Tennis: Williams sisters serve up pure tripe

By RONALD ATKIN

PARIS - Sisters do not play each other very often in Grand Slam finals, which is just as well judging by the standards of the bizarre French Open occasion at Roland Garros.

Yesterday it was the turn of Little Sis, Serena Williams, to defeat Big Sis, Venus, 7-5, 6-3 in 1h 31m and collect her second Grand Slam and a cheque for £475,000 ($1.42 million).

The match, eagerly awaited, produced 13 breaks of serve in 21 games, some brilliant shots and many more awful ones. Serena had 54 unforced errors, Venus 47. Serena hit five double-faults, Venus nine.

A kindly thought would be to blame nerves for the dreadful occasion, but there was no disguising that much of this showpiece was unadulterated tripe. As Serena acknowledged, "I wasn't mentally focused and we were both making a lot of errors. My dad would have been very upset at the way we were playing."

The Parisian audience, never slow to castigate below-par performances, were remarkably restrained, but from time to time whistles, catcalls, slow hand clapping and booing erupted.

At the end, when Venus called up to her relatives in the VIP seats for a camera to record her sister's big moment on the podium, the day descended into embarrassment.

As French Tennis Federation president Christian Bimes waited to present the trophy, the runner-up struggled to make her camera click. Then the winner's promise to thank the crowd in French lasted one sentence before dissolving into giggles.

The Williams girls are now No 1 and 2 in the world and will be seeded like that at Wimbledon, where Venus has won for the past two years. Just as their father, Richard, predicted when they were tiny, they now dominate the women's game, and rightly so.

But had they produced this sort of tennis earlier in the tournament, neither would have made the second week.

They had met eight times before, Venus winning five, including the final of the US Open last year. That, too, was a disappointing occasion.

But other matches between them brought accusations that results had been pre-arranged on their father's instructions.

Their first final, at Key Biscayne three years ago, looked cut and dried before a ball was hit as Venus won the first set, surrendered the second and took the third.

At least yesterday's final did not suffer that stigma. They were certainly trying, simply not succeeding. There was the odd thunderous groundstroke from Serena, a gazelle sprint or two from Venus.

But the standard of serving was abysmal, with seven breaks in the first set and another half-dozen in the second.

It started in the first game, with Venus double-faulting twice to gift Serena a 1-0 lead. Not to be outdone, Serena threw in two double-faults to drop serve in the fourth game.

After half an hour, only four games had been completed, and as they embarked on a game of six deuces (and one break point for Serena), derisory whistles floated down from the gallery. Venus held serve eventually, something she managed only three times all afternoon.

She extended the lead to 4-2 as Serena, guilty of a poorly executed drop shot which was dispatched, bounced her racket in annoyance.

Perhaps that was the stimulus she needed, since she swept the next seven games. The first set lasted 61 minutes, ending with a blazing Serena forehand winner and a raised, clenched fist. At least she won the set in style.

Any expectation that the second set would improve was banished as Venus was broken in the first game, wafting a backhand wide. Serena extended the lead to 2-0 with two aces, the first (and only) ones of the match.

More boos greeted another Venus service loss to love. She seemed to accept the inevitability of defeat without undue worry. She narrowed her sister's lead to 4-3 before Serena accelerated with the finish line in sight.

The final game summed up a deeply disappointing contest. Serving to stay alive, Venus netted a high backhand volley, watched a bludgeoning Serena forehand rocket past her, struck a backhand metres over the baseline to go match-point down and then put a weak backhand into the net.

They embraced, and the delighted Serena blew kisses to the crowd.

Venus acknowledged her poor show: "I have had better Grand Slam appearances. I try not to be sad about every loss because I don't want to concentrate on losses."

Serena found that suggestions she would have preferred a different opponent laughable. "It is better that I won against Venus because we both took home the maximum amount of money and points."

- INDEPENDENT