ESPN Wimbledon 2008

	V. Williams

In fact, they are wretched.

When Venus and Serena Williams met in the 2001 U.S. Open final, big sister Venus was victorious 6-2, 6-4.

Since then, Venus is 0-for-ever on the major stage against Serena. Venus has lost five consecutive Grand Slam finals to Serena, including the marvelous Serena Slam, when little sister won four consecutive Slams over two calendar years.

Much has been written but little light shed on the psychology of the sisters in conflict with each other. There is no fire when they play and each seems to go out of her way not to embarrass the other. Thus the matches have been tough to watch, almost torturous.

There are signs, however, that the long nightmare is over.

Case in point: Bangalore, India, back in March. Serena won the first set 6-3, Venus cracked back to take the second set 6-3, then the match was decided in a third-set tiebreaker with Serena prevailing 7-4.

This is an interesting juncture for the Williams sisters. Venus, 28, has won six Grand Slam singles titles and Serena, 26, has taken eight. They have slowed down from their prime years, but each won a major last year (Serena in Australia and Venus right here in Wimbledon) and this will give the Williams family a third title in the last seven majors contested.

The hope here -- and it is hope more than faith -- is that Venus finds a way to make this interesting. It's a parallel situation to the men's French Open final a month ago. Most people thought Rafael Nadal would win, but they hoped Federer would give him a go.

We all know how that turned out.

On Friday, the Williams won their women's doubles semifinals match. On Saturday, they will meet in the women's final. They have both been playing well; Venus and Serena have won all of the 24 sets they've played -- who would have believed that two weeks ago?

It says here that Venus will finally step outside of her role as caring, nurturing big sister and teach her little sister a lesson.

A guy can dream, can't he?

-- Greg Garber

	S. Williams

Venus Williams is the reigning and four-time Wimbledon champion, yet the statistics in Grand Slam finals tilt heavily toward her little sister. They've played a half-dozen times and Serena has won the last five, two of those at the All-England Club.

Yet those victories came in a cluster, the Serena Slam era of 2002-03. They haven't faced each other in this setting with all that's at stake for five years, and in fact, hadn't played one another in any tournament since then until Serena beat Venus at a lower-level event in Bangalore, India, in March.

With all that distance, the chemical composition of their rivalry could very well have changed, but we're going to say it hasn't. We never subscribed to that ancient and cynical theory that Richard Williams orchestrated his daughters' championships -- if he had, the Slam totals would be a lot more even -- but we do put credence in the rather obvious fact that it's an extremely tough proposition to play your best when the person you're closest to in the world is crouching on the other side of the net.

Serena has handled that challenge better than Venus over the years. Some say it's because Venus, as the older sister, couldn't shed her protective role. Some postulate that the baby of the family can more easily shift gears to self-centeredness when necessary. When Serena plays Venus, what she loses in intimidation, she seems to gain in birth order.

In this matchup, we're certain that family dynamics trump X's and O's. It's true that if Venus serves at her absolute best, she's pretty much unbeatable on grass, but Serena is better at bearing down shot after shot, game after game.

Venus spoke earlier in the week about the unaccustomed sunshine that prevailed at Wimbledon during the first 10 days. Serving into the sun made things more difficult, she said. Serving into the hard, glittery glare of her sister's eyes could be equally blinding.

-- Bonnie D. Ford