Women's Tennis : 5 greatest Australian Open finals

#1 Serena Williams vs Venus Williams (2003)

Venus Williams and Serena Williams at the 2003 Australian Open

The Williams sisters dominated women's tennis in the early part of the 2000's and the 2003 Australian Open was one of the many memorable matches that they played during this period.

They were meeting in the finals of a Grand Slam tournament for the fourth straight time at the 2003 Australian Open, with Serena Williams emerging victorious over her sister Venus in straight sets in the finals of the 2002 French Open, 2002 Wimbledon and 2002 U.S. Open. Serena beat Venus yet again in the 2003 Australian Open final to become the fifth woman in history to hold all four major titles at the same time. This was later labelled by the media as 'The Serena Slam'.

The Williams sisters displayed their powerful brand of free-flowing attacking tennis engaged in powerful duels from the baseline matched with exceptional serving from both sides. Unlike their previous three Grand Slam meetings, Venus was able to match her sister shot for shot, and neither were able to gain a grip of the encounter. Venus couldn't close out the first set while serving at 5-4 and Serena won the tiebreak 7-4. Venus leveled things in the second set and was facing an uphill task at 3-4 in the third set. Saving 5 break points, she held on to her serve and made it 4-4. But Serena immediately broke back in her next service game to take the set 6-4. Serena didn't have to do anything much to win the decisive break as a series of unforced errors from Venus handed Serena the title.