Venus wins battle of sisters

NEW YORK, SEPT. 9. Fourth seed Venus Williams successfully defended her title at the U.S. Open tennis championship beating 10th- seeded younger sister Serena Williams in straight sets 6-2 6-4 in Saturday night's final.

Venus opened the second set by breaking her sister at love to extend her run to six games in a row and made it seven in a row by holding for a 2-0 lead as the unforced errors mounted for Serena.

Serena, the 1999 champion, finally put a solid service game together to halt the string, holding at love to make it 2-1. She put the set back on serve with her first service break of the match in the next game to make it 2-2 as Venus put a pair of backhands into the net.

Venus, however, broke right back for 3-2 when Serena went for a big backhand winner that went long on the second break point of the game.

The run of breaks continued in the sixth game with Serena again drawing level at 3-3 with a forehand volley winner at 30-40. She had a double break point but squandered the first chance by putting a service return into the net.

Serena fended off yet another break point in the seventh game and held serve with a service winner for a 4-3 lead.

But Serena put herself in deep trouble in the ninth game as she double faulted on her first two points and lost the third to fall behind 0-40. She saved one break point, but a backhand winner by Venus on the next gave her a 5-4 lead and a chance to serve for the championship. Venus held serve to take the title when Serena put a backhand into the net on the first match point to end the historic 69-minute family affair.

First set Venus won the first set of the U.S. Open women's singles final 6-2.

The fourth-seeded Venus used service breaks in the fifth and seventh games to take the 28-minute opening set from her sibling.

- Reuters

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