Venus and Serena close on calendar-year Grand Slam
The French Open may have seen Serena Williams’ hopes of winning a calendar-year Grand Slam in singles slip away, but with sister Venus by her side, the world No. 1 still has a chance of achieving the milestone in doubles.
Together, Venus and Serena hold all four Grand Slam women’s doubles titles after completing the set at Roland Garros when they defeated Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik 6-2, 6-3 in the final to win their first doubles title at the clay court Grand Slam since 1999.
They dubbed it the “Williams Slam” in doubles when they faced the media after the match, referencing what was dubbed the “Serena Slam” when the younger of the pair held all four Grand Slam singles titles after winning the Australian Open title in 2003.
The 12-time Grand Slam doubles champions may make it appear as though it’s all fun and games when they team up, but make no mistake about it, Venus and Serena are just as serious when it comes to collecting titles together as they are apart.
“You have to be really focused to play the doubles. I mean, when we're playing these matches, sometimes you can end up playing 13 matches [in the tournament],” Venus told reporters after the French Open.
“We're playing for the title, because it does take that extra focus and determination. Obviously when you win a point and enjoy that point with another person, I think that part is fun, because in singles you don't. You just go to the next point. I think that's the fun part. But it's all, you know, serious for us out there,” Venus said.
The challenge now for Venus and Serena is to complete the calendar-year Grand Slam in doubles, and if they can do it, they’ll be the first women’s doubles team to achieve this feat together since Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver in 1984 (Martina Hingis did so in 1998, but after winning the Australian Open with Mirjana Lucic went on to win the other three majors in partnership with Jana Novotna).
The next stop for the sisters is the All England Club, where their grass-court dominance has extended to winning the doubles title for the past two years, as well as playing in the 2008 and 2009 singles finals – where Venus won two years ago, and Serena turned the tables last year.
They may be the best of rivals on the singles court – make no mistake about it, Venus wants that No. 1 singles ranking that Serena currently owns – but in doubles the pair are right now also the best team in the world. The rankings show it, and so too does the fact they’ve won the title in the last four Grand Slam doubles tournaments they’ve entered.
With two Williams sisters on the same side of the net only seeming to double what is already a formidable degree of difficulty for their opponents at Wimbledon, it’s hard to see Venus and Serena’s hopes of a calendar year Grand Slam being dashed in SW19 this year.
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