KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- The contrast was apparent from the beginning.

No. 6 Venus Williams, 18, arrived on court with her hair pulled back in a sophisticated chignon with beaded tendrils leading from it. She was dressed in a classic red-and-white halter top, that harkened to the 1950s, and a little dark blue skirt with white piping.

Serena, 17, looked the role of the younger sister, her hair parted down the middle and pulled up into beaded pigtails. She was wearing a little girl's creamsicle orange and white outfit, at which she kept tugging.

And as play developed, in this historic first meeting between sisters in a women's professional tennis final (115 years after two sisters met in Wimbledon's then-amateur final), it was Venus who showed the maturity. She kept her cool after losing the second set and went on to win, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, here at the Lipton Championships, proving the older sister is still the big sister in the Williams household.

Venus is now 3-0 against Serena in competition and successfully defended the Lipton title she won a year ago. It also put another $265,000 in her bank account. Serena didn't do badly either. She improved her ranking from No. 16 to No. 11 and walked off with a check for a healthy $132,000 as runner-up.

All in all, a very good day for the Williams family.

"This is Venus' house," said Richard Williams, referring to his daughter's past Lipton title. "But I thought there was a thief in it today. I thought Serena was going to steal the house."

It was probably a father's pride talking, because not even when Serena was winning the second set did it look as if she would wind up the victor. All the light and determination that had shown in her face the past three weeks while winning 16 straight matches in back-to-back tournaments and in her run to the finals here was gone. She didn't look like the same player who had defeated Steffi Graf and world No. 1 Martina Hingis along the way.

Yesterday, a cross-court forehand winner and a backhand volley winner that saved two break points in the first game of the third set that would have inspired a strong shake of the fist in other matches went unmarked.

Her body language after an errant forehand or backhand drew a sigh and a body twist of frustration. And there was a lot of frustration, as she committed 66 unforced errors to her sister's 41.

"I really wasn't that emotionally involved today," said Serena, who hit more winners than Venus (21-12). "I didn't really hit many [good] shots. That's why I didn't have many fist pumps. If I had hit some great shots, things might have been different for me. Maybe Venus [could have been more excited], but I don't remember too many winners throughout the match."

In truth, it was a disappointing match. Venus had said yesterday that she hoped this match would be different from the other two they had played. In both -- a second-round match at the Australian Open and a quarterfinal match at the Italian Open -- she had won easily.

"I hope this one is really, really good," she said.

But both Serena and her father said Serena was off her game, a situation that might have been brought on by a "lack of focus" brought on by sisters playing each other, according to Richard Williams. But the excuse was shrugged off by Serena. "I just wasn't the same Serena like I was in the rest of my 16 matches," she said.

And when Venus suddenly dropped her serve four times in the second set and her forehands were suddenly bouncing long by several feet, a murmur went through the crowd. Was Venus tanking so her sister wouldn't be embarrassed? Had she been told to make sure the match went three sets to fill the two hours of television broadcast time?

Some of the misses were so bad that a number of fans unloaded the loud whistles usually reserved for the poor calls by lines people.

"Any match could be better in my eyes," Venus said. "I could have played better. Serena could have played better. We both really wanted to win. It would have been Serena's largest title and it is my largest title. I haven't been able to excel in the Grand Slams yet.

"But it's what happened. It was good enough. It was two hours."

After the match, Richard Williams was asked about that second set.

"I would never tell my daughters to tank a match," Williams said. "It's like telling a person to give up. We don't teach giving up. We teach our kids that you didn't come here to start a match, you came to win the match.

"As for TV, if it had been a short match, I would have been sad for TV, but I would have been happy for my daughters. I wanted my daughters off that concrete [surface] as soon as possible."

NOTE: In the men's doubles final, No. 7 seed Wayne Black and Sandon Stolle made quick work of Boris Becker and Jan-Michael Gambill, 6-1, 6-1. This match is thought to have been the last for Becker in an ATP Tour event in the United States.

"I retired as a professional from Wimbledon in 1997," said Becker, who is planning to play there again this June and is also playing Davis Cup with Germany. "But I live part of the year here. I feel like I'm a local. I have lots of friends every day at the site from all over Miami and overall I'm very happy to be able to have played so many matches in the Lipton. It's been a while for me."

Pub Date: 3/29/99