The recent grand slam results for each of them speak loudly, starting with the quarterfinal exit by both Venus and Serena at the Australian Open. The sisters are still top 10 players who can go far in the tournaments, but it’s no longer a lock that at least one sister will reach the finals, or even semifinals of a grand slam event. Venus Williams expressed the same sentiment in her post-match comments following her quarterfinal loss to Ana Ivanovic. As Venus said, she and Serena are playing at a good level, it’s just that the competition is improving (and surpassing them, I believe). It’s also a matter of the two women being past their peaks, which is typically at a much younger age for women in tennis than men.
Usually at a grand slam event, one of them goes far, if not both. If one goes out early, at least the other goes farther, like to the semis or finals. I’m not saying that they should be pulling titles left and right — that is unreasonable. The reality of the situation is that there are several good, young players in the game today who can knock either one out. No, I’m not completely writing the sisters off here, but I will say it without a doubt, this Australian Open marked the definite end of dominance by the Williams sisters. I think I’m being fair when I say I’ll give them one more grand slam title between the two of them for the rest of their careers.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 and is filed under Tennis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I agree with you that their era of dominance is over. In addition to the reasons you’ve put forth, I will add one more; they no longer intimidate opponents.
That being said, I give them three or four more major titles combined, over the rest of their careers.
I also note that they both played the “injury card” after bowing out at this year’s Australian Open. It is amazing how they came into the first Grand Slam tournament “physically fit”, with everyone forecasting an all-Williams final, and they leave the tournament with undisclosed injuries. Venus had a leg bandage before the Ivanovic match after Serena went down with several nonspecific injuries.
By the way, has anyone heard the results from the Mayo Clinic, where venus was supposed to go for thorough testing after her defeat at last year’s US Open?
Where do they get all these injuries with all that time off?
They are still giving the appearance that they give a damn about tennis? Amazing.
It’s shame for the sisters but good for tennis overall.
The all-Williams matches we had to endure in the early years of the decade (dominated, as often as not, by the words of loose cannon Richard) were some of the worst ever. The year 2002 was particularly bad.
On the other hand the sister’s achievements have been considerable, not least in fashion and celebrity partying
Looks like Larry Brown and the other people posting comments here really nailed it on the head. Oh wait…I just saw that they just made it to the Wimbledon singles final, and won the doubles as well. Does that count as three grand slam titles, or just two?
I don’t think the Williams sisters were EVER a “lock to make the finals of every tournament”, so I don’t get the argument that they’ve somehow lost something. When they’re on, there’s no question they intimidate their opponents - Venus still has the biggest serve, and Serena hits the hardest ground strokes on tour (maybe Ivanovic or Sharapova is in the same class). I can guarantee that they are still on the short list of players who other players look through their draws to see if they have to play one (or both) of them. Stick to posting insightful comments about A-Rod’s marriage.