Click photo to enlarge
Serena Williams, left, of the United States, and her sister
Venus hold hands after winning the women's doubles
championship over Cara Black, of Zimbabwe, and Liezel
Huber, of the United States, at the U.S. Open tennis
tournament in New York. Photo by AP.
Not much for Serena Williams to get worked up about this
time.
Two days after her profanity-laced exit from the U.S. Open
singles semifinals, she returned with her sister, Venus, and
rolled to an easy victory for their 10th Grand Slam doubles
championship Monday.
It was a 6-2, 6-2 win over defending champions Cara Black and
Liezel Huber and it couldn't have been more unlike the scene
Saturday night, when Williams got called for a foot fault
that triggered her outburst at a line judge. That resulted in
a point penalty on match point against Kim Clijsters, and an
ugly departure from the singles semifinal.
About a half-hour before the doubles match began, Williams
issued an apology for the evening's events, saying she is "a
woman of great pride, faith and integrity, and I admit when
I'm wrong."
She received a $10,000 fine on Sunday.
She and Venus will split a $420,000 winner's check for their
first U.S. Open title since 1999.
Patrick McEnroe conducted the post-match interview on court
and Williams sounded contrite but didn't apologise.
"I'd like to thank the fans for supporting me through
everything," she said to applause from a few thousand fans at
Arthur Ashe Stadium.
"I really, really love you guys and never want to have a bad
image for you guys."
McEnroe asked two follow-up questions, but was interrupted by
booing on the second one, as he tried to ask her "what
clicked" in her mind over the past 48 hours to trigger the
apology, which came a day after she'd issued a first
statement that didn't include one. Big sister Venus stepped
in.
"I think what the crowd is saying is, 'Patrick, let's move
on,'" Venus said.
If her tennis was any indication, Serena has moved on.
There was a noticeable bit of green this time between her
foot and the line when she got ready to serve in the third
game. No foot faults were called.
The only interaction with the officials in this one came in
the first set, when Black hit a ball toward the sideline to
the left of the chair umpire, who hesitated briefly before
overruling the linesperson and calling the ball out.
Venus and Serena both pointed to the line, indicating they
had seen it in. But even though they were trying to do the
right thing, the call stood.
Other than that, this was as routine as it gets.
The Williamses broke Black all four times she served - twice
in the first set and twice in the second - and finished the
tournament losing a grand total of one set over six matches.
"I think you can see it," Huber said.
"They're bigger and stronger than us. They served bigger than
us and you could see it all today."
