Sibling rivalry is natural, even if it tends to be unhelpful. But what happens when you pair up tennis playing brothers and sisters on the court?
Do siblings have a natural advantage when they play together? Or is it simply an off-putting gimmick that occasionally freaks out the opposition?
Currently in the game, we’ve got a number of siblings collaborating on the court.
First up we’ve got Venus and Serena Williams, who occasionally have that unfortunately awkward situation of making it to the doubles final as a pair and then meeting each other across the net in the singles final. It’s happened three times, in case you were wondering – once here in 2003, when Serena won the singles, and twice at Wimbledon in 2002, where Serena was victorious and in 2008, when Venus finally got her own back and toppled her younger sister.
Then there’s the Bryan brothers Mike and Bob, who amp up the unity as twins. They play almost exclusively with one another, and have enjoyed the majority of their success playing as siblings, with 49 joint titles. Interestingly, while Bob Bryan has enjoyed slightly more success on the singles court, Mike has two more doubles titles under his belt than his brother. They complement each other on the court – one plays left-handed (Bob) and plays right handed. Bob serves well, Mike returns well. The chest bump is awesome.
When they were younger, the parents limited direct competition between the two by making them take turns in defaulting when they were drawn to play each other in the juniors.
The Bondarenko sisters have not yet reached the heights of Williams and Bryan, but they’ve enjoyed success here, winning the doubles title last year. Alona and Kateryna have won one other title together, an indoor tournament in Paris, and Alona has one extra under her belt, winning in Istanbul with Anastasiya Yakimova. Kateryna has never won a title without her sister. On the singles court, despite being ranked 25 places behind her sister, she leads her older sister head to head 3-2.
And finally, we’ve got the Radwanska sisters. Agnieszka, a very capable singles player ranked No.10 in the world, has only ever won doubles titles when paired with her sister, Urszula. Urszula, on other hand, hasn’t quite cracked the top end of the singles rankings yet, but has won more ITF doubles titles without her sister than with her.
At Australian Open 2009, defending champs the Bondarenko sisters are already out at the hands of Gisela Dulko and Roberta Vinci. The Radwanska sisters fell to Australian pair Sam Stosur and Rennae Stubbs, who face the Williams sisters in the next round. Meanwhile, the Bryan brothers also play Australians in the next round, Adam Feeney and Robert Smeets, who overcame the mighty Marat Safin and Guillermo Canas.
So the real question is, can Aussie power overcome family ties?
Only time will tell.
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