48 Hours: Oh, to eat breakfast with the Williams

By PETER JESSUP

Some of the best sport of the weekend had to be meal-times with the Williams family - a pity none of us was there to see it.

Sisters Serena and Venus ate breakfast with their parents, Richard and Oracene, before their Australian Open final and they all had dinner together afterwards.

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall. I might finally have been able to put to rest the allegation that dad runs the Williams show and determines who wins long before a ball is played.

Because the final, unfortunately, won't do it for some.

Commentators alluded to a lack of intensity. And the 54 errors from Serena, 52 from her sister, plus some lollipop returns from Venus that allowed Serena easy slams, allow that leeway for the uncharitable to continue sniping.

The fact is it all started with the sisters swapping rackets - Serena's explanation that the stringer had mixed them up - won't help. Too cosy, they'll say.

Venus looked suitably disappointed when it was over, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 4-6. She looked like the beaten finalist and there seemed nothing disingenuous when she said, "I wish I could have been the winner today."

As Serena cried and smiled at the same time, her sister commented that "I'm just trying to be like her," and both dedicated their game to family - a recently-deceased grandmother and their parents.

Spare a thought for their parents - they went to the Rod Laver Centre knowing they couldn't lose, but how could they will either sister to win?

It was undoubtedly the best final of the five they've played at Grand Slams.

It was in doubt until the 10th game of the third set and, for my money, there's no way the pair could have engineered it.

But the cynics will ask how come Venus' forehand deserted her so badly.

Venus hasn't won since the US Open in 2001 and showed nothing in Melbourne to suggest she will be able to better her younger sister this year.

Maybe the only reason she held the advantage that far was the usual sibling rivalry, the younger's inherent belief that the elder is faster, stronger, better.

One thing is for sure. There will be no stopping the Williams' march to glory this year. There is every reason to expect Serena to go on and beat her sister in the finals at Wimbledon, Roland Garros and Flushing Meadow.

No Martina Hingis, an ageing Lindsay Davenport, an inconsistent Jennifer Capriati. Kim Clijsters and others look a level below, able to steal the odd game when one of the Williams sisters has a cold or an off-day. They could remodel the tennis record books.

They're also sure to bring on a rash of big, black players. Richard Williams has admitted he decided he wanted tennis-playing daughters after watching a young girl receive a US$60,000 cheque for a tournament win in California - it was more than a year's salary.

Venus, 22, has earnings of US$2.5 million ($4.5 million), Serena, 21, US$3.9 million ($7 million) and the family no longer live in crime-ridden Compton. And they're smart, both working towards college degrees. It's role-modelling sure to prompt others to try to follow that path out of the ghetto.

The sisters appear to have grown out of the brash arrogance of their teens, when they were prone to taunts of the "I am the greatest" type. Now they really are the greatest. It's to be hoped they are accepted that way.

HIGH POINT:

For action, exertion and a great contest where the result was in the balance until the last second, you couldn't beat the finish of the Telegraph at Trentham on Saturday. Michael Walker timed his run to perfection, Tit For Taat clawing past Egyptian Raine and Fair Embrace in a desperate last 200m. Trentham looked a picture.

LOW POINT:

The expensive embarrassment of All Black Joe McDonnell's use of the controlled substance Salbutamol in an asthma inhaler without IRB authorisation. Thus is reinforced both the anecdotes about the IQ level of props and the suspicion the NZRFU's player management remains sloppy. You would hope world-class athletes were better organised.