Dueling Sisters: Venus and Serena Williams to Faceoff at Wimbledon

It was beautiful to watch Venus and Serena Williams play today at Wimbledon semifinals. Superbly, both sisters defeated their opponents to advance to the finals scheduled for Saturday. Earlier in the day, the defending champion Venus defeated the 5ht seeded Elena Dementieva 6-1, 7-6 (3) while Serena, who has two Grand Slams titles under her belt, later defeated China's Jie Zheng at nearly identical scores as her sister's of 6-2, 7-6(5). The sisters will play each other on Saturday for the women's final.

Today's match had incredibly similar results for the Williams. They both won the first sets without much ado. Then in the second sets, their opponents put up great shows to keep the game interesting and lasting for quite some time. Each sister eventually won during tiebreaking faceoff in the second sets. It was amazing.

This was a historic day for tennis at Wimbledon. In its history, the Williams sisters have gone to the all England finals four times (2001-2003) with Venus winning in 2000-2001 while Serena won the 2002-2003 championships. Importantly, Serena beat Venus in those two years to emerge the champ. In the first of those two years, Venus had been the defending champ when she was unseeded by Serena. This will be their third sibling finals competition at this all England club, the most in the history of the sport. They had competed against each other at four other Grand Slams titles, with Serena holding a one win edge over her big sister Venus.

What has changed over the years that could give Venus her first defeat against her baby sister? Well, this time around, Venus is still the defending champ, but perhaps a more mature and more confident defending champion. In the women's ranking, Serena ranks 6^th while Venus ranks 7^th. The always outspoken Serena has also found other interests in fashion designs and movie acting.

But watching them play their opponents today gave a lot of hint as to what might happen on Saturday when the sisters play against each other for the Wimbledon Grand Slam. Both are great players with powerful serves, Venus with arguably better serve and Serena with arguably better returns. They are extremely competitive, with great deal of stamina to sustain them through the long stretch. What is obvious is that either of the Williams sisters is absolutely ripe to win the Wimbledon title. They are both hungry for it.

Venus is hungry to defeat her little sister who defeated her twice on this match. Serena is eager to dethrone her sister as the reigning champion and is thirsty for this major title which she has not won since 2003. What does that say about who would win? Nothing! Except tune in and watch for a great game between two extremely competitive and devoted sisters. Whoever wins will be a deserving winner.

As for their father Richard, who coaches the sisters along with his ex-wife, and who was by Venus' side as they watched Serena finish off Jie Zheng, he will not be watching his daughters battle against each other. According to Fox News, Richard Williams said he will be heading back home to Florida on Friday and will not watch his daughters play on television either. It must be a difficult yet rewarding position to be in, having your daughters be the first and second seeded in this esteemed sport. Venus puts the sibling sympathy in check when she said that 'it's every Williams for herself' for that one match on Saturday. May the best Williams win!

Sources:
www.wimbledon.org
http://msn.foxsports.com/tennis/story/8307770?MSNHPHMA