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Williams sisters rule women's game Posted: Monday June 10, 2002 7:01 PMPARIS (AP) -- Venus Williams was so composed after losing the French Open final to younger sister Serena that she grabbed their mother's camera to take photos of the trophy presentation. Albert Costa was so unaccustomed to winning ANY tournament, much less a major, that he sprawled awkwardly on the court after the last point of his championship match at Roland Garros, then didn't get up immediately. "I didn't know what to do," Costa confided. "I said, 'OK, I'm going to rest a little bit,' because I was completely dead. When I was there, I was thinking, 'Did I win? Is it true that I win?'" The French Open only confirmed what's seemed apparent for some time: Women's tennis and men's tennis have two very different degrees of depth right now. Costa's 6-1, 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 victory Sunday over fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero means that for the first time in the Open era there have been four straight first-time major winners, following Goran Ivanisevic at Wimbledon, Lleyton Hewitt at the U.S. Open and Thomas Johansson at the Australian Open. Another sign that there really is an anyone-can-win-any-week state in the men's game - and no true superstar: The last eight majors have been won by eight players. In contrast, a woman named Williams has won six of the last 11 Grand Slam titles, while Jennifer Capriati has three championships in that span, which dates to Serena's victory at the 1999 U.S. Open. And consider this: Two of the last three Grand Slam finals have had one Williams on each side of the net. Serena beat Big Sis 7-5, 6-3 Saturday in Paris; Venus topped Little Sis in September in New York. As long as they retain their standings at Nos. 1 (Venus) and 2 (Serena), they'll be placed on opposite sides of the draw at tournaments, including Wimbledon. Which means there could very well be more Sister Slams in the future, and more days, such as Saturday, on which the Williams who's No. 1 in the world is No. 2 in her own home. "Serena Williams has, in my mind, always been the best tennis player," Serena said. "In my mind, I've always felt that I've been No. 1. But that's how you have to think going into any sport, or else you'll lack confidence." Capriati, who lost to Serena in the semifinals, acknowledged that "you've got to give them credit" for reaching 1-2 in the rankings -- but then raised questions about whether Team Williams' ascent has been helped by the sisters not always playing in the same events and by injuries to Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport. "It's just kind of funny the way it's worked out sometimes. You know: One [Williams] plays, one doesn't. I don't know. You would think maybe it was just a little more planning behind that," Capriati said. "But, I mean, if you really want your daughters to be 1 and 2, I guess everyone would kind of do that. But mostly it's just because not everyone is in the game." Richard Williams, who taught his daughters tennis and long predicted they would be 1-2 in the world, said Capriati "is always making excuses." "She should have come to the French Open as a specator this year," Williams, who has been accused of manipulating his daughters' schedules, told USA Today. "She was going to lose anyway, so she should have just come and watched so she could have figured out how to play Venus and Serena instead of looking at the computer game." Given their success against everyone everywhere of late, it's hard to imagine anything stopping the Williams'. The sisters are tied for the 2002 lead with four tour victories apiece, and their showing on the slow clay of Roland Garros makes clear they can adapt to any surface. For the year, Venus is 0-2 against Serena -- and 35-3 against everyone else. Serena's overall winning percentage is even better -- 29-3 (.906). There's no similar dominance in men's tennis, where Costa can emerge from three years of relative obscurity, without a tournament title since August 1999, and win the French Open. He came to Roland Garros ranked No. 22 and leaves at a career-high No. 8. Costa had played in 25 Grand Slam tournaments without getting past the quarterfinals. Johansson played in 24 before winning his first major title in January. There were other indications of the fluidity in the men's game. Both the defending champion (Gustavo Kuerten) and top-ranked player (Hewitt) were bounced in the fourth round, and 1999 winner Andre Agassi in the quarterfinals. Thirteen-time Grand Slam champion Pete Sampras, who's always struggled on clay, lost his opening match to Italian journeyman Andrea Gaudenzi. That stretched Sampras' slide without a title to 28 tournaments -- which seems rather short when compared with the 65-event drought Costa endured until Sunday. Costa remembered watching countrymen Sergi Bruguera, Alberto Berasategui, Carlos Moya and Alex Corretja play French Open finals in the past decade, and thinking: "If they can be in the final, why can't I be in the final? Why? They are not different, they are regular people, and they are in the final. Why not me?" With an eye to Wimbledon, which starts June 24, plenty of players must have been thinking the very same thing while watching Costa. |
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