Others were merely shocked by the brashness of his statements, given that his daughters had accomplished nothing on the tour and were ranked not even anywhere near the Top 50. It was quite obvious the raw talent was there, but in an establishment where codes, rules, manners, and appropriateness were the means of operations on the professional tennis tour, these comments were seen as completely out of line by many a tennis analyst.

Five years down the road, this man is still seen as "less than stable" by the establishment, but it is he who has the establishment feasting heartily on his words. The day has finally arrived - the day when his daughters would take over the establishment. And not only have they done it, but they have proven it on the grandest of stages against the best players in the world.

While Richard Williams, that man from Compton, may be seen as an unstable, attention-seeking - even crazy at times - father by the press, it is undoubted that where he comes from is a place of love for his daughters, Venus and Serena, and ultimately a confidence in their physical talents and mental abilities to achieve things beyond their wildest imaginations.

Who knows whether Richard was using the press as a strategic move? And if so, the question was whether that strategy was to intimidate his daughters' opponents or to further instil a sense of belief and confidence in his daughters. Perhaps it was a bit of both. Then again, he was (and is) their father and coach and who would have been better to know of their potential than that "crazy" man himself. That "crazy" man probably isn't so "crazy" after all.

I have to say that I was someone who wasn't so much outraged by his statements in the past, but it did irk me some that Richard, and to a certain extent his daughters, could make such seemingly wild claims despite not having proven themselves on the tour. Serena was ranked in the vicinity of the 400's when she told the press that she and Venus would one day be the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the world.

Even despite the fact that Venus had reached the U.S. Open finals on her debut, there was still more for her to prove that she could in fact harness that raw talent into the makings of an elite player.

Many players in the past had broken through in one tournament only to fall by the wayside and many, including myself, felt that she needed to start walking the walk more than talking the talk.

It's funny and almost hilarious how their predictions, while seemingly bordering on the ridiculous four or five years ago, have come to fruition exactly how they intended. You definitely have to give the Williams family a lot of credit for not simply making these "outrageous" claims but defending them, battling the establishment when the press or the tennis professionals would lambast them for their arrogance, and finally achieving them.

What is even more remarkable is that they did it their own way, with little outside help or assistance or advice, and they did it while staying true to their family values.

Due to their seeming arrogance and stand-offishness, they didn't find many friends on the tour immediately. They had a base of fans who admired two confident African-American women battling it out in a sport dominated by Caucasians, and they had "haters" who could not stand their arrogance, their over confidence, and blase attitude to the other hardworking professionals on the tour.

With their father hamming it up in the press at any given opportunity, it definitely irked the other women on the tour who were not ready to turn their circuit into a circus. They were not ready to deal with the hype and the media frenzy that the two girls were producing equally for their tennis and for their comments.

I don't know if I would necessarily have called myself a "hater," but I was someone who definitely preferred the more laidback and approachable personalities, whose tennis stood for more than their achievements off court. I would ask for Lindsay Davenport and Monica Seles any day over media personalities such as Anna Kournikova and the Williams sisters. However, my respect and admiration for the sisters gradually grew when their tennis started to catch up with their hype, when they were starting to beat the best players and winning a swagger of important titles.

I became a Williams sisters fan during the Sydney Olympics in 2000. The widely held perception that they were brash, rude, and arrogant seemed to give way when they appeared to be sincerely joyous in representing their country. Venus charged through the singles draw and the sisters teamed up in the doubles competition to win the gold medals in both singles and doubles. They did it with a minimum of fuss and hype, and they did it with a maximum of class, humility, and pride.

I don't know whether their class was simply something which stood out at the Olympics or whether it was something which I was merely oblivious to beforehand, but since then, they have matured into proud, confident individuals who understand that family values are more important than Grand Slams, that tennis is really "just a game" which doesn't matter at the end of the day.

They have matured into respectable women who have not only gained the respect from their peers who admire what they have achieved on the tour, but they are women who in turn respect their fellow peers, who give credit where credit is due and play the games with utmost efficiency on court and humility off court.

It is fitting that Venus and Serena were crowned No. 1 and No. 2 by reaching the finals of a Grand Slam tournament in the Grand Slam tournament which has given them the most trouble in the recent past. Reaching the finals of Roland Garros is perhaps the statement declaring to the tour that if they can be dominant on a surface which is least conducive to their power games, then there is no telling what they can do on even more conducive surfaces.

Along the way to the championship match, they accounted for three former Roland Garros titleholders, including three-time champion Monica Seles, 2000 champion Mary Pierce, and defending champion Jennifer Capriati. They had to beat the best in order to come through and that is a quality which is perhaps just as admirable as any other statistic we could dredge up on the girls.

Serena, in particular, had a nasty draw, but given her form in her lead-up claycourt tournaments, her path was a lot clearer if she could maintain her level of play. It is unbelievable how much Serena has improved on her claycourt technique in just a number of weeks.

Starting her clay season in Charleston, Serena looked very shaky, unhappy with the adjustments she had to make on the surface which tested her patience, her nerve and her movement. Determination to get things right, along with the talent to make the improvements, saw her evolve from shaky wannabe claycourter into the Roland Garros champion of 2002.

Unfortunately, while their match was competitive, the standard of play was not as high as some of the tennis that they had produced over the two-week period. Whether that can be attributed to the nerves of playing against a sister, or nerves of playing in a Grand Slam final is difficult to say, but they accounted for 13 service breaks in a two set-match, which is highly unusual for two players with the biggest serves in the game.

Neither girl served particularly well and surprisingly, each only won about half the points on their respective first serves - an attribution to the fact that they are well adjusted to returning each other's serves and reading each other's deliveries. The killer statistic is the amount of errors produced in the match which was a sign of nerves and the level of risk that their games entail - Serena accounted for 59 errors with 19 clean winners while Venus accounted for 56 errors with only 4 winners.

Serena had the match on the string from the beginning and this was not surprising given her form throughout the championships and her claycourt preparation which was more complete than her sister's. On the other side of the net, Venus's intensity was nowhere near as high as in her fourth round match against Chanda Rubin or her quarter final match against Monica Seles, as she fluffed a number of groundstrokes and serves which would normally be routine for her.

Throughout the match, it was clear that Serena was being the aggressor (as in their previous matches), with Venus going for consistency and placement and relying on her speed to chase Serena's heavy shots. Unfortunately for her, Serena's big shots were going in on the crucial moments especially in the beginning of the second set.

Venus had her opportunity in the first set when she broke Serena two consecutive times to take a 5-3 lead with her serve to come. A poor and atypical service game gave Serena the opportunity to stay in the set.

Although it was a sloppy affair, it was good to see the level of competition that has so often been lacking in their previous encounters. Given that this was their eighth meeting on the professional tour, the difficulty in playing a sibling has eased and given that both were determined to win the Grand Slam that gave them the most trouble, they were willing to put aside those difficulties in playing a sibling for their desire to put this trophy on the mantlepiece. Fortunately for them, the trophy ends up on the same mantlepiece despite the result.

The result gives them the No. 1 and No. 2 rankings for the first time, but also notable in this week's rankings is that USA holds the next two positions, with Jennifer Capriati falling to No. 3 following her inability to defend her crown successfully and Monica Seles rising to No. 4 after her quarterfinal finish (one wonders whether that makes the Fed Cup loss even harder to swallow!).

Kim Clijsters is the only non-American in the top five at No. 5 while Lindsay Davenport gives the USA five of the top \six players as she holds the No. 6 ranking. Justine Henin and Jelena Dokic follow while Martina Hingis's ranking has been sent into freefall since Filderstadt 2001 as she sits at No. 9. Sandrine Testud of France rounds out the top 10.

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