MELBOURNE, Australia -- Considering the fact Serena Williams never played her best tennis for an extended period of time here, this major was her most well-earned: winning 7-5 in the third against Emilie Loit, fighting off Kim Clijsters after being down 5-1 and winning the best sister battle so far.

	Pam's Picks
	Shriver Former WTA Tour pro Pam Shriver is providing ESPN.com with in-depth analysis throughout the Australian Open. Shriver, a tennis analyst for ESPN, was ranked as high as No. 3 in singles play. She won 21 singles and 112 doubles crowns, including 22 Grand Slam titles.

She deserves every title she holds and unanimous No. 1 by a mile.

The other winner was the Australian Open roof. Players could not compete in this weather. Last year we almost had both players knocked out in the heat and it was about 10 degrees worse today. I commend the Aussie Open with being visionary with that roof concept 10 years ago. I know both athletes today appreciated it.

For the first time, a match between the Williams sisters was compelling. Lots of emotion on the court from both players. A controversial call that prolonged the first set. Mom got up and left because she couldn't even watch.

Just enough winners and really good play to make it really interesting.

Going into this, we knew that if Venus ended up serving from behind, she was going to be in trouble trying to hold. With Venus serving at 3-4, Serena held five break points and Venus barely held on for 4-all. During the commercial break I said out loud to Mary Carillo and Chris Fowler, you can hold those kind of games at 3-4, but at 4-5 there's a totally different level of pressure. And, you know, her serve cracked in the last game.

It wasn't like the French Open where they couldn't establish anything on serve and had a lot of breaks. You're always going to see more breaks in women's tennis. I think Venus should have come to the net more. She only came to the net three times but in the tournament she came in to net almost twice as much as Serena.

It's a different ballgame when they play against each other. Each sister chases their aggressive play down better than anyone else, each sister anticipates each other's moves and they also have their own internal demons to fight.

The intangibles in this match are a huge factor. Think about your own sibling. Try and imagine the emotions that you might feel playing them with so much at stake. Venus and Serena do feel those emotions.

There was a clear favorite from the crowd, with Venus being the underdog. Serena didn't make too many friends with the crowd in the Clijsters match because of the perception that she used an injury timeout to her advantage. But for the first time the tennis audience has somebody to cheer for a little more. They're starting to feel sympathy for the big sister. The crowd wasn't sitting on their hands as much in the past. But they're still quieter watching the sisters than at any other match.

Serena's year is already off to a better start than last year -- considering what a good year that was. But I don't think things will come as easily this year as it did last year. She lost three sets here -- more than at any other Grand Slam tournament all last year. I think Clijsters is going to continue to be one of her main rivals. In the final, Venus showed she was just a fraction behind.

So I don't think she's going to do to the Grand Slam. She's not as dominant as Steffi Graf or even Monica Seles at her best years. That's because the field is much deeper now. Jennifer Capriati, who once she gets her eyes healed needs to play like she did at the year-end championships to challenge, along with the two Belgians, Lindsay Davenport and even Monica Seles, there are many more threats than there were 10-15 years ago on the tour. Not to mention Venus. There's also more of a physical challenge now with players having to play so much to defend their ranking.

In any case, six in a row is the record, so if Serena wins the French and Wimbledon, she will tie the record.