Williams Tennis Association?

January 23, 2003 1:16 PM

From "Elle" to "Infinite Jest", the world acknowledges their greatness. They're about to meet in their fourth consecutive Grand Slam final. Are these sisters invincible?
posted by 111 (13 comments total)

Wow, sisters this good? That's quite impressive. I don't keep up with tennis. There was a guy in my home town that was nationally ranked, but that's about the extent of my tennis knowledge--that and the whold Sampras/Agasi thing.

I don't even know how to spell their names. :)
posted by psychotic_venom at 1:26 PM on January 23, 2003

Are these sisters invincible?

Yes. (Just to needle all the Kournikova fans out there.)
posted by Wulfgar! at 1:58 PM on January 23, 2003

Holy shit, I totally forgot that the Williams sisters were mentioned in Infinite Jest. I guess my buffer overflowed at some point while reading that book.

Sometimes an awfully wily player can beat a power player, but there is no woman in the same league as the sisters for power and no woman currently wily enough to overcome their power. They're going to lose the odd tournament here and there, but it will be a few years before other women's training regimens brings them to the same level as these sisters.

And Jesus...have you seen Serena's junk? I'd like to bite her in the ass, develop lockjaw, and be dragged to my death.
posted by vito90 at 2:02 PM on January 23, 2003 [8 favorites]

classy, vito!!
posted by jonson at 2:16 PM on January 23, 2003

Yes, vito, Serena is definitely in top form.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:25 PM on January 23, 2003

Invincible? Well, not completely, though it'll take a lot for someone to, um, vince them.

The two Belgians, Clijsters and Henin-Hardenne, seem to be close, along with maybe two or three others (Lindsay Davenport, I'm probably forgetting one or two others). But Serena and Venus are the class of tennis these days, and they fully deserve the glory they're getting right now.

(And the fact that women athletes that successful are also extremely beautiful can't be a surprise to anyone.)
posted by chicobangs at 2:30 PM on January 23, 2003

Holy shit, I totally forgot that the Williams sisters were mentioned in Infinite Jest.

Just Venus. I don't think Serena had hit the big time by the time Wallace was writing the book.
posted by mr_roboto at 2:52 PM on January 23, 2003

Hantuchova, Capriati, Clijsters, Henin-Hardenne, Davenport and Hingis are really the only players who've been able to give the Williams sisters any trouble at all recently. That said, they haven't done it with any regularity, and even less often in the big matches.

What is likely to happen is that one player (perhaps Daniilidou in a year or so) will get into the head of one or the other sister and that will reveal a few chinks in the armour...

But until that happens, it's not likely that they'll be dethroned.
posted by yellowcandy at 3:26 PM on January 23, 2003

I believe that Serena said her goal this year is to not lose a single match, major or non-major. I think she only lost 5 times in 13 tournaments last year, and one of those losses was the injury pullout at the Aussie. So all in all, yeah, they're basically unbeatable right now.
posted by Kevs at 4:04 PM on January 23, 2003

And the fact that women athletes that successful are also extremely beautiful can't be a surprise to anyone.

I thought we were talking about the Williams sisters. While these women have some serious mojo on the court, they made the same pact with nature that Larry Bird did. Twice the talent and half the looks.
posted by Beholder at 6:23 PM on January 23, 2003

Beholder - apparently their beauty is not in your eyes...but I'll take them over Kournikova every day of the week and twice on Sundays, and not just because there's two of them, but because they'd probably be wearing leather and bring whips and stuff, and why am I still typing?
posted by vito90 at 7:55 PM on January 23, 2003

Unbeatable? No. Kim Clijsters is the closest to dethroning them, and has a pretty powerful group to back her up (including but not limited to Daniela Hantuchova, Justine Henin-Hardenne, Eleni Daniilidou, Elena Bovina, Anastasia Myskina, as well as veterans Lindsay Davenport & Monica Seles). Serena may go unbeaten in 2003, but she will also play a very limited schedule do to other "commitments."

The sisters won't rule for very long if only because they have so many other outlying interests. Venus is into interior design now, and Serena is persuing her newest dream, acting.
posted by somethingotherthan at 8:30 PM on January 23, 2003

My gilfriend occasionally reads here, so I'd better not agree with vito.
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:15 AM on January 24, 2003 [1 favorite]