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Williams sisters win gold in Olympic doubles

Ap
Sunday 17 August 2008 12:41 BST
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(Getty)

Venus and Serena Williams teamed up to win the Olympic doubles final Sunday, beating Spanish duo Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-2, 6-0.

The American sisters shrieked in unison when Ruano Pascual sent the championship point long. Then they jumped for joy and hugged.

"I'm so excited, I can't even speak," said Venus, who has already won seven doubles Grand Slams and a gold medal in Sydney alongside her sister.

But winning as a family never grows old.

"To share this kind of moment with your sister," she said, gives her "chill bumps."

The win improved the sisters' Olympic record to 10-0. They didn't enter the doubles competition in Athens four years ago because Serena was hurt.

Sunday's match pitted the second-seeded sisters, who won at Wimbledon in doubles, against the seventh-seeded Spaniards, who took this year's French Open doubles title.

The Williams weren't too taxed in the Olympic championship. Taking turns slugging winners from the baseline and slamming shots at the net, they raced through the match in 1 hour, 6 minutes.

Together, they fired six aces, including one that Serena hit at 172 kilometers per hour (107 mph) on a second serve.

The most tense moment came at 5-2 in the first set when the sisters squandered four set points before breaking Ruano Pascual's serve to win it.

The sisters dominated doubles at Beijing from start to finish, dropping only two sets on their way to the final.

"We were really focused from the first point," Serena said. "We really wanted to win."

Both Venus and Serena were beaten in the quarterfinals of the singles tournament.

Yan Zi and Zheng Jie of China beat Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-2, 6-2 to win the bronze medal.

It's the second tennis medal in Olympic history for China, which won gold in women's doubles in 2004.

The match was the third for the eighth-seeded Yan and Zheng in barely 36 hours. They won a quarter-final match that ended at 3:35 am on Saturday.

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