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Williams Sisters Take Title In Doubles Tennis

Venus (left) and Serena Williams celebrate after winning the women's doubles gold medal match today.
Luis Acosta
/
AFP/Getty Images
Venus (left) and Serena Williams celebrate after winning the women's doubles gold medal match today.

As The Guardian just reported:

"Here is perhaps the least surprising outcome of the Games: the awesome Williams sisters have secured the women's doubles for the United States, disposing of the Czech pair Hlavackova and Hradecka 6-4, 6-4. And Serena crowns a dominant display with a delightful twirl of celebration after plundering the gold medal point."

Those sisters would be, of course, American tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams. The Czechs are Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka.

Serena had already won the gold medal in women's singles.

The BBC has the stats for today's doubles final here. It took the sisters 51 minutes to win set one; 42 minutes to take set two.

Update at 9:22 a.m. ET. More About The Match And The Win:

The Associated Press writes that "Venus closed out the match with a backhand volley winner after the Czechs saved a pair of match points. ... When the Americans in the crowd at Centre Court broke into a chant of 'U-S-A! U-S-A!' as they left the court, the sisters each pumped their fists, turned around to wave, then slapped a high-five. ... Venus Williams joins Conchita Martinez of Spain as the only tennis players to win medals at three different Olympics."

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
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