LONDON, UK - They may not play doubles together that regularly, but when they do, they're unstoppable. The Williams sisters, who played each other in the ladies' singles final earlier in the day, took the court for the ladies' doubles final on Saturday evening and crushed one of the most accomplished teams out there - Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur - in straight sets for their seventh Grand Slam doubles title together.
From start to finish the Williams sisters, who were the No.11 seeds, put on a serving display, winning 86 percent of points on their first serve (which they got in more than 60 percent of the time) and saving all three break points against them. On the other side of the net the No.16-seeded pairing of Raymond and Stosur was having all sorts of trouble on their serve, their weakest numbers coming on their second serve, winning just 33 percent of those points. They surrendered four service games and in the end it was barely a contest as the Williamses won, 62 62, in 58 minutes.
"It's a great way to finish off Wimbledon 2008, teaming with my sister to win our first doubles title of any kind in five years," Serena Williams said. "She's the best in the world on grass. What better partner could I ask for?"
The Williams sisters won their seventh Grand Slam doubles title together, having already won two Australian Opens (2001, 2003), one French Open (1999), two Wimbledons (2000, 2002) and a US Open (1999). It was their 11th overall title as a team, having also won three regular Sony Ericsson WTA Tour events, as well as a gold medal at the Olympics in 2000. Their win over Raymond and Stosur was their 100th doubles match win together (they are now 100-16 lifetime).
While the Williams sisters' highest-seeded opponents en route to the title were No.5 seeds Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual, Raymond and Stosur had to contend with a pair of very high seeds, beating No.3 seeds Kveta Peschke and Rennae Stubbs in the round of 16 and No.1 seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber in the semifinals. They are now 2-2 in Grand Slam finals together, having won the US Open in 2005, finished runners-up at the 2006 Australian Open (to Yan Zi and Zheng Jie) and winning the 2006 French Open.
Between the summers of 2005 and 2007, Raymond and Stosur were arguably the best doubles team on Tour, capturing 20 titles together (including the two aforementioned Grand Slams and two Tour Championships) and both rising to No.1 in the doubles rankings. Stosur was sidelined for most of the second half of 2007 and the early months of 2008 with a viral illness, but made her return to competition in the spring. This was their first final since Stosur's comeback, and with their favorite summer hardcourt season on the horizon, this was likely just a taste of what's to come for the American-Australian partnership.
This was the third time at a Grand Slam that there was an all-Williams singles final followed by them winning the doubles title, after they did the same thing at Wimbledon in 2002 and the Australian Open in 2003 (when it was Serena who emerged with the singles crown). On two other occasions they won the doubles title after one of them won the singles title over someone else, at the US Open in 1999 (when Serena beat Martina Hingis) and Wimbledon in 2000 (when Venus beat Lindsay Davenport).
