MySports Today

Venus Williams and Serena Williams will meet in the Women’s Finals of Wimbledon at the All England Club on Saturday July 4th.  It is the 2nd consecutive year that the 2 Williams sisters will meet in the Wimbledon finals.  Serena defeated big sis Venus in the 2002 and 2003 Wimbledon finals, while Venus defeated younger sister Serena last year.  Venus has won the last 2 Wimbledon titles and is bidding to win 3 in a row – the first time a woman has won 3 championships in a row since Steffi Graf did so from 1991 through 1993.  A Williams sister has won 7 of the last 9 Wimbledon championships.

The 2 sisters reached the finals in vastly different semi-finals matches.  Venus defeated top-seeded Dinara Safina in just 51 minutes – 6-1, 6-0.  She had this to say about her win:  “Oh, my God, this is my 8th final, and it’s a dream come true to be here again and have the opportunity to hold the plate up…  A fourth [of July] final – it’s so exciting.”

Serena saved one match point and defeated Elena Dementieva in 3 sets (6-7, 7-5, 8-6) in 2 hours and 49 minutes.  It was the longest women’s semifinals match since records started being kept in 1969.

#7 Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated #1 Dinara Safina in straight sets on Saturday to capture the French Open Women’s title.  She won 6-4, 6-2 as Kuznetsova swept the final 4 games to close out the match.  The #1 ranked Safina has had her ranking criticized because she has never won a grand slam event and is now 0-3 in grand slam finals matches.  She committed 7 double-faults and was near tears by the end of today’s match.

On Sunday in the Men’s Franch Open Finals, Roger Federer will be playing in his 4th consecutive French Open Finals match.  If Federer wins on Sunday, it wouold be his 1st French Open title and he would become only the 6th player ever to win all 4 Grand Slam titles.  It would also be Federer’s 14th major title, which would tie him with Pete Sampras for the most major title wins ever.  One thing going for him – he does not have to face his clay court nemesis Rafael Nadal who was ousted from the tournament.