You join us in the second set of the semifinals
of the women's doubles
tennis competition at London 2012.
Russia versus the United States.
The winner goes through to the gold-medal match.
What a great tie we have here today.
Here's Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova of Russia
and they're up against the might of
Serena and Venus Williams of the United States.
The Russians are playing well,
and the Americans are in trouble.
They are love-30 down.
The United States need to get their act together.
Like Olympics gone by, Venus and Serena prevail.
It must be tough on their hopeful opponents
because the Williams sisters up to this point
had never lost an Olympic doubles match.
Not in Sydney...
not in Beijing...
..and so far, not in London.
It's a perfect record.
And when it came to the crucial points
the sisters weren't going to budge.
They always found a way.
But then they did have an advantage,
they were two of the best tennis players of all time.
Venus Williams won Wimbledon five times
and the US Open twice.
She was world number one for several weeks.
It would have been more if it wasn't for...
her sister, Serena Williams.
Serena was the dominant force in female tennis
for at least a decade at the start of the 21st century.
She won all four Grand Slams, many, many times.
Serena was in dazzling form at London 2012.
She had already won
the Wimbledon singles title that summer
and, in the Olympic singles semifinal, she came up against
world number one, Victoria Azarenka.
Serena handed her Belarusian opponent a drubbing
on the historic Centre Court at Wimbledon.
The Serena serve...
the Serena backhand...
the Serena forehand...
and the Serena serve again.
Serena's opponent in the gold-medal final
was world number three
and archrival Maria Sharapova.
Sharapova received similar treatment,
particularly the Serena serve,
the Serena serve and the Serena serve.
Game, set and match, Williams.
You'll have noticed that
when either one of the Williams sisters
is on song, that shot, in particular, stands out.
Many experts consider Venus and Serena to be
the two greatest servers of all time.
Throughout her career,
Serena dominated the serving statistics,
her points won on serve way ahead of her rivals.
Serena's fastest recorded speed is 128.6 miles per hour.
Both Williams sisters served faster than an Olympic bobsled
at top speed, or a high-speed train or a 2000cc motorbike.
Here's what it's like to be on the receiving end
of a Serena serve.
You get about half a second to react
and try and get the ball back.
- Oh. - Ow.
- Ooh. - Eee.
Venus may lack her sister's unerring consistency
but, in 2012, her fastest recorded serve
was actually a shade quicker than Serena's -
129mph.
So when anyone faced the two of them on court, good luck.
There was one other key element to their doubles success -
they were sisters, they were close,
they worked as a team for each other.
All those hours, days and weeks
smashing balls on the public courts
of South Central Los Angeles
prepared them for whatever tennis threw at them.
At London 2012, they hit a new high.
Still undefeated, played 12 matches, won 12 matches,
they entered the final without having lost a single set.
On this occasion, the gold medal match,
the Czech pair of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka
were picking up the challenge.
The Williams sisters versus the world.
There was only ever going to be one winner.
Or should I say two winners?