More in hope than expectation, there was a view that Amelie Mauresmo or Justine Henin may crack the Williams hegemony. The French player departed 6-2, 6-1 in 55 minutes to Serena while Henin lasted 77 minutes against older sister Venus.
Not only did the hope transpire to be entirely baseless but for the next six years, or until the sisters decide that their current passions for fashion and shopping is more interesting than tennis, expectations too can burn. These hopes are nothing personal. It's just, well, a tennis thing.
It is the first time since Maud Watson beat Lilian 6-8, 6-3, 6-3 in 1884 that sisters have met each other in a Wimbledon final.
There is no female player to touch either Serena or Venus Williams and that includes the currently injured Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport.
If it needed to be demonstrated again, as it has in two previous Grand Slam finals in which Venus has won one, the US Open, and Serena the other, the French Open just last month, the Williams sisters have raised the bar as Martina Navratilova once did and Steffi Graf continued.
That the wish for a non-Williams sisters final was so widespread has little to do with a pervasive dislike for the family and more to do with the likely prospect of the synthetic nature of the Centre Court contest.
The involvement of Mauresmo or Henin would have been like the New York Times description of the Roget's Thesaurus in 1925 - an "efficacious poultice for the aching brow".
Those who went to last year's US Open, and Roland Garros last month, testify to a final that couldn't rise above sibling rivalry. Both were finals on life support machines. They showed all the outside evidence of being alive and viable but little of the elements you associate with life itself in a Grand Slam - vigour, brutality and snarling aggression.
The Williams duo have built their games and incredible physiques around those competitive aspects and to have emerged from their disadvantaged backround, the Compton neighbourhood of Los Angeles, as impressively as they have takes more than a big serve and raking groundstrokes. But in interview Venus was sticking to the family omerta.
Question: "What would it take for the two of you to bring out the best in each other?"
Venus: "I don't know."
Q: "What was the best match you've had against her (Serena)?"
Venus: "I don't know."
Q: "Last year's final, were you better or was she (Serena) weaker?"
Venus: "I don't know. I guess I don't know too much today."
Serena, who has just been elevated to the number one slot in the world above her sister, seems to have been handed a slight psychological edge but was almost as equally reticent on the subject.
Q: "Do you feel like the number one player in the world?"
Serena: "I don't know."
Q: "What do you say to Venus about taking the number one slot?"
Serena: "I haven't talked to her about it."
Q: "What will you say?"
Serena: "I don't know."
But the younger 20-year-old sister, naturally more talkative, was finally prised open.
"Well, yeah, you know what happened in the US Open," she said. "I think I was too satisfied. I was very satisfied with my game.
"I really thought I was going to win just because I'd beaten some other players. I went in there a little over-confident, a little cocky."
Mauresmo and Henin believe that having a dominance to rival some of the greats coming from one family is unhealthy for the game. Mauresmo said: "I can't count how many people since yesterday have told me, 'we don't want a Williams final whatever'."
Henin said: "It's good for them but I think that maybe the crowd like to see other players in different finals of Grand Slams."
"We make the headlines and the cover stories, all the news, because it's Serena and I," said Venus. "It's just something that's unprecedented, something that's never happened. That's how tennis gets in the news, when there is amazing things happening."
To say who is playing the better tennis is difficult. Serena has been delayed for over an hour four times in her previous six matches, Venus just twice. But it was Serena who defeated the other non-Williams player on form, Mauresmo, who had previously out-thought and out-hit the powerful third seed Jennifer Capriati.
In tandem, nobody knows if the matches are decided somewhere other than the tennis court but the Williams pair have long denied any such divvying up of Grand Slam titles.
It is not the sisters' fault that their father, Richard, has created such an confident pair out of basic raw materials. Siblings who are both each other's biggest tennis enemies and closest friends must be a difficult paradox.
"I know Venus has beaten me a few times," says Serena. "She felt bad. Like when I beat her at the French Open, I kind of wished that there was something she could have won too. But we did. We both walked out as winners. We both should keep our heads up."
That they also do well.
(Seedings in brackets)
MEN'S SINGLES: Quarter-finals: (28) David Nalbandian (Arg) bt (22) Nicolas Lapentti (Ecu) 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 4-6, 6-4; (27) Xavier Malisse (Bel) bt Richard Krajicek (Ned) 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 9-7; (4) Tim Henman (Gbr) bt Andre Sa (Bra) 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3; (1) Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) bt (18) Sjeng Schalken (Ned) 6-2, 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 1-6, 7-5.
WOMEN'S SINGLES: Semi-finals: (1) Venus Williams (USA) bt (6) Justine Henin (Bel) 6-3, 6-2; (2) Serena Williams (USA) bt (9) Amelie Mauresmo (Fra) 6-2, 6-1.
MEN'S DOUBLES: Quarter-finals: (2) Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor (Bah/Can) bt David Prinosil and David Rikl (Ger/Cze x8) 6-7 (1/7), 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
WOMEN'S DOUBLES: Quarter-finals: (2) Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez (Spa/Arg) bt Anastassia Rodionova and Marlene Weingartner (Rus/Ger) 7-6 (7/4), 7-5; Anna Kournikova and Chanda Rubin (Rus/USA) bt (1) Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs (USA/Aus) 1-6, 7-5, 6-4; (4) Cara Black and Elena Likhovtseva (Zim/Rus) bt (5) Kimberly Po-Messerli and Natalie Tauziat (USA/Fra) 7-5, 7-6 (7/3).
Today's order of play
Centre Court: (1) L Hewitt v (4) T Henman; (27) X Malisse v (28) D Nalbandian.
In the event of bad weather the second match may be moved to Court One.
