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Saying goodbye again - Page 5

© Michael Cecilio

Williams versus Williams at the Grand Slam Cup
Venus Williams has never won a Grand Slam singles title in her short yet successful career. However, she has dominated the Grand Slam Cup for the past two years, reaching the finals both times and winning the inaugural event last year. This year, it was not meant to be, as she watched her younger sister, Serena, move ahead of her once again and take the spotlight away from her.

You didn't have to be a mindreader to know just what Venus was thinking when she watched Serena win the first Grand Slam singles trophy in their family. One could very clearly see the sombre disposition of the elder sister, and she knew that had she gotten past Martina Hingis in that tight, electric semi final encounter, she may have been the first Williams to win a Grand Slam trophy. Instead, Serena did what Venus couldn't do the previous day and that was beat Martina for her first Grand Slam singles trophy.

Serena has never been ranked higher than Venus on the WTA rankings list. But she is fast approaching her older sister who sits at #3 - Serena is #4. For the first time in their professional careers, however, Serena was seeded higher than Venus in a tournament. Organisers of the Grand Slam Cup seed participants according to how well they do in Grand Slam play, and Serena's US Open victory propelled her to 3rd seed, relegating Venus to 4th seed.

The seedings lived up to their billing in the final when Serena defeated Venus in fairly unemotional circumstances. For the first time in their careers, Venus fell victim to Serena on the tennis court, having won their previous three encounters on the tour. Serena had long been touted as the better player of the two sisters, according to Dad and according to other tour players, but faced the question of whether she was psychologically capable of beating her older sister. After all, it is the older one who is supposed to win. And it was supposed to be the older one who won the first major titles. Serena broke tradition as she clearly outplayed her sister, racing to a 5-0 lead in the first set, which she eventually won 6-1. Throughout the US Open, it was the difference in serving between the sisters which seemed to be the reason why Venus was a semi finalist and Serena was the champion. Once again, it seemed that it was the difference in serving which gave Serena her first victory over her sister, and the biggest paycheck of her career, winning an unprecedented amount of $900,000 for winning a single tournament.

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