By Bill Dwyre, Los Angeles Times –
LONDON — The amazing Olympic run of the Williams sisters continued Sunday when they teamed to win the gold medal in women’s doubles.
Venus and Serena Williams defeated Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 6-4, in the final.
(PHOTO: USA’s Serena Williams and Venus Williams celebrate after winning the doubles match finals at Wimbledon during the Summer Olympic Games on Sunday, August 5, 2012 in London, England. The Williams sisters defeated the Czech Republic’s Lucie Hradecka and Andrea Hlavackova 6-4, 6-4 to take gold. )
The sisters’ victory came a day after Serena had won the singles title, completing her career Golden Slam and, in the minds of many, separating herself from all other tennis players. No one else in the sport’s history has won all four major championships and Olympic gold in both singles and doubles.
Roger Federer, who has an Olympic doubles gold but has never won singles at the Games, had a chance to match Serena’s achievement Sunday, but lost the men’s singles final to Andy Murray.
The doubles gold for the Williams sisters was their third, going back to Sydney in 2000, when Venus won her singles gold medal. They won again in Beijing in 2008.
“In our house,” Venus Williams said, “when there’s a party, whenever we’re at home, times get down, we go down and look at our golds and we’re right back up.”
The U.S. won another medal in tennis Sunday when Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond took the bronze in mixed doubles, the final match played in the Olympic tournament. Bryan and his twin brother Bob won the men’s doubles gold Saturday.
