Could Serena and Venus bring home three medals?
The Williams’ sisters are playing well again, and that is a good thing for America. As the USA is deep into a medal-count battle with China, the Williams’ sisters could definitely be a factor. Both girls won their second round matches today and they are on a path that could pit them against each other in Saturday’s final. If that happens, a gold and silver would be assured.
They are also playing doubles, where they are the seeded second. They just won the doubles title at Wimbledon, and together they have a combined seven Grand Slam doubles titles.
Tennis is often overlooked at the Summer Olympics, but in this case the US should follow it closely. If Venus and Serena can both stay healthy, three medals are definitely not out of the question. We know how talented they are, it is just a matter of their bodies holding up.
What do you think of their chances?
I think Vera Zvonarëva is going to win Gold in both singles and doubles. Vera is a supremely talented player, combining flairsome power with excellent retrieval-skills, and her form of 2008 so far is encouraging – she did have a slump between the French Open and the Olympics, but has rectified that with two good victories at Beijing so far. She has beaten both Williams-sisters in her career, so she can definitely do it here.
Vera beat an abdominal injured Venus who then destroyed her at Wimbeldon and has never lost to her again and none of the other matches have been close. Serena lost to Vera when she came back from 6 months away from the game in 2006, and has beat her soundly after that.
Venus destroyed Vera on grass, which is by far Venus’s best surface, and Vera was inexperienced on it at the time. It would be a different story on the Decoturf of Beijing, where Vera would be able to neuter Venus’s initiative with her excellent lateral-retrieval skills, and then turn defence into attack.
Serena struggled quite a bit against Alizé Cornet today, and her last two wins over Vera (since Vera’s win at Cincinnati 2006) have been a tight two-setter and a three-setter.
It’s good that Vera would have to play Serena (in the semis) before she would have to play Venus, because Venus was much sharper and more error-free in her second round than Serena was in her third round (those being the matches I’ve seen on BBC television).