Williams sisters wow fans in Wimbledon ladies final
July 6, 2008
Going into the [tag-tec]ladies Wimbledon final for 2008[/tag-tec] some of the cynics were saying the final would be decided not on the court but in the Williams family discussions. They had the audacity to insult the competitive spirit of Venus and [tag-tec]Serena Williams[/tag-tec] and say the winner would be hand picked.
Thankfully after watching the final it was clear that the title was on the line and it would be decided by the better player on the day.
Right from the first game Serena was out to show she was the one to take the 2008 title. She broke Venus in the first opening game and then maintained that advantage until Venus hit back at 3-4 to break her little sister to level the scores at 4-4.
Watching the game was a treat. Both players were hitting the ball unbelievably well and the court cover of Venus was a feature. When she is fit and healthy there probably is not a better mover in the women’s game.
Venus was now playing at a high level and Serena had to work hard to stay with her. If Serena was playing anyone else on the tour she probably would have been winning comfortably such was the level of her play. Her one problem was that big sis was not giving in.
At 5-5 in the first set Venus made her move. She broke Serena’s serve to move to a 6-5 lead. She was now serving for the first set. A few errors had now crept into Serena’s game and this helped Venus to set point.
We then saw an interesting thing as Serena conceded a point to Venus to give her the set. Serena had hit a shot she thought was going wide. She let a scream that distracted Venus. She then decided to just concede the point.
The first ended with Serena hitting 19 winners and making just 6 unforced errors. Venus had 14 winners to 6 unforced errors. It would have been hard for Serena to imagine playing so well yet still losing the set.
The second set started with Serena having a chance to break early. She could not convert in that game however in the next service game from Venus she pushed hard to get the break. It was a huge effort that took 7 break points before she converted. In the end it took a fall by Venus to get the break.
We were seeing some great tennis. The Williams girls were going all out to claim the Wimbledon ladies title for 2008.
Venus was not letting Serena get ahead in the match and broke back immediately to level the scores at 2-2. From there she slowly worked her way to the moment where she had match point. Another break came and then at 5-4 she was serving for the match. A wide shot be Serena and it was over.
Venus took the match 7-5, 6-4. Her celebrations were subdued out of respect for her little sister. Venus had now claimed Wimbledon ladies title no. 5 to be third on the all time list in the open era. Martina Navratilova leads the way with 9 singles titles, Graf has 7.
To make her day even more memorable [tag-tec]Venus Williams[/tag-tec] later teamed up with Serena to easily win the ladies doubles title winning 6-2, 6-2 over Lisa Raymond and Sam Stosur.
The Williams girls are back. If the draw works in their favor I can see another all Williams final at the US Open later this year.
Before then the next big event on the tennis calendar will be the Beijing Olympic tennis tournament. I am lucky enough to have tickets to this event and can’t wait to share this experience with you.
Will Rafa dethrone Roger in the Wimbledon final?
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