WIMBY, DAY 11: THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS SERENA...

On my very first morning here, flush with excitement, I put down my backpack and immediately walked out to survey the grounds. Kind of the way you take that family car vacation to a cabin in the mountains, and as your parents unload the car ("Did you remember the toilet paper?") you race off to explore in the woods.

Anyway, so there I am, just a few steps outside the press center, and right there in front of me on Court 16 is Serena Williams. She's hitting with a male tennis partner as her dad, Richard, stands behind her, quietly studying one of his two masterpieces. After a few minutes of baseline rallies, Serena looks over the net and implores the young man to "hit it harder."

And that was my first taste of Wimbledon.

What haven't the Sisters done right these last eleven days? On the court the two have, collectively, played twenty sets and won twenty sets. But off the court, in the press room, is where they have really shined:

Serena, asked on the first day of the tournament whom she would vote for in the U.S. presidential election, calmly explained that she is a Jehovah's Witness and, due to the tenets of her faith, does not get involved in politics.

Venus, last Saturday talking to our own Jimmy Roberts, sweetly gushing over her whereabouts: "I just love Wimbledon", Venus said and it sounded as if she realized her and Serena's landmark status here at the All England.

Venus, asked on Tuesday about the snub, real or imagined, of she and her sister being relegated to Court 2, a "show court" albeit one that only seats a thousand or so fans. "If you want to get 'real real'," Venus admonished, "I'm here for the tennis...on all courts." (I don't believe Venus was referring to that early '90s Jesus Jones tune)

Serena, also on Tuesday, asked if she felt that her big sister was the favorite to win the Final, replied, "If  I'm in the tournament, I would never say she was a favorite ... What are you on?"

Just loved that reply. Might have been the quote of the tournament. And Serena might have reminded that journo that she'd won the last five Grand Slam finals (of six, total) in which she and Venus played.

So here they are at the ancestral home of sporting privilege, two African-American girls from Compton who will wear the all-whites but beyond that tender no compromise. The very first All England Ladies Singles final, back in 1884, featured a pair of sisters, but that was back when there were about 17 women in the world who played tennis.

And look how far we've come, world. I am reminded that on my first evening here in Great Britain I switched on the telly before falling asleep and caught the last hafl hour of Amistad. In this very aristocratic, yet lovely, setting, in an arena that actually has a reserved seating area for royalty, two black women stand head and shoulders above everyone. Based on merit, which is what achievement in this world should be based.

"Let us free!" indeed, as Djimon Hounsou wailed.

Love the Williams Sisters. Right here, right now (pardon the Jesus Jones callback), there is no other place they want to be. Right here, right now, watching the world wake up from history.

Today's Thing I Fancy

Walking to work. Or, to say it more colorfully as the British would, ambulatory commuting. This morning I was out the door at 6:15 a.m. for a 3-mile stroll to work that was mostly through two parks: Richmond National Preserve (a.k.a., world's greatest city park) and Wimbledon Common. How can you not have a spring in your step as you walk past a family of swans (mom, dad, four chicks) floating atop Leg Of Mutton Pond en route to Spanker Hill Woods?

Today's Thing I Quite Fancy

YouTube videos of Chicago performing. Don't ask me to explain. I don't understand it myself. I mean, we're talking about a band whose biggest hit concerned itself with a general inquiry as to the time (the only conceivable answer, by the way, being, "Twenty-five or six to four"). But, as I sit in our darkened studio writing a college football preview (multi-tasking here at the Wimby) while Beret does all the heavy tennis lifting -- I'm playing some vintage tunes from the band that I've always thought should be named Peter Cetera Et Cetera.

Just like the Williams Sisters, I'm feeling Stronger Every Day.

Today's Question

Whom would you fancy in a doubles match between the Bryan Brothers and the Williams Sisters? Beret, being the sexist that she is, says the Williams sisters would have no chance. Wait, Beret isn't sexist. She just knows a lot more about tennis than I do. But not as much about the band Chicago. She thought I was talking about the musical until she got a load of Peter Cetera's mid-70s's Wolfman Mullet.