It was a match made in heaven, played by two young ladies who had been through hell. Venus and Serena met in a Grand Slam final for the first time in five years - five long years, filled with turmoil and sometimes tedium, grief and controversy, exile, moments of exoneration and exhiliration, with a fair amount of (bull) excrement flung into the mix - and from all sides - for good measure.
The last time the Sisters met in a major final - five years ago, right here - Serena Williams sledgehammered one of the bigger dents into Venus's reputation by winning on Centre Court for the second time in their family rivalry. If Serena won again today, to go 3-0 against Venus here, the claim that Venus ranks with the greatest grass-court performers of all time would have had a hollow ring, despite the four championship trophies she'd carted off.
Five years ago, it also seemed that the Williams family dynamics cast Venus as the Cinderella sister, and she galdly took on the job of sweeping the hearth and taking out the ashes - presumably after all those news articles and papers proclaiming Serena the queen of tennis had been burned up to make room for more.
Time and again, Venus talked about taking care of her "little sister", Serena, about how Serena - the baby in the family - needed the validation and glory represented by triumph on the court slightly more than Venus did. Often, Venus seemed to say those things with a slight undercurrent of wistfulness, as if somewhere it was written that it would be ever thus, and what sorrows or disappointments that might accrue for Venus were of the kind that she would never share with world. Meanwhile, many tennis fans were troubled or baffled by the complexities of the situation, and the way they appeared to influence the matches the sisters played against each other. Between Miami of 2002 and that 2003 Wimbledon, Serena won six consecutive matches, and only the last two went to three sets.
Although Venus and Serena had not played a major final since 2003, Venus won two of their three most recent meetings and seemed to signal that the period of coddling Serena, of letting the baby of the family rage on and have her way, might be over. In a press conference after the match, Serena was asked if she looked up at the family members gathered in the player-guest box, and, if so, what did she see there?
She replied: "Yeah, it's kind of hard to look up there because I don't know what they're thinking, like if they're gonna say, you know, do this or do that, c'mon, I don't know. . . I just really tried to gather strength from myself."
I took that to mean: What good are they, they're probably okay with the idea of Venus winning, instead of me - to hail with them. . .
I exaggerate for effect, but let's remember that this is a selfish sport; other tennis players have flat-out driven siblings clear out of the game with their dominance games. And at the end of the day, it isn't Serena's fault if she's been indulged and coddled. And that's what today seemed to be all all about, in terms of the family dynamic. It was time to deny the baby in the family - to send the message that as much as she is loved, it isn't always all about her. Granted, it's a fairly late time to send that message, but you know how tennis players are - old and wise beyond their years in some ways, babes in others.