The wonderful Williams sisters are both out of Wimbledon earlier than for many years. Venus lost an epic match against the 2011 champion, Petra Kvitova yesterday, and Serena, the reigning champion, has just been sent home by the 25th seed, French woman Alize Cornet. Both gave their all and both lost only after a tremendous struggle.
However, what strikes me most about both defeats is the manner in which they were received. Both young women must have been absolutely distraught and wanted to get away as quickly as possible and yet both made a point of waiting for their opponents and walking off of the court together; so many others march off within seconds of their loss and pay no attention to their vanquishers.
Few other competitors treat the Wimbledon Centre Court motto so perfectly. Everyone who walks through the doors sees lines from the poem *If* by Rudyard Kipling, undoubtedly one of the greatest pieces of English literature, which say :
"If you can meet with triumph and disaster,
And treat those two imposters just the same"
Venus and Serena have been truly great champions. They have also been, and continue to be, truly great sportsmen. Their behaviour in defeat demonstrates just how great they are and it will be a sad day when they decide to hang up their tennis shoes.
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