Williams Sisters Win Australian Open Doubles

M E L B O U R N E, Australia, Jan. 26 -- Venus and Serena Williams completed aGrand Slam of doubles crowns today by winning the Australiantitle — but said it was no compensation for their failure inthe singles.

The sisters, a wild-card entry, beat fellow Americans Lindsay Davenport and Corina Morariu, the seventh seeds, 6-2,4-6, 6-4, in thefinal on Rod Laver Arena court.

The victory added to the 1999 French and U.S. Opens and2000 Wimbledon, completes the Grand Slam for the Williamses.

Both Sisters Had Lost to Hingis in Singles

Serena and Venus were both knocked out of the singlescompetition by top seed Martina Hingis, at the quarterfinal andsemifinal stage.

But their combined force proved too much for Davenport andMorariu.

The sisters conceded an early break of serve to trail, 1-3,in the deciding set, but hit back to break their opponents'serve in the sixth game and once more to close out the matchafter one hour, 46 minutes.

The pair, who teamed up to claim Olympic gold in Sydneylast autumn, claimed the winners' check of $186,000.

Davenport and Morariu, who was celebrating her 23rdbirthday today, collected $93,000 as runners-up.

Perfect Partners

Venus said: "I want to thank the Australian Open committeefor giving us a wild-card — because our doubles ranking wasn'tgood enough to get us in the draw!

"But we should qualify for a ranking after this tournament,and it will be interesting to see where we enter."

Serena, who has shrugged off the bout of gastro-enteritiswhich had bothered her during her quarterfinal singles defeatto Hingis, added: "This is no consolation at all for losing inthe singles.

"We both want to be known as singles players. But you haveto recognize that she [Hingis] just played very well.

"The doubles is a different competition altogether, andmake no mistake, we are both very happy to have won here."

Venus said Serena made the perfect partner.

"I think we love playing with each other," the elder sistersaid. "We have a great understanding — I know that no matterwhat I do, Serena will always be there for me."