melbourne, where temperatures reached 108 degrees.
It might not be a true Grand Slam - tennis purists demand that a player collect all four major titles in a single calendar year - but the accomplishment is rare.
And to do it, Serena had to beat her sister, best friend and practice partner each time. The Williams siblings are the first two women in Grand Slam history to square off in four consecutive finals.
While the tennis wasn't always brilliant, the Australian Open final did offer more intrigue than its three predecessors.
There were junctures, particularly in the second and third sets, where both sisters chased down balls and slugged them with speed and power that no other woman can display.
Unlike at Roland Garros, the All England Club or Flushing Meadows in the series of all-in-the-family finals, there were a match's worth of long rallies, with brilliance from both sides of the net.
Both seemed to invest more of themselves emotionally than in previous encounters, with fists pumping, eyes rolling, and plenty of grunts on strokes.
And Venus took a set off little sis for the first time since beating Serena in the U.S. Open final in September 2001 - which was the first all-sibling Grand Slam championship match since the Watson sisters played at Wimbledon in 1884.
Now it's become rather routine.
"I never get choked up, but I'm really emotional right now," Serena said at the trophy ceremony.
On the verge of tears, she added: "I'm really, really, really happy. I'd like to thank my mom and my dad for helping me."
Venus, who at 22 is 15 months older than Serena, paid tribute to her sister.
"I wish I could have been the winner. but of course you have a great champion in Serena and she has won all four Grand Slams, which is something I'd love to do one day," she said.
"So, yeah, I'd kind of be just like her," she said.
Serena now holds a 5-4 career edge over Venus in major titles and also owns a 6-5 lead in head-to-head matches. Serena collected $654,000 for this victory and Venus won $327,000.
Venus had her chances early in this one. She served for the set in the opener, but couldn't put it away.
Serving while trailing 4-3 in the final set, Venus really showed mettle, fighting off five break points that would have allowed Serena to serve for the match - the last with a 120 mph service winner.
Serena held serve to go up 5-4, finishing with an ace and a backhand winner. And then she broke Venus' serve to win, with plenty of help.
The match's final four points went like this: Venus' backhand error, Venus' backhand error, Venus' double fault, Venus' forehand error.
It was an anticlimactic finish to an otherwise exciting match, and the sisters met at the net to put their arms around each other's shoulders and whisper in each other's ears. While Serena blew kisses to the crowd, Venus applauded with her racket.
This was the first time at the Australian Open that an entire women's final has been played with the roof closed. When Graf beat Chris Evert in 1988, the roof was closed during the match because of rain.
At last year's women's final, the roof was open with temperatures in the mid-90s. Jennifer Capriati and Martina Hingis escaped at times by taking refuge in the entrance tunnels. Capriati saved four match points and won when Hingis wilted.
Capriati also is the only player to dent the Williams sisters' domination of major titles starting at Wimbledon in 2000. She won the Australian in 2001 and 2002 and the French in 2001, but lost in the first round here, hampered by the effects of recent eye surgery.
It seems the two sisters will dominate the world of women's tennis for quite some time. Already Serena is ranked as the number 1 player (and Venus is no. 2)! And that is in singles. In doubles they are just as unbeatable.
Do you mean Tiger Woods? Or did that family have another great athlete? ;^)
Honestly that thread was one of the worst on FR, and just showed that even in a great forum like this you will find people who will make a mountain out of a mole hill, and even try to attach negative connotations to what was an innocent pic! Gosh, reading some of those posts i did not know whether to laugh or simply shake my head in shame!
Anyways to those sane freepers out there (most of us luckily, i hope) here is the photograph that had many saying Serena is the veritable incarnation of the anti-Christ). Sheesh, a girl tries to take a patriotic pic that shows her winning the cup for herself and her country and suddenly folks who do not know one iota about her start scrambling to be the first to call her traitorous (one even insinuated that she had been paid a lot of money to disgrace the American flag! Puh-lease, now that is being paranoid)
Come think of it i do not recall ever hearing such vitriolic diatribe even when some 'peacenik hobo' set an american flag on fire! There are so many worthy targets out there that are more deserving than some teen girl who was just trying to get a victory photo with her nation's glorious flag. To be honest with you some of the comments on that thread are only worthy to come out of the maws of democrats ...and it is a shame to find them within FR.
Anyways here is the pic of Serena being a 'traitor' to America and 'maligning' the flag because she was 'paid to demean it' by her daddy who is 'standing behind the camera smiling!' (Wow, i wish i had such great vision as to be able to see what is 'behind the camera.' I guess some Freepers must have potent preternatural powers of cognition and uber-perception).
At the very worst that flag sitting was just a faux pas. A faux pas in that although she meant well (she wanted a victory pic drapped in the American flag) she did not know that flag ettiquete has certain rules about sitting on a flag! However in my opinion she is much better than the faceless miyriads who will seemingly honor the flag (for example democrats at congress) yet have their hearts in the wrong place! By far much better. Serena may have been sitting on the lower corner of the flag (sheesh, talk about molehills turned into mountains) but her heart was in the right place.
If DU ever needed a thread to defame FR then they have it!
This thread is an example of what I call "pinch your nose" Republicanism..... stupid, mindless nitpicking by a bunch of old farts.
Serena kicks butt and I am proud to call her my countryman, as she has, once again, won a major tennis title.
Those of us who joined Free Republic back in the late 90's were outraged by the blatant disrespect and desecration of our White House by the "Penis in Chief" and his lying spouse.....that was worthy of outrage and vitriol...but this?!!!! A young woman who has dared to pose in front (or accidentally on top of a corner of) of our national banner???
Many of the bozos on this thread are the main reason the Democraps are still breathing.
Thus i stand with you on the part of the etiquette and decorum pertaining to flags. However i ask you to look at some of those posts on that thread and tell me if they were deserving. What the girl did was make a faux pas, while trying to be patriotic. I doubt she was 'paid' to deface the American flag ....but then again unlike some freepers i am not able to perceive what is happening on the other side of the lens!
What she did may not have been fitting accoridng to the rules of propriety and decorum ....but for sure she was not trying to be traitorous or doing that because she knew she 'was african-American and could get away with it.' She was just trying to be a patriot, but did not know that sitting on a flag would make certain people go into melt-down.
Never been to DU ....and thus there is no way for me to know what they said. Glad you informed me of their posts.
Secondly i stand by what i said. I think she made a faux pas and should have found a more appropriate way to incorporate the US flag in her victory pic.....however i also believe going as far as having people call her a traitor and all that is simply a silly mix of paranoia and blowing things out of proportion. It is that simple really. Sitting on a flag may be against certain rules of decorum ....however having Serena called a traitor who is probably being paid to malign the US flag is just going so far to the other end of the spectrum it is pathetic.
And i can say that and still respect the flag far more than virtually all people i personally know. Yet at the same time i am not quick to judge and call people traitors whenever they look askance at a flag!
If you object to what's being said on the "flag desecration" thread, why aren't you making your points there, instead of here, where it's barely been mentioned?
Let me answer that. First of all i got linked to that thread through this one, and this one also pertained to Serena hence the info tied in. Secondly there were many freepers who basically said what i thought on that particular thread, hence it would have been injudicious to add to what they had to say (and anyways that thread was just too saturated). Hence this thread ....and if you notice it was in reply to no.8 where the whole Serena'desecrates' flag thing popped up.
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