Posted on: Saturday, September 8, 2001
Williams sisters in U.S. Open final
By Steven Wine
Associated Press
NEW YORK — This much is certain, as their proud father noted, "A Williams is going to win" the U.S. Open today.
Venus and Serena Williams advanced to the final with stunning ease, beating the world's two top-ranked players and setting up the first Grand Slam final between sisters in 117 years.
Serena won first yesterday, clubbing one last service winner on match point and happily skipping to the net. Barely two hours later, Venus closed out her own semifinal victory and celebrated with her trademark wave and pirouette.
"All my life I've been waiting for this," said their mercurial father and coach, Richard Williams. "And now it can happen."
The pairing is no surprise — Serena won the Open in 1999, and defending champion Venus has won three of the past five major titles. More remarkable was how they waltzed into the final by humbling the world's two top-ranked players.
Serena played almost flawless tennis in beating No. 1 Martina Hingis, 6-3, 6-2.
Venus then wore down No. 2 Jennifer Capriati, 6-4, 6-2.
"It's sweet. It's sweet. Just real nice, had a lot of blessings from God, and we're happy that we're healthy, and we're happy to be here," said Venus, 21.
"It will be great history," added Serena, 19. "We just go out and work hard. Good things come to hard workers, like the ants."
Super Saturday will also include a rematch of the 2000 men's final, with a recently rejuvenated Pete Sampras trying to avenge his loss to Russian Marat Safin in the semifinals. Another Russian, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, will play Australian Lleyton Hewitt for the other final berth.
Then the sisters, also best friends, will take the stage for the first prime-time Grand Slam women's final. It's the latest, most dramatic achievement in their remarkable rise from the mean streets of Compton, Calif., to magazine-cover celebrity.
"All my life I've been waiting for this," their father said. "And now it can happen."
Venus has won four of five times when the sisters have played each other, including the 2000 Wimbledon semifinal when they embraced afterward at the net and Serena walked off in tears.
Venus had the tougher match yesterday against Capriati, who has done wonders for the game's popularity herself with a resurgence that included back-to-back Grand Slam titles this year.
As her barrettes and groundstrokes sparkled in the sunshine, Capriati raced to a 4-1 lead, but soon shadows crept across the court and the sparkle was gone. Williams, repeatedly picking on Capriati's backhand to win long, grueling points, swept seven consecutive games to take command.
The crowd was firmly behind Capriati, erupting in boos when a close call went against her in the final game of the first set. But at the end they applauded the second Williams win of the day.
Capriati fell to 0-4 against Venus.
"I definitely ran out of gas," Capriati said. "It's the first match that I really had to run down a lot of balls and work the point so much every point."
The Williams sisters play an overpowering style of tennis that Maud and Lillian Watson probably wouldn't recognize. The Watsons took part in the only previous Grand Slam final between sisters at Wimbledon in 1884, and Maud rallied to win the first major tournament title.
