Women’s tennis would be completely lost without its sister act Venus and Serena Williams

Serena Williams and Venus Williams are not only the top two-ranked  singles players in women’s tennis, they are also one of the best doubles teams in the history of the sport.

Even though both crashed out of the French Open this year, they did manage to win the doubles and are now the current holders of all four of tennis’s four grand slam titles which also include the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

The sisters have won 12 major doubles titles together as well as two Olympic gold medals as a team and bring excitement to any event in which they are entered. They have glamour, personality and Venus especially has become one of the game’s most thoughtful and articulate champions.

As the tour moves on to Wimbledon later this month, their chances of continuing their dominance is excellent. In singles, Serena is the defending champion and has won three championships overall. Venus has been even more successful with five singles crowns to her credit.

For the sport’s sake, I hope these two superb athletes make it to the finals against each other because without them, interest in women’s tennis will drop even further. After being thoroughly disappointed in the last two French Open finals, I slept in and didn’t catch much of Francesca Schiavone’s victory over Samantha Stosur.

Who? And who?

My close friend and fellow tennis fanatic Henry Chu is covering the French Open finals for the Los Angeles Times and filed this story on the file earlier today.

For a long time, there was no way I would miss the women’s final at the French Open because the top players always seemed to make it to the final rounds. Now excuses, no sudden injuries.

The 1985 and 1986 finals between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova were of amazing quality and drama as was the 1987 final between Navratilova and Steffi Graf. Evert would win a record seven French titles on the red clay of Paris.

Aranxta Sanchez Vicario came out of nowhere in 1989 and stunned Graf in three riveting sets and the two would also square off in 1995 and 1996 in three-setters. In between, Monica Seles swept in and won three straight titles, two over Steffi and one over Arantxa who would win three herself over the course of her career including the 1998 final over Seles.

Graf played her last final in 1999 and beat back the challenge of Martina Hingis to win her sixth French Open in dramatic fashion to usher out the decade.

Since then, there have been some worthy champions including four-time winner Justine Henin as well as Jennifer Capriati and Serena Williams. But in recent years, there have been too many one slam wonders who people have never heard of and probably won’t again.

In contrast, the men’s game has been blessed with two stars who routinely make it to the finals at the big tournaments: Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Federer lost in the quarterfinals this year but Nadal plays tomorrow for his fifth French Open title against Robin Soderling.

By the way, Henry also has a terrific preview of the men’s final in today’s LA Times. Here is a LINK!