Black Tennis Pros

2012 Olympics Women's Doubles Gold Medalists USA's Venus and Serena Williams

Russians Nadia Petrova and Maria Kirilenko, Americans Venus and Serena Williams, and  Lucie Hradecka, and Andrea Hlavackoa of the Czech Republic Photos by Getty Images

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It just doesn't get any better... American sisters Venus and Serena Williams celebrate yet another jewel in their crowns, 2012 Olympics Women's Doubles Gold.

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American sisters Venus and Serena Williams celebrate winning the Gold Medal in Women's Doubles

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- Serena Williams relishes her role as copycat little sister. Even if it takes her 12 years.

Now, she has that remarkable Olympic double - just like Venus.

The overpowering American pair teamed to win the women's doubles title at the Olympics on Sunday, with Serena adding to the singles gold she won on Centre Court at Wimbledon a day earlier.

"Crazy," Serena said. "I'm always copying her. I forgot that she did it in Sydney and I do it here. We're the same doubles team, we just split this to singles, so it's cool."

The sisters beat Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-4 under the roof on a rainy afternoon at the All England Club. Venus - with her red, white and blue braids pulled back into a bun - closed out the match on the very grass she has long loved with a backhand volley winner after the Czechs saved a pair of match points.

"We all talk about this, 'We have so many medals,' but to be able to add to that, it's like an unbelievable feeling," Venus said. "You know that in that count, there you are. It feels amazing."

On Saturday, Serena beat Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1 for the singles gold. She joined Steffi Graf as the only women to complete the Golden Slam - winning the Olympics and the four majors.

When the Americans in the crowd at Centre Court broke into a chant of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" as the players left the court, the sisters each pumped their fists, turned around to wave, then slapped a high-five. The medal ceremony had to wait for the outdoor bronze-medal match, which was delayed by rain.

With Bob and Mike Bryan capturing gold in men's doubles Saturday, make it three golds for U.S. tennis in two days.

"It's great because America's added three gold medals to our medal count just in the tennis," Venus said. "I feel great to be a part of this U.S. team this year."

Serena became tennis' first double gold medalist at an Olympics since Venus won singles and doubles at the 2000 Sydney Games. The sisters also won the doubles gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

With Sunday's victory, they each have a record four Olympic tennis gold medals, and the sisters didn't drop a set through their five matches at the London Games.

While Serena was thrilled to win on her own Saturday, with Venus rooting her on from the family box, the doubles is what she most cared about coming to the London Games.

Especially considering all the emotional and physical struggles for Venus, who was diagnosed last year with an autoimmune disease that causes fatigue.

"This is all I wanted," said Venus, who had all of about two months to raise her ranking and qualify for the Olympics. "Boy, was that a battle. That was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I really feel proud of what happened here at the Olympics."

But for years Venus has been comfortable on the lawn at Wimbledon, where she has won five of her seven Grand Slam titles.

"Venus has been going through so much and she's so strong and so she's so amazing," Serena said. "And to win this was my goal."

The Williamses also became the first tennis players to win Olympic gold indoors since the 1912 Stockholm Games, a match played in a pavilion on wood courts painted black.

On Sunday, they won the fourth game of the second set at love on Venus' ace, the first of three straight games in which they didn't lose a point.

Serena overcame two break points trailing 1-0 in the second set. She pumped her fist and cheered after a forehand winner down the alley past a poaching Hradecka, who was aggressive at the net all afternoon.

The Czechs held in four of their first five service games, including Hlavackova's first that went to deuce four times.

Venus Williams joins Conchita Martinez of Spain as the only tennis players to win medals at three different Olympics. Martinez's medals all came in doubles - silver in Barcelona in 1992, bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games and silver in Athens in 2004.

Gigi Fernandez and current U.S. coach Mary Joe Fernandez are the only others to win back-to-back Olympic tennis gold medals after they teamed for doubles titles in 1992 and 1996.

And the sisters insist they're not done yet.

"We're looking forward to Rio," Serena said, "and trying to get some sort of medal there."

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Too much too soon?

"I'm going to have to figure that out," responded Serena with regard to whether she is overplaying. "Nothing against Cincinnati or Toronto or the Stanfords that I've played, but everyone is preparing for the U.S. Open. I have to be smart and make sure it's not too much."

Serena is currently topping the U.S. Open Series Leaderboard with 170 points, having won the last two titles. On Tueday at the Western and Southern Open, Cincinnati, Ohio, she began to rack up even more points with a first-round-straight-sets win over the Czech Republic's Lucie Hradecka, 3-6, 6-7 (5).

At the same time, the match took a gradual toll on Serena that was very evident in her play and body language as well. It appeared towards the end of the second set that she would either be withdrawing, or calling for the trainer. In typical Serena fashion though, neither occurred -- she trudged along and found a way to win.

Hopefully a good night's rest will do the trick for play on Wednesday... wouldn't want to see her have to drop out of the Series -- and definitely not the U.S. Open!


Jo-Wilfried Tsonga used a powerful serve and a spotless return game to pick up his first career win at the Western & Southern Open, 6-3, 6-4 over Marin Cilic in the first round on Tuesday.

Serving near 130 mph, Tsonga hit nine aces and took advantage of more than 20 unforced errors by Cilic. "It was really a fluid match," Tsonga said. "Like everything was easy for me today, to serve and everything."

"This morning in warmups, I was feeling really good," said Tsonga, who has been battling an arm injury. "And during the match I felt really good."

After beating Cilic for the first time in his career, Tsonga next will play qualifier Alex Bogomolov Jr. in the second round today or Thursday.


American wild card James Blake will meet Switzerland's Roger Federer in a repeat of the 2007 Cincinnati final. Federer holds a 9-1 record against the former World No. 4, with his only loss coming in the quarter-finals of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Blake, who currently stands at No. 84 in the South African Airways 2011 ATP Rankings, comfortably rolled past Italian Fabio Fognini 6-4, 6-2 in 58 minutes as he converted three of his five break points.

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Wild card Sloane Stephens defeated qualifier Jamie Hampton 6-2, 6-4 in an-American match Thursday at the BNP Paribas Open to set up a second-round clash with WTA No. 1 and returning finalist Caroline Wozniacki.

The 17-year-old Stephens achieved her career-best win on her tour-level debut here last year, when she came through the qualifying rounds and defeated a 67th-ranked Lucie Hradecka before falling to No. 12 Vera Zvonareva. This will her first win against a player ranked in the Top 10 of the WTA Rankings.

Hampton, the lone American among the 12 qualifiers, was looking for her first win in her sixth tour-level main draw appearance.

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Sloane Stephens, one of two 16-year-olds in the BNP Paribas Open field, celebrated her first match on the WTA Tour with a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (7) triumph over Lucie Hradecka.

Stephens led 5-2 in the second set and had match point on serve in the ninth game, then had to rally from 3-6 down in the second-set tiebreaker.

"I wasn't getting nervous," Stephens said. "She started playing a lot more. Before, she was hitting a lot of balls off the court and I was waiting for the error. She made me play at the end."

Stephens said she'll remember hitting an ace down the middle of the court to get to 6-all in the second-set tiebreaker. She couldn't recall the final shot of the match, though, but said "it was a good moment."

Fellow American Shenay Perry didn't fare as well as Stephens, losing to Karolina Sprem 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

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Daunting site seeing Venus and Serena Williams put their heads together during doubles play. The opponents across the net might be in for any level of barrage.

On Thursday at Roland Garros the sisters did what they generally do when they hit the doubles court... win. They resumed a suspended match that left the sisters with a first set win at 6-1 and the Czech pairing of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka winning the second set 6-3.

The sisters sealed the match by winning the remaining set 6-3.

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