A Williams Is Certain to Win the U.S. Open

Serena, 19, moved into the finals first, upsetting top-seeded Martina Hingis, 6-3, 6-2 at the U.S. Open here Friday.

Venus, 21, playing in the second semifinal match, had to overcome a 3-0 first-set deficit before getting her powerful forehand under control and running second-seeded Jennifer Capriati into exhaustion with a 6-4, 6-2 victory.

And so the stage is set. The Williams sisters from Compton will make tennis history tonight.

Facing each other in the first prime-time women’s final at the U.S. Open, Venus and Serena Williams will be the first siblings playing for a Grand Slam title in 117 years. The event also will mark the first time two African Americans will be playing in the finals of a major tennis championship.

The sisters are close, and questions have been raised about how eager they are to compete against each other, but both former champions insist they want to win tonight.

“I’m still trying to take the title home,” Venus said. “I know Serena won’t be giving up anything. It’s been two years for her since she’s won [here]. It’s been a year for me.”

Said Serena: “I won’t have any problems. This is the U.S. Open. If you ever notice, the winner gets $850,000. So I won’t have any problem going out there and trying to win.”

Oracene Williams, their mother and the quiet force behind her champion daughters, hugged them both Friday and then said: “I’m going to tell them to go out there and play hard and have fun and play the game that people haven’t really seen you play. I know how they can play, and they haven’t done that yet. I guess it’s because of the player you are playing.”

Serena, 15 months younger than Venus, is shorter at 5-foot-10 and stockier and tends to dress more flamboyantly. She brightened Arthur Ashe Stadium in a glowing yellow dress Friday, while the 6-foot-1 Venus chose a white halter-top dress with pale green accents.

The sisters have rarely dressed alike. They do, however, think alike. They have asserted from the start of their professional careers that some day they would play each other for a Grand Slam tournament title.

“This is really sweet,” Venus said after her match Friday. “We’ve had a lot of blessings from God. And we’re happy that we’re healthy and we’re happy to be here.”

From the time that their father, Richard, said he would produce two tennis champions because he watched a match on TV and saw the winner presented with a big check, Venus and Serena have been in the spotlight.

That light was often unkind. Richard Williams was criticized for keeping his daughters off the traditional proving grounds of the national and international junior circuits. His unseemly behavior at last year’s U.S. Open--when he danced in the face of runner-up Lindsay Davenport after Venus had won the title--took some of the well-earned attention away from Venus.

Venus and Serena seemed cocky when they first arrived on the pro tour and proclaimed themselves future top-ranked players, destined to meet in the finals of Grand Slam tournaments.

The sisters have played limited schedules, partly so they can attend fashion school and partly because they often chose not to enter the same tournaments to avoid playing each other.

When Serena excused a loss to Capriati earlier this summer at Wimbledon because of illness, Capriati sniffed that she was accustomed to Serena’s excuses.

But it was Richard Williams’ remarks about “racist” fans at the Indian Wells tournament in March that focused attention on a problem that had been whispered about for nearly two years.

In five meetings between the sisters, Venus owns a 4-1 advantage over Serena. And it was the match not played at Indian Wells that brought almost undivided criticism to the family.

A packed stadium had gathered to see Venus and Serena meet in the semifinals of the Tennis Masters Series. Fewer than five minutes before the match, it was announced that Venus had withdrawn because of a knee injury. When Serena played in the finals a day later, she was loudly booed.

Two days later, a tabloid newspaper printed a story quoting members close to the Williams family as saying Richard Williams had, in the past, decided which sister would win matches between the two.

The story was given credence because, at the 2000 Wimbledon semifinals, Venus defeated Serena, 6-2, 7-6 (3), in a match in which Serena played poorly. She had played superbly until that point in the tournament. But because Venus had been admittedly dispirited when Serena had become the first sister to win a Grand Slam title at the 1999 U.S. Open, there was open speculation that their father had ordered Serena to lose the Wimbledon match.

On Friday, Venus responded to allegations that Richard Williams influenced outcomes of matches between the sisters with a vehement denial.

“Anyone who would write that or say that is very unprofessional,” Venus said. “I take pride in my sport and my performance. I’m just appalled that anyone would hint something like that. I don’t think that has ever been the case or that it ever will be.”

Serena was equally adamant that only winning would be on her mind tonight.

“The bottom line is, we’re both competitors, we both want to compete, we both want to be No. 1, and we both want to do the best that we can,” she said. “We’re both of the age where no one makes decisions for us.”

Pam Shriver, a former U.S. Open finalist and now a tennis analyst for CBS, said the questions surrounding the outcome of matches between the sisters have been fair.

“It’s totally understandable, especially after what happened at Indian Wells,” said Shriver, who has been a mentor and defender of Venus and Serena since they came on the Women’s Tennis Assn. tour. “I keep saying that all they need to do to squash that talk is to play one high-quality match. And there’s no stage bigger to do that from than in the finals of the U.S. Open.

“That said, I don’t think any of us can understand the pressure it is to play your sister. How do you come out and treat her as just another player? Venus and Serena are under an incredible microscope.”

Since his outburst at Indian Wells, where Richard Williams called the jeers “racist boos,” Venus and Serena have become more their own spokeswomen while their father has stayed in the background.

He roamed around the stadium Friday during his daughters’ matches, snapping photographs and accepting congratulations. After Venus had won and set up tonight’s historic battle, Richard Williams talked softly about his feelings.

“It’s the best dream of my life,” he said. “All my life I’ve been waiting for this, and now it’s happened.” Richard also said he would not attend tonight’s match. “I’m looking for the first plane out of here. I doubt any person in their right mind would want to see their kids out there fighting like hell in an arena.”

When questioned whether he had influenced the outcome of other matches between his daughters, he said, “I don’t think we should get into it. This is an historic thing here and all that other stuff is in the past.”

Venus was not as interested in talking about the significance of this match to the African American community as she was eager to express happiness at the fine performance of American players.

“When I first heard about the prime-time final, I was hoping I’d be there. And it would have been great, if it was Serena, Jennifer, Lindsay, an all-American final. That’s what’s great.”