Family Ties Have Higher Net Value

The issues at hand run too deep to be settled with tennis rackets. The proper setting would have been a family therapist’s office, not the All England Club’s fabled Centre Court.

Certain matters have to be reaffirmed, a natural order must be followed.

Venus Williams is 20, her sister Serena is 18--the youngest of five Williams girls.

Twenty and 18. Those were the numbers that mattered most in the Wimbledon sibling semifinal match.

It didn’t matter that Serena had lost only 13 games through her first five matches of the tournament or that oddsmakers and such knowledgeable tennis experts as Martina Navratilova and Andre Agassi picked her to win.

Venus is older, and Thursday she was cooler, more accurate and more consistent throughout her 6-2, 7-6 (3) victory.

So perhaps there are some psychological reasons behind this statistical trend: The older sister has won 20 of the 24 sibling showdowns on the WTA tour since 1971--including four victories for Venus in five matches against Serena.

“Mentally, I think it might be tougher for the younger one to beat the older one,” said Lindsay Davenport, who will face Venus in the final Saturday. “That goes for things outside tennis. I have two older sisters. It’s tough to do better than them in whatever you do. That’s just from my experience with my sisters.”

They can spend all afternoon trying to beat each other’s brains in, but at the end of the day they’re still family. That’s why the most memorable image came after the match, as the Williams sisters were walking off the court and Venus put her arm around the shoulder of Serena, who was near tears.

“I’m always the big sister,” Venus said. “I always take care of Serena, no matter what.”

As Venus delved into their roles a little bit later, she said: “She’s a younger sister. You know, that’s the way it is when you’re younger. You always get your way. Anyone who’s had a younger sibling knows that. When they don’t get their way, mom and dad step in, ‘Give her the ice cream.’

“As far as the older sister, you know, or the older brother, you roll with the punches. If you win or if you lose, [you] don’t get the ice cream, it’s OK.”

That’s the attitude Venus showed on the court throughout the match. Her expression hardly changed, while Serena would pump her fist after hitting a winner and hang her head or toss her racket after hitting one of her 43 unforced errors.

“She’s a real competitor,” Venus said. “Probably even more so than what I am as far as when it comes to losing. She hates to lose. So that really hurts her deep.”

Serena’s biggest disappointment must be that she didn’t play anywhere near her best tennis.

“I missed a lot of shots, especially on my forehand side,” she said. “It’s usually my stronger side.”

She also relies on her serve, but she got in only 51% of her first serves. Her repeated mistakes on her ground strokes were what made this a fairly lackluster match.

The action was breathtaking when they got it going, with big shots flying across the court and each sister roving to track down balls.

They were remarkable in their ability to match each other’s shots.

I’ll see your forehand and raise you a backhand down the line.

Venus had one serve that registered 121 mph--and Serena returned it.

Serena broke Venus to take the first game of the second set, but she blew three break-point chances that could have put her ahead, 4-1, and missed another chance to go up 5-2. Then she went into a tailspin, losing all four points on her next service game and all four points in the subsequent game. Serena also gave away an early 3-1 advantage in the tiebreaker.

Before we go any further, can we put a halt to all the conspiracy theories that say Serena intentionally gave this match to her sister?

If there were a time for Serena to throw one, it would have come in the finals of last fall’s Grand Slam Cup, when Venus was still smarting from watching Serena win the U.S. Open. Instead, that is the only time Serena has defeated Venus on the tour.

And Serena’s eyes were too red and wet, her cheeks a little too puffy during her postmatch interview to have been feigning disappointment.

There’s too much of a competitor burning inside Serena. She’s the one who used to cheat when the sisters played back home in Compton, the one who’s always seeking to skip ahead in the family line.

She succeeded by winning the first Williams Grand Slam title in New York last year.

But generally, it’s Venus who gets the spoils.

“As a big sister, I was always able to get things first,” Venus said. “I got my car first, went to school first, things like that--driver’s license first. So, you know, for the little sister--especially because there were four ahead of her--it’s like always playing catch-up.”

Serena will have to sit and watch Venus compete in the final Saturday. Again, she’ll have to wait her turn.

“I expected to play a lot better than I did today,” she said. “It was my goal to do better in this tournament, but that’s OK. I’m only 18. Venus is 20. I have a lot of years ahead of me.”

The way these sisters play, they should be meeting in the late stages of many Grand Slam tournaments to come. With each matchup, the novelty of this sister act and all of the hype, hoopla and analysis will fade.

“I think it will become less spectacular,” Venus said. “Most of all, Serena and I promised ourselves to start playing solid tennis every time so that we can be one and two [seeds], then meet in the finals.”

They already were thinking in tandem again. That’s the way it should be. Occasional adversaries, forever family.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.