Williams Sisters Are in Olympics Doubles Final
S Y D N E Y, Australia, Sept. 26 -- The only thing that seems to stop VenusWilliams is rain.
A shower delayed the start of play for 3½ hours, but Williamsthen clinched her second Olympic medal today, teaming with sisterSerena for a semifinal victory in doubles.
The Williamses won 11 of the final 13 games to beat Els Callensand Dominique Van Roost of Belgium 6-4, 6-1.
The sisters said the delay didn’t faze them.
“We would have liked to have gotten out of here earlier, but itwasn’t meant to be,” Venus said.
Their opponents in the final Thursday (Wednesday night ET) willbe Kristie Boogert and Miriam Oremans of the Netherlands.
“Winning a gold medal would be a fantastic thing for sure,”Serena said.
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Seles Beats Dokic
Venus Williams, seeded second, will play for the gold in singlesWednesday against No. 10 Elena Dementieva of Russia
Monica Seles outslugged Australian Jelena Dokic 6-1, 6-4 for the bronze medal in women’s tennis at the Olympics. Seles started quickly and hit more consistently in the baseline battle.
The medal is the first for Seles, who also played at the AtlantaGames. (See sidebar.)
No. 5 Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia and unseeded Tommy Haas ofGermany will meet in the men’s final Thursday (Wednesday nightET). Kafelnikov beat Arnaud Di Pasquale of France 6-4, 6-4, whileHaas defeated Roger Federer of Switzerland 6-3, 6-2.
Come From Behind to Win
The tournament is just the third the Williams sisters haveplayed together this year, but they’ve won 32 of their past 33matches together, and three of the past four Grand Slam tournamentsthey’ve played.
The sisters fell behind the Belgian team 1-3, and there wasconcern on the U.S. side when Venus received a shoulder rub fromSerena during a changeover at 2-1 in the second set. But Venusappeared fine as she served out the victory, finishing with aperfect backhand lob for a winner on match point.
Haas, 22, is a former top-10 player with just one career title.He is ranked 48th and was runnerup at Munich in his best finishthis year.
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