Moment to remember in Australia
WILLIAMS SISTERS
From the wee North American hours, it grew hard to process all the meaning packed in the goings-on from a Saturday night on a hard tennis court in Australia. Not only had one of the longest, profoundest stories in sports found its loftiest chapter, but women’s tennis had found its finest Open era player.
First, Venus and Serena Williams, all the way into these late 2010s at ages 36 and 35, played the 28th instalment of their enduring and groundbreaking rivalry — their 15th in Grand Slam tournaments — in an Australian Open final, giving them the rare chance to extol each other eloquently to a warm crowd in the aftermath. In between, when Serena Williams watched one last, dying ball fall into the doubles lane and harmlessly wide for a 6- 4, 6- 4 win, she both crumpled to the court and ascended to the top of the 49- year- old Open Era. Yes, there was all of that.
Venus Williams would hug her for a long time and then get to tell the audience, “That’s my little sister, guys.”
Serena Williams would amass her 23rd Grand Slam title, beyond all the teeming horde of players who have tried the sport since it shed its amateurs- only status in 1968. She exceeded Steffi Graf ’s 22, just as she had exceeded the 18 of both Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova and the nine of Monica Seles. Only Margaret Court’s 24, gathered mainly in the years before the Open era, remains ahead of Williams, who has seven Australian Open titles, seven Wimbledon titles, six U.S. Open titles, three French Open titles and a fresh, new stay at the No. 1 ranking she lost last September to Angelique Kerber.
Was it the meeting of the two or the feat of the one?
In the middle of the night, it was hard to parse it all.
For the five decades since the sport opened up to all, and Nancy Richey won the 1968 French Open, then Billie Jean King won Wimbledon and Virginia Wade won the U. S. Open, the sport had found its peerless player. She was the one her father, Richard Williams, forecasted would be the better of his two daughters, even when Venus Williams became the first sensation.
Nineteen near- eternal years after Serena Williams turned up as a 16- year- old and beat No. 6 seed Irina Spirlea after losing the first set, she had sailed through another Australian Open in 14 spotless sets.
Finally, after all the millions of shots, she ran down a short forehand and shoved it into the opponent’s backhand corner, where it would be hard to counter. When the reply did what so many have done through the years and floated out — did better than many, actually — it was remarkable, and then remarkable all over again that it came from the winner’s sister. Just processing that kind of thing could keep you up into the night.