By Erik Gudris | Saturday, July 9, 2015
Unseeded Serena Williams and Venus Williams proved the team to beat as they won their sixth Wimbledon ladies’ doubles title.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Despite being unseeded, Serena Williams and Venus Williams proved the team to beat throughout the Wimbledon Ladies’ Doubles event. The Williams Sisters fulfilled their wish by claiming their sixth Wimbledon doubles title and creating yet more history in their stellar careers.
Wimbledon: Serena Wins Major Title Number 22.
“It's a privilege, it's an honor,” Venus Williams said, “When you enter the doubles draw, you dream of winning. Then we enter the singles, we dream of winning. To have Williams on both of those, somehow in 2016, it's another dream come true.”
Fresh off winnning her seventh Wimbledon singles title, Serena Williams returned to Centre Court a few hours later with her sister for the doubles final. Waiting for them were the No. 5 seeds Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova.
Babos and Shvedova pulled off the upset of the event by earlier taking out top seeds Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza.
The final itself proved a thrilling contest from start to finish with all four players producing stelling shotmaking from all sides of the court.
Service holds were hard to come by in the first set with each team enduing lengthy opening services games. Babos and Shvedova earned the first break only to get broken back right away.
With her team ahead 4-3, Venus Williams ripped a crosscourt backhand winner to earn another break for 5-3. Serena Williams, with a putaway winner up at net in the next game, closed out the set 6-3.
Yet, Babos and Shvedova didn’t go away and continued to test the Williams Sisters. The second set again featured hard-hitting rallies and fine net player from all four women.
Once again, it was Shvedova who found herself tested while serving at 3-all. Shvedova threw in a double fault giving the Williams Sisters a break point. Serena Williams ripped a backhand to take the the lead.
Venus Williams soon served for the match up 5-4. But, feeling the moment, a tight Venus Williams found herself facing a break point on her serve. Serena Williams took control of the net and erased the break point with a backhand winner. The sisters soon held their first championship point.
Babos erased that with a huge forehand winner. Yet, the Williams Sisters soon held a second match point. A big serve out wide from Venus Williams set up her sister to crunch a putaway up at net. With that, the sisters celebrated the 6-3, 6-4 victory.
This is the Williams Sisters’ sixth Wimbledon title, their first since 2012, and 14th major title overall as a team. This now ties them for second place for all-time major victories with Natasha Zvereva and Gigi Fernandez. Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver hold the record for 20 titles all time.
With another Wimbledon title in their collection, the Williams Sisters are now looking ahead to possibly winning another Olympic gold medal as a team at the Summer Games in Rio.
“Well, we needed to play some matches before the Olympics,’ Venus Williams said. “We haven't played in ages. So we started playing in Rome. Played the French. If we get lucky, we'll get a chance to play in the summer before Rio. Hopefully this puts us in a good position, because more than anything we want to represent the U.S. the best we can.”