Is there any doubt as to who the greatest sports siblings are now? With their semifinal victories today, Venus and Serena Williams will again meet to decide the Wimbledon Ladies' Champion. In fact, the Williams Sisters may be two of the most underrated athletes of all-time. Just look at their accomplishments:
-17 Grand Slam Singles Titles (10 Serena, 7 Venus... and soon to be 18 after Saturday)
-37 Grand Slam Total Titles including Doubles and Mixed Doubles
-83 Weeks at #1 (72 Serena, 11 Venus)
-5 Gold Medals (2000 & 2008 Doubles, 2000 Singles - Venus)
-Played in 4 Consecutive GS Finals ('02 French - '03 Australian, Serena won all 4)
-Wimbledon 2009 is the 8th GS Final between Serena & Venus
-Wimbledon 2009 will be their 8th Wimbledon title this decade in tennis' premiere event.
What's even more impressive is at 29 and 28 respectively, the Williams Sisters have risen back to the top of a young woman's sport. This is like Joe Montana taking the Chiefs to the Super Bowl, or Michael Jordan winning an NBA title with the Wizards. Don't forget that in the middle of the decade, both sisters dealt with injuries, losses in the family, and fancied off-court interests. Plenty of pundits started the obits for the Williams' careers, but their comeback over the past few years has cemented their legacy as all-time greats.
The numbers dictate that the Williams Sisters are the greatest sister or brother act of all time. The other great sports duos (Mannings, Spinks, Richards, Dimaggios...) fall short when compared to the legacy Serena & Venus have created. The Williamses are set apart because of their accomplishments together and individually. No other athletes have done as much for their sport outside of Tiger Woods this decade. With most of the attention on creating a rivalry, their dad, their outside interests, and their lack of compelling duels, it's been easy to lose sight of just how great Venus & Serena are. Here's hoping their 21st career meeting on July 4th will bring down the house at Wimbledon and give the two sisters a career-defining classic so the sporting public can truly appreciate their greatness.
By the way, as the official older sibling representative here at RSS, I'm picking Venus.
2 comments:
I'm glad to finally see an article on this blog about women in sports!! The Williams' sisters are pretty amazing... I'm not sure I would say they are that underrated though - I think most people would agree that they are great. It is pretty neat to see their greatness in terms of numbers/titles... thanks for laying out all that information. I would agree that they are the greatest sibling act of all time. It's cool that they play a sport where they get to play together, just the two of them... you don't get to see that kind of sibling teamwork in any other sport (that I can think of but correct me if I'm wrong)
Greatest sibling act in all of sports??? Hardly. Ist though forgetting the Mannings, Barbers and to a lesser extent, the Molinas who seem to have 23451587 spawns? The fact is that you have to rate the Mannings as the greatest sibling due of all time due to the competition factors in play. The Williams sisters are probably 2 of the top 5 or so women tennis players in existence today. The NFL, being the league of "parody" makes it harder to repeat in, where as in tennis you usually have the same players winning the major tournaments. Williams as the greatest sibling duo of all time, I digress. Don't forget the great blogging duo of the Yoders in that same lexicon.
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