BEIJING – Venus and Serena Williams probably didn’t break a sweat in their championship defeat of Spanish duo Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual.

The Williamses are formidable enough alone, though that was rarely shown here at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre, together they have been unbeatable in Olympic play. They are undefeated in 10 Olympic matches after taking down the Spanish duo 6-2, 6-0 in all of 66 minutes in front a crowd that may have numbered in the low 200s.

The stadium was so empty that a group of Spanish citizens decided to group together and run around the court.

“I wanted to join them,” Serena said. “I looked like they were having fun.”

Both Williamses lost in the quarterfinals of the women’s singles. Together, they dominated, only dropping two sets en route to the gold medal.

It’s the second gold medal for the Williamses. They won the doubles gold at the Sydney Games but skipped Athens because an injury to Serena.

“The Olympics is truly about participation,” Venus said. “But it’s also about your moment in time. Today my moment in time was with my sister who I love almost more than anyone in the world. It’s just amazing to think that we could participate and bring home a gold medal.

“It does mean more to me to win it with Serena, to share this kind of moment with your sister. I mean we’re practically joined at the hip. It’s really unexplainable. I have chill bumps.”

The Williamses, who will leave China soon to prepare for the U.S. Open, are only the second pair to win the title twice after fellow Americans Gigi Fernandez and Mary Jo Fernandez. And they continue what seems to be an American trend. An American duo has won the women’s doubles title in five of the last six Olympics.

Singles at the 15c cocktail hour. Photo by