Tennis: Doubles win just the entree for Williams sisters

MELBOURNE - Serena and Venus Williams combined yesterday to win their sixth Grand Slam doubles title, an ideal tune-up for their fourth consecutive clash in a singles final at a major today.

The top-seeded sisters rallied from a set and a break down to win the Australian Open doubles final with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over second-seeded pair Virginia Ruano Pascual, of Spain, and Argentina's Paola Suarez.

Serena, who beat Venus in the singles finals at the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open last year, will be bidding for her "Serena Slam" when the pair meet in the singles championship match at Melbourne Park this afternoon.

"We want to dedicate this win to mom. Thanks mom, we love you and you've been there all the way and we'll be there for you, I promise," Venus said after the doubles.

The Williams had beaten Ruano Pascual and Suarez 6-2, 7-5 in the Wimbledon final last year and were 1-1 going into this match.

The Rod Laver Arena roof was closed minutes before the match when organisers activated the extreme heat policy.

The temperature at the time was 35C and increased to 37C, with high humidity.

It was a second Australian Open doubles title for the Williams, who won here in 2000.

Their other titles came at the French and US Opens in 1999 and at Wimbledon in 2000 and 2002.

Suarez and Ruano Pascual won the US and French Open titles last year and the French in 2001.

It was a good warm-up for Serena, who had 65 errors in her singles semifinal win over Belgian Kim Clijsters.

For the fourth consecutive time in the final of a major, her foe will be elder sister Venus, who beat 2001 Wimbledon runner-up Justine Henin-Hardenne 6-3, 6-3 in the other semifinal.

It will mark the first time in more than 100 years of Grand Slam tournament history that two women have met in four straight major finals.

"We love to play each other," Serena said. "Getting this far is just amazing for both of us, and I think I was a bit fortunate to get through, because Kim played a wonderful match."

Whoever wins the latest installment of the Sister Slam series will have a 5-4 career edge in major titles, and a 6-5 edge in head-to-head matches.

Serena will try to do what world No 1 Tiger Woods accomplished in golf during the 2000-01 seasons - winning the last three major tournaments of one year and the first of the next year.

Because the accomplishment did not occur in the same calendar year, some people did not consider it a true Grand Slam, instead calling the accomplishment a Tiger Slam.

Serena missed last year's Australian Open with an injury, and this is the first time she has gone past the quarter-finals of this tournament.

Venus reached the semis in 2001 but also has not won this event.

Looking to the final, Serena said Venus "is actually playing a little better than me at this tournament. I've just got to pull something out of my back pocket to be able to go on to the next level."

For Serena, how she returns against her sister's booming serve could determine the final.

Venus has already had one serve recorded at 201km/h - just short of her own world record of 205km/h, set in Zurich in 1998.

The stifling Melbourne heat could also be a factor for the players. The temperature today is forecast to reach 42C.

Surprisingly, only twice have their matches gone to a deciding set, both times in 1999.

The fresh conspiracy theory at this tournament was that Venus would not dare deny her sibling the Serena Slam.

It was felt that Serena was a relatively bad loser compared to the phlegmatic Venus, whose philosophical approach might well extend to wanting her sister to claim the four straight Slams she craved.

No man or woman has won four straight major tennis titles since Steffi Graf added the 1994 Australian Open title to her victories in the other top events in 1993.

Graf also is among three women with a true Grand Slam. She did it in 1988, following Maureen Connolly in 1953 and Margaret Court in 1970.

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Twenty-eight years after reaching her first Australian Open final, Martina Navratilova yesterday served her way into another.

Now a trim, toned 46-year-old, she partnered Leander Paes - a one-year-old baby when she lost that final in 1975 to Evonne Goolagong - to reach the mixed doubles championship decider.

It was a performance of skill and professionalism and one which rolled back the years.

Defending champions Kevin Ullyett (Zimbabwe) and Daniela Hantuchova (Slovakia) had no answer to Navratilova's and Paes' court craft and doubles acumen, the sentimental favourites running away with it 6-3, 6-1.

Once the muscular powerhouse of tennis, Navratilova now looks short and slight compared to the heavy-hitting giants of the modern game, but she has lost none of her guile and cunning around the net.

Volleying superbly and serving with great authority, Navratilova put herself one step away from a 39th Grand Slam doubles title.

The US-Indian duo face Australia's Todd Woodbridge and Greek Eleni Daniilidou in the final.

Navratilova quit tennis in 1994, but returned six years later to play occasional doubles.

The holder of 18 Grand Slam singles titles and 31 Grand Slam doubles crowns, Navratilova last won a major title in the mixed event at Wimbledon in 1995, teamed with Jonathan Stark.

- AGENCIES