WIMBLEDON, England -- Here's a snippet from Williams World, where one likely Wimbledon finalist says of another likely Wimbledon finalist, who happens to be her sister, "I would [love to] have her legs. She has the sexiest legs."
And here's another snippet from Williams World, where one likely finalist says that if the other likely finalist happens to lose early in a tournament, "I'm always sad when she leaves and she's gone. It's not the same."
And here's another snippet from Williams World, where two likely finalists double as, well, roommates, and might eat breakfast together on the morning of the final, of which one says, "I'm going to sabotage her and eat all the breakfast."
Williams World, which once dominated the tennis sky before receding somewhat, has reappeared to hover over Wimbledon 2008, reminding everyone of its rarefied realities.
Among those are that Serena Williams envies Venus Williams' legs; Venus Williams pines for Serena Williams if she loses early; and Serena Williams might hoard Venus Williams' breakfast before their final.
It's all so routinely familiar and yet astoundingly unusual.
"I couldn't imagine playing my sister in sports," said the 69th-ranked Bethanie Mattek, an American who played Serena in the fourth round. "It's really hard to play someone you love and care about and then be mean, basically, on the court."
That passage aptly sums up the ticklish contour of the Williams World everyone remembers.
With both players cracking the Wimbledon semifinals as runaway favorites, and with the game's top four players eliminated, they figure to collide in a Grand Slam final for the first time since Wimbledon 2003, when Serena won, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. in the fifth Williams World final out of the last six Grand Slams at that time.
So tangled and unknowable is this rivalry that Venus still mildly resents that match -- "I think I had an injury, but I still came really close to winning" -- even as she writes in her diary in the Times of London that she thinks of Serena and buys her little gifts while shopping in Wimbledon Village.
It's the singular rivalry in which one (Serena) says of the other, "It definitely hurts less to lose to her. I mean, I'll be bitter, but at the end of the day it's a lot easier than losing to someone I feel I should normally beat."
Note that she did not say at the end of the day she'd also be happy for her, but that might've been simple oversight.
