Williams sisters dominate in doubles
Pritha Sarkar
Venus and Serena Williams completed their domination of this year's Wimbledon in ruthless fashion on Sunday by adding the women's doubles crown to their bulging trophy cabinet.
Not satisfied with leaving the rest of the women in the singles draw empty handed and in their wake, the sisters have now weaved their brand of power tennis to bulldoze through the doubles draw and pick up their second pairs' title over the last three years.
Just a day after Serena beat elder sister Venus in the women's final -- the first sisters to contest the Wimbledon final since Maud beat Lilian in the inaugural contest in 1884 -- the Americans teamed up to throttle the challenge of Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez of Argentina 6-2 7-5 in the doubles final.
"We've had a great six weeks with the French Open and Wimbledon but we realise that doesn't make a career," said Venus, who also came off second best to Serena in the French Open final last month. "We want to just keep our level up and also want to improve."
Serena, who defeated Venus in two sets on Saturday, was the weak link in the doubles final as she dropped her serve twice during the one hour 20 minutes match, compared to just once for Venus.
In cold and blustery conditions on Centre Court, Serena struggled with her service rhythm and often had to count on Venus to get her out of trouble.
"I was a little tight today going out there," said Serena, who will become the world number one when the new rankings are issued on Monday .
"Venus really had to calm me down and said 'you know just calm down and enjoy the battle'.
"I just didn't want to let Venus down.
"I didn't want to miss too many returns because it's okay in singles to let yourself down but to let someone else down, it's not fair."
For their effort over the fortnight, the sisters walk away with a combined purse of 923,250 pounds ($1.40 million).
The Williams also become the first singles finalists to pair up to capture the women's doubles crown at the same championships since their fellow black American Althea Gibson and Darlene Hard achieved the feat in 1957.
