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 Sunday, September 12
Serena adds doubles crown to singles title
 
Associated Press

 Results

NEW YORK -- For her encore to the U.S. Open singles championship, Serena Williams played some more tennis, and won another title.

This time, she brought her big sister along.

Venus and Serena
Venus, left, and Serena Williams dropped the first five games in the first set before catching fire.

Venus shared the glory with Serena on Sunday as the Williams sisters defeated Chanda Rubin and Sandrine Testud 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 for the women's doubles championship at the Open.

But the crown seemed to provide no great comfort for the older sister.

Venus was still showing the disappointment of her semifinal loss to Martina Hingis as her sister celebrated almost $1 million in earnings from the final two days of the tournament.

Serena joked about the tax bite on her prize money and how she should have talked about that with President Clinton when he called to congratulate her.

All the time, Venus looked almost glum.

"It doesn't help at all," she said of the doubles crown. "It never helps. I'll never forget. I'm bitter."

She sat quietly, chewing nuts as Serena talked about how wonderful it was to be a double champion at a Grand Slam event.

Serena is the more exuberant sister, anyway, so it was easy for her to get excited. Venus looked on with a poker face, smiling only occasionally, laughing once or twice as she talked about a mix-up in hotel rooms during the Open.

When asked about winning the doubles title, she said: "I love to win. It's great. I'm happy."

And then she went back to her snacks.

The day before, Venus was reduced to observer status as her kid sister won the family's first Grand Slam singles crown, beating Hingis for the championship.

When someone suggested that Venus had softened up the world's No. 1 player in the semifinals before Serena beat her for the championship, the older sister smiled thinly.

"I'm really glad she was able to win because that means that in a way, I also have a U.S. Open title," she said.

At least her name is on an Open trophy, after she and Serena captured the doubles.

It was not an easy task because the sisters had to play a doubles semifinal after Serena's singles championship on Saturday and then come back Sunday for the final.

There was no celebration of the singles title Saturday night.

"I had to go to sleep because I had another match," she said.

At the start of the doubles final, some must have wondered if the sisters had been partying. The sisters dropped the first five games in the first set. It was as if they had never met, never played tennis together, never took over the U.S. Open.

And then, quite suddenly, they remembered where they were and who they are. And after that it was just a matter of time.

When they were done, the sisters had won $1.5 million at the Open, $915,000 going to Serena, the remainder to Venus.
 


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