Serena Williams

Williams won the first WTA title of her career early in 1999, overpowering Amelie Mauresmo of France 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 in the Open Gaz de France tournament in Paris. In besting Mauresmo, Serena became the first American ever to win that tournament. Making the victory even sweeter for the Williams family was an almost simultaneous win by Venus in the IGA Super Thrift Tennis Classic in Oklahoma City. Serena followed her Open Gaz victory with a win over Steffi Graf at the Evert Cup tournament in Indian Wells, California, the very next week, grabbing her second WTA title in a row. During a three-week period ending with her defeat of Graf in California, Serena won 11 consecutive matches. In an interview with Michael Silver of Sports Illustrated, Williams made it clear who she saw as her main competitor. "Whatever my potential is, I want to reach it now," she told Silver. "And if I do, I see Venus as my biggest competition."

The head-to-head sibling rivalry of which Serena spoke was not long in coming. On March 28, 1999, Venus beat her younger sister 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 at the Lipton Championships in Key Biscayne, Florida. The Williams faceoff marked the first time in more than a century that two sisters met each other in a tennis tournament finals match. The previous match between sisters had come in 1884 when 19-year-old Maud Watson beat older sister Lillian, 26, at the first women's Wimbledon. Serena's loss to Venus at Key Biscayne was not really the first time she'd fallen to her older sister but actually her third consecutive loss to Venus, the others coming at the Australian Open and Italian Open in 1998. Despite these defeats, Serena was moving up impressively in the world tennis rankings, finding herself at number 10 by mid-April 1999.