Content area
Full Text
Venus and Serena Williams stepped onto center court Wednesday in their second-round match in the Australian Open prepared to do battle. Not with each other, but with two deeply ingrained and conflicting teachings.
The first lesson their parents had taught them was to place family above all else. The second was, when playing tennis, to dispatch opponents with a cold ferocity. Thus, their much-anticipated match in the Grand Slam tournament was a situation the two precocious professionals were bred to savor and raised to avoid.
The teenagers managed to hold on to remnants of each philosophy by playing a subpar match and retaining sisterly concern. As is so often the case with family situations, the eldest prevailed. In tennis terms, too, the higher-ranked player won. Venus Williams, No. 16, defeated younger sister Serena, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1, in front of a transfixed capacity crowd at Melbourne Park.
The match, their first as professionals, had been eagerly awaited ever since the draw was announced. While the technical level of play was not high, the drama did not disappoint.
Such matches offer more between the figurative lines than between the on-court lines. It might have been an indicator of tennis' future, at least that's the way Venus sees it, a Williams one-two punch.
"I kept seeing Serena across the net," Venus said. "It was a little bit odd, but it is to be expected. In the future it will be the same."