Tennis: Serena slams the door on Venus

As she made her way on to court for the Australian Open women's final Serena Williams sniffed the huge bouquet that had been placed, traditionally, in her arms. Two and a half hours later the 21-year-old American was smelling the roses as her self-styled Serena Slam came to pass with a fourth consecutive victory over her older sister, Venus, in a Grand Slam final, 7-6 3-6 6-4.

Now Serena owns all of the sport's major titles. Pedants were not slow to point out that all four have not been amassed in the same calendar year. Nor were Tiger Woods' quartet of golfing majors, and the same reaction is appropriate. Who's counting? Who cares? Serena's is a massive, massive achievement in a sport which has become faster and infinitely more demanding since Maureen Connolly landed the first calendar Grand Slam in 1953 and Margaret Court followed in 1970. More demanding, too, since Steffi Graf did it in 1988.

Having limped out of this event a year ago with ankle problems, Serena started her roll by winning the French Open, followed it with Wimbledon, and then captured the US Open (for the second time) last September. Yesterday's was the first of their five Slam finals to go the three-set distance but Serena emerged a deserving champion, as Venus was swift to acknowledge.

The other winners of a non-calendar Grand Slam are, again, Graf (1993-94) and Martina Navratilova (1983-84). In Navratilova's time the then president of the International Tennis Federation, Philippe Chatrier, had offered a million dollars to the first player to win all four. Navratilova, never slow out of the trap on such occasions, claimed the cheque after the 1984 Roland Garros became her fourth in a row. And Chatrier paid up.

In terms of the Williams sisters' joint wealth, a million dollars is chickenfeed. But there was no mistaking what the day meant to Serena. Accepting the trophy, she smiled "I never choke up..." and promptly had a quiet weep.

It is the competition who should be shedding tears as the sisters continue to exercise a stranglehold in what is beyond argument the greatest yarn in any sport. They even walked off with the doubles in Melbourne, the sixth time they have done that in a Grand Slam. The downside of such domination, as was evident in Melbourne, was that the crowd's support was polite rather than intense.

Venus, seeded second and the holder of four Slam titles on her own account, had marched into the final without dropping a set, while Serena struggled in the opening round and her semi-final against Kim Clijsters, when she came back from 5-1 down in the final set. They had split their 10 previous matches, though Serena was the winner of the last four. It was evens, too, on the fashion front for this final, with Serena's diamonds sparkling from ears and throat and Venus sporting a diamond in her right ear while from her left dangled one of those massive hooped jobs favoured by pirates and roosting parrots.

A searing temperature of 40 degrees meant the tournament invoked its closed-roof policy to protect all concerned. And all concerned were grateful, though Venus commented: "It's a little weird playing a final of an outdoor tournament indoors. It does change the mood a lot, it felt like a night match."

Serena, showing no effects of the blistered foot which had bothered her against Clijsters, took early command. Standing well inside the baseline to receive, and to punish, the weaker second serve of Venus, she broke for a 3-1 lead. So well was Venus' counter-attack mounted that she manufactured two service breaks of her own and served for the first set at 5-4. Rounding it off was beyond her, however, and when it went to a tiebreak Serena came out comfortably ahead, seven points to four.

In the second set Venus markedly improved her delivery, landing 71 per cent of first serves, and it paid off handsomely. The crucial game was the sixth, when she took the Serena serve on the fourth break point, running down a drop shot and forcing Serena to return her vicious forehand out of court. But Venus could not maintain the momentum in a patchy third set which saw both sisters tiring in the extreme heat.

Serena jumped into a 2-0 lead and though Venus got the break back her second serve was again under assault and when, trailing 5-4, she needed to hold to stay in the contest, it proved too much. A weak double fault carried Serena to match point, and Venus's overhit forehand ensured that one match point was all Serena would need. They embraced gently, for all the world as if it was simply another day at the office for the family.

Afterwards, Serena said that as far as she was concerned, the Grand Slam had been achieved. "Anyone would want to say that if they won four in a row, whether it was in one year or not. To win four in a row you have to be pretty serious." And now? she was asked. "Who knows? I'm just going to keep fighting, keep working hard and keep smiling."

Working hard is what Serena specialises in: "People say 'Oh, you're so lucky to have this.' But luck has nothing to do with it because I spent many, many hours, countless hours, on the court working for my one moment in time, not knowing when it would come."

She considered the Australian had been tougher to win than the others. "I had tighter matches, closer matches. Yeah, it was a little bit more demanding." Typically, she denied feeling any pressure at the prospect of four straight Slams, indicating her only uncertainty came against Emilie Loit in the opening round.

Serena was at pains to deny Venus's assertion that she had lost to an opponent who was mentally tougher, passing the honours back to her 22-year-old sister: "Most of my ideas I actually get from her, most of my fight and courage I've gotten from Venus." So the caravan moves on to Paris in the spring, where this whole sequence began last May, and Venus promised that next time she would try to do her bit for the family CV. "When we look back, we want to be legends and go into the Hall of Fame."