Serena and Venus Williams are not done yet.
That was the message emphatically underlined when Serena, the younger sister, got her Grand Slam career back on track with a brave comeback win in the Australian Open final on Saturday.
The seventh seed secured her seventh Grand Slam title despite suffering a back injury in the first game, beating top seed Lindsay Davenport 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 in an all-American final.
It propelled Serena to the world number two ranking, with Davenport's position now clearly within her sights.
"I'm excited to be number two now," Williams told reporters. "It's been a long way coming back. I'm almost to my goal, and it feels great."
Williams's brave win silenced the many critics who had written off her and sister Venus, who had not added to their Grand Slam haul since Serena beat Venus in the 2003 Wimbledon final.
"For me, I've always considered myself the best and the top," Williams said. "I never considered that I was out of it -- ever."
It had seemed a long time, however, since the brash sisters dominated the women's game, sharing 10 Grand Slams from Serena's breakthrough 1999 U.S. Open triumph to Wimbledon four years later.
Serena's growing fashion business and Venus's preoccupation with her interior design interests only added weight to arguments that they were on the decline.
"That makes it that much sweeter because people are always wondering about what's happening to us," Williams said.
"It's nothing. We're working really hard. The matches we lose, it's just maybe because of a few points here, a few points there of not playing well. It's just ... we're excited to be back," she added.
Professional misery and personal tragedy were the real reasons behind their decline.
The family was hit hard in September 2003 when Yetunde Price, the oldest sister, was shot dead in Los Angeles.
Their parents, Oracene and Richard, separated and injury struck both sisters in 2003.
WIMBLEDON TRIUMPH
Serena was off the tour for eight months after her 2003 Wimbledon triumph and has struggled to regain the form that took her to the "Serena Slam" of four consecutive Grand Slam titles in 2002-2003.
"I just kind of reflected on my life and tried to realise what I wanted to do in my life and what's most important for me," Williams said.
"If I can see the bigger picture, I can go through anything," she said.
Her loss to Russian teenager Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon last year, however, gave strength to the doubters.
Venus, meanwhile, has not made it past a Grand Slam quarter-final since losing to her sister in the 2003 Wimbledon and the Australian Open finals and has not won a Grand Slam title since 2001.
"I look at it as an honour that myself and my sister have been able to lift the level of tennis," she said.
"People are asking me what's wrong with the Williams sisters. There's nothing wrong. We're still fighting. We're working real hard and we've been through a lot," she said.
"I don't understand why people are pointing fingers at me and my sister when we're still working hard," she said.
Serena's courage has never been in doubt.
In her semi-final in Melbourne against Sharapova she saved three match points to avenge her Wimbledon defeat, just as she had saved two match points in 2003 to beat Belgian Kim Clijsters in the semi-finals before going on to take the title.
She is looking ahead after securing her second Australian title to go with her Wimbledon (2002/03), U.S. Open (1999, 2002) and 2002 French Open crowns.
"I feel that I need to win the French because I've won two of each already except for the French," Williams said.
"I need to win another French Open so I can even them out."
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