Venus and Serena: A tough (sister) act to follow

The Williams sisters arrived on the tennis scene in the late 90s and since then have developed into marvelous hard-hitting women. Not only do Venus and Serena possess the power to dominate in singles, but when they are on the same side of the net they are even more dangerous.

It may be true that they don’t compete at every tournament together, but when they do, they are one of the best doubles partnerships in tour history. For the most part, they focus on their singles career, both having exceptional success.

Together the two women have captured 65 singles titles, including 14 Grand Slam victories. Serena, the younger sister, has triumphed at all four Grand Slams already in her extraordinary career, winning the Australian Open three times, Wimbledon twice in addiktion to the French and the US Open.

While Venus lags behind in Grand Slam titles, she is nothing short of phenomenal. It’s evident that she’s a dominant force on grass, claiming four Wimbledon titles already. She has also claimed two titles on the US Open Hard courts, and fell in the other Grand Slam finals to her younger sister. Also, in 2000 Venus managed to walk away with the gold medal at the Sydney Olympics.

Even though some may argue that their doubles career is nothing extraordinary, due to their limited double schedule, in reality it’s one of the greatest collaborations of all time.

Together the two powerful sisters have triumphed on nine different occasions. It may not compare with other great doubles teams, but what sets them apart is the fact that they have been victorious seven out of the nine times on the biggest stages. As a team they have won the Australian Open twice, Wimbledon twice, and both the French and US Open.

In 2000 the sisters teamed up together to storm through the Sydney Olympics draw. They didn’t face much competition during the event either, only losing one set in six matches, in the quarter-finals against Martina Navratilova, and Mariaan De Swardt.

Being able to compete on any surface is a must in the game, and both sisters clearly have that ability.

If they would had competed over the years on a regular basis, there is no telling how many tournaments they would have won by now, or how many Grand Slams they would own. But because they compete at different events most of the time, and have been plagued by injuries, they haven’t had the opportunity.

But already this year they have been able to grace the court as a team again. They made a quarter-final run at the Australian Open earlier in the year, before narrowly falling to Zi Yan, and Jie Zheng.

They may not compete as much as other teams do, but they can never be underestimated as a duo. The statistics may not showcase how remarkable they have been, but nonetheless it would be hard to deny that they aren’t one of the greatest teams of all time.