Ageless Serena And Roger Enhance Their Legends

Four charismatic immortals, two enduring rivalries, and potential record-smashing only added to the denouement of a suspenseful fortnight. Tennis was truly the biggest winner, writes Paul Fein.

- Paul Fein

The “Back to the Future” episodes at the Australian Open featured a cast of age-defying characters and logic-defying plots. Four charismatic immortals, two enduring rivalries, and potential record-smashing only added to the denouement of a suspenseful fortnight.

Switch the time machine back to 1998. It was at Melbourne Park that teenagers Venus and Serena Williams first battled in a Tour match. The prodigies from crime ridden Compton, California, sported cornrows and beads and fascinated everyone with their power and passion.

Now return to the present and witness the greatest siblings in sports history —dazzling and durable. Almost unimaginably, Venus, 36, despite energy-sapping Sjögren’s syndrome and without a Grand Slam title since beating Serena at the 2008 Wimbledon final, earned another chance for glory. She strode onto the Rod Laver Arena with a relaxed smile for her 15th major final. Serena, 35, despite being a heavy 1-5 favourite, entered with a deadly serious game face and earphones.

NOTHING HAD CHANGED for the fiercely competitive Serena since she was a little kid, the youngest of five sisters. “She always had to win, no matter if it was a talent show, cards, she had to be the winner,” her mother Oracene Price told espnW.com. “She would sit on cards. And they let her do it. They gave it to her, even if she didn’t win. I think it affects her to this day, because she hates losing. That’s how come it was so inappropriate when they (sceptics early in their careers) said we were setting (fixing) matches. Serena is not going to lose for no one.”