Home » Sports » Women's Tennis » A New Grand Slam Champion - Page 2

A New Grand Slam Champion - Page 2

© Michael Cecilio

Not only did she win the title, but she won a Grand Slam ahead of her older sister Venus. An outsider would like to guess that there are certain ramifications involved, seeing that the sister touted by the tennis world as the one to beat at this US Open was not the sister which won in the end. Of course, this is only speculation, but Venus was not crying tears of joy like her parents or her sister on the winning point. Nor did she look particularly happy with the outcome, and she justified this perception with rather nonchalant and even embittered statements at their doubles press conference (a title they won, but through which Venus could find no consolation). Not that she was disappointed to see her sister win a major championship, but she was probably disappointed with her performance in the semi finals (which, had she won, would have set her against her sister in the final and more than likely would have won the title for herself). Venus perhaps would have been happier to see herself become the first of the sisters to win a major singles championship, especially since the pressure really was on her to win a major, much more than her sister. And perhaps that pressure will escalate, now that her sister has won one, Venus MUST win one too to prove herself as a true contender for the pole position in the rankings.

Venus and Serena are incredibly similar in their dispositions. They are savvy and confident, almost bordering on arrogance (some would say that they HAVE in fact reached the heights of arrogance). They are also similar in their physical make-up and their style of tennis. Both are tall, powerful girls, who hit a big ball from the baseline, who serve just as big as the top men in the game, and cover the court extremely well as if they were 5'5 tall. But there are a few glaring differences. It seems that Venus has a number of technical weaknesses in her game whereas Serena does not really have a flaw. Venus's weakness has always been her forehand which still appears to break down in tight situations. This is contrasted with Serena's forehand which is one of the best in the game. Venus's serve also lets her down in tight situations, and does not use her biggest weapon to her fullest advantage. In fact, in her semi final match, she only served at an average of 85 mph on her first serve, which was only 2 mph faster than Hingis's usually powder-puff serve was clocked all night. While she has the fastest clocked serve in the game, Serena actually possesses greater variety on the serve, also possessing the ability to relentlessly serve big throughout a match and to pull out that weapon when the situation is pressure-packed. These little technicalities seem to be the difference between a Grand Slam championship and a Grand Slam semi-final appearance.

The copyright of the article A New Grand Slam Champion - Page 2 in Women's Tennis is owned by . Permission to republish A New Grand Slam Champion - Page 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.