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5: Serena reigns supreme Posted: Monday December 23, 2002 11:52 AMUpdated: Wednesday December 25, 2002 6:10 AM
It was the year when Richard Williams' boast that his daughters would dominate women's tennis came spectacularly true. And, just as Williams Sr. also predicted, it was Serena who emerged from Venus' shadow, beating her older sister in the finals at the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open to complete a memorable hat trick of Grand Slam titles. In Paris, Venus seemed content to let her sister hog the limelight, even joining the banks of photographers to get some snaps for the family album. Serena had won her first Grand Slam since 1999, beating her sister in straight sets, but as yet it was unclear that a shift in the balance of power between the two had taken place. But by the time Serena won her second U.S. Open title in New York in September, Venus was looking less comfortable in her new role as her sister's biggest fan. An emphatic 6-4, 6-3 defeat, following a 7-6, 6-3 win for Serena in the Wimbledon final, firmly laid to rest suggestions earlier in the year that the sisters, and their father, were dividing up the spoils. "Everyone has their year and this is her year," said Venus. "Next year could be her year also, I don't know. But I'm glad she's done well. I would just like to go home and practice and relax." Most tennis fans would be happy to see Venus rise to her sister's challenge in 2003. The pair has yet to produce a truly memorable match and occasionally still look awkward in competition with each other. Perhaps Venus simply feels less comfortable in the spotlight than her more flamboyant sister. Among the rest, only Belgium's Kim Clijsters, who beat both sisters en route to winning the end-of-season WTA Championships, looks to have any chance at all of shaking Serena's dominance in the near future. Meanwhile, Serena's next target is to complete the Grand Slam set by winning January's Australian Open, which she missed last season because of injury. Having already coined a term for that achievement -- "the Serena Slam" -- the 21-year-old will take some stopping. --Simon Hooper
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