MELBOURNE, Jan 25: Serena Williams etched her name in tennis history on Saturday, beating elder sister Venus for her first Australian Open to complete a sweep of the slams.

The siblings had spent the morning lying on a bed watching cartoons together but in the afternoon Serena battled to an emotional 7-6 3-6 6-4 victory to become only the fifth woman to hold all four grand slams at once, a feat she is calling the ‘Serena slam’.

The 21-year-old picked up A$1.13 million (US$669,073) for her victory and joins Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf in an exclusive pantheon of champions.

Court, Navratilova and Graf were in Melbourne to witness the newest member of the grand slam club.

“Winning four in a row... It doesn’t happen every day. I can’t believe I can now be compared to these women because they are just the greats. To be in their category is just amazing,” said Serena.

Venus, Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion in 2000 and 2001, claimed a less palatable slice of history, becoming the first woman to lose four successive grand slam finals, beaten on each occasion by Serena.

As Melbourne roasted on the second hottest day since temperatures were first recorded — the mercury hitting 43.9 degrees Celsius — the sisters took to the centre court with the roof closed.

It was the first time in the tournament’s history an entire final has been played indoors after organisers took the decision to protect the players’ health.

After an opening couple of games, where the sisters searched each other for any sign of weakness, Serena broke in the fourth game, swatting a salvo of high forehand winners to take the lead.

Venus struck back immediately, breaking when Serena pushed a forehand beyond the baseline.

Four games later Venus had the chance to break again. She converted on her third break point when Serena netted a forehand, the top seed throwing her racket to the side of the court before burying her head in her hands.

But Serena refused to buckle and pulled level at 6-6 with some courageous tennis before streaking into a 5-1 lead in the tiebreak.

From having the opening set within her grasp, Venus lost the tiebreaker 7-4 when another forehand flew long.

Determined to make amends she tightened her forehand and the rewards were immediate. She broke in the fifth game and it was enough to level the contest, winning the set 6-3.

It was only the third time in their 11 meetings that a match had gone to three sets. On the previous two occasions, both in 1999, the player who won the first set won the match.

It looked as though that pattern would again repeat when Serena broke at the start of the decider for a 2-0 lead after Venus took her eye off the ball.

But Venus broke back as the momentum switched once more. In the eighth game Serena again mounted an effort to finish off her sibling but Venus held on, staving off five break points to level 4-4.

Serena was looking stronger on her serve and Venus’s features crumpled into a frustrated frown as she struggled to read the delivery.

Venus’s serve finally crumbled under the weight of pressure in the next game and Serena sealed her historic victory in two hours 22 minutes.—Reuters