By Fitzgerald Cecilio

Wimbledon, England

Sisters Venus and Serena Williams captured their fifth Wimbledon doubles crown after beating the partnership of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic, 7-5, 6-4, at the All-England Club.

The Williams sisters have now won 13 major doubles title since forging a partnership in 1999.

They have the third-most Grand Slam doubles titles among all teams in the Open Era, following 20-time champions Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver and 14-time champions Gigi Fernández and Natasha Zvereva.

"Doubles is definitely more fun than singles," Serena said after the victory. "At the same time, the last thing I want to do is let Venus down in doubles - in singles it's okay if I let myself down, but I don't want to let her down."

"I think a lot of it has to do with the serve," Venus added. "Serena and I put so much pressure on our opponents with our serves, and our returns are also very good. Maybe that has something to do with it. And we just stay really relaxed when we play with each other because we believe in each other so much."

The sisters outfought Hlavackova and Hradecka in several key points of the match, mostly with Serena poaching to cut off service returns. "Serena was amazing at the net," Venus said.

The sisters quickly ran up a 40-love lead in the final game and Venus hammered an ace to cap the victory in dramatic fashion. Venus credited her team's serves for keeping Hlavackova and Hradecka off balanced.

"Serena and I both put so much pressure on our opponents with our serves, and our returns are also, you know, very good," she said.

The victory came hours after Serena claimed her 5th Wimbledon singles crown and 14th Grand Slam trophy after defeating Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2.

It was Serena's first major title since suffering a severe foot injury and pulmonary embolism. She became the first woman over 30 to win a major title since Martina Navratilova hoisted the Rosewater Dish in 1990.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Marray and Frederik Nielsen capped off a magical run at Wimbledon, defeating fifth seeds Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 6-3 Saturday to become the first men's wild card pair in Wimbledon history to lift the doubles trophy.

Marray and Nielsen, playing in their first tour-level tournament together, defeated four seeded teams en route to the title.

En route to the finals, they knocked out ninth seeds Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez in the first round, edged No. 8 seeds Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer in a five-set thriller in the third round, and ousted second-seeded defending champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan in the semi-finals.

 

Serena Williams is back, and she looks almost as good as ever. The 30-year-old American won her fifth Wimbledon title

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Serena Wins Wimbledon Crown, Williams Sisters Take Doubles Title