COVER STORY: AUGUST 2007

By Matthew Cronin

 

WIMBLEDON — With a searing stare and a will to live again on court, Venus Williams could feel her championship form coming back in the third round of Wimbledon, even though she was down 5-3 in the third set against Akiko Morigami and was lazily pushing her second serve.

But after running off four straight games with a whirlwind attack and winning that match, she cautioned against picking against her for the rest of the tournament, because the lean 27-year-old had locked in and was hitting her strokes cleanly once again. “One of my strong points is I’m a tough competitor and a huge fighter,” Venus said.

“In my experience, I just always feel like it should go my way.”

How right Venus was once again, as she didn’t drop a set the rest of the tournament, bullying the standout likes of Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ana Ivanovic and Marion Bartoli, 6-4, 6-1 in the final. “I was really in that zone,” said Venus. “No one was going to beat me.”

For the fourth time this century, Williams raised the appropriately named Venus Rosewater Dish.

Along the way, she physically punished her foes. How often do you see a foursome of superior athletes shaking their sore hands after getting stung by a first serve?

But that’s what happened to Bartoli and everyone else, as an ultra- confident Venus took her gloves off and laid one roundhouse punch after another. On match point against Bartoli, she reared back and cracked a 124-mph slice serve into Bartoli’s body that nailed the young Frenchwoman’s racket handle and bounced lazily away. Venus - who has had more than a sporadic last two years since winning her last Wimby crown - shrieked, beamed and jumped up and down in delight.

All Bartoli could do was shake her head and wonder just how her 6-foot-2 foe could play so consistently well after a mediocre ‘07 campaign. She and the rest of the tour now have to realize that at the AELTC, Venus is an entirely different player, one who trusts every one of her searing shots.

“When you receive a ball at 120 miles, you get some shock into the wrist, which I’m not used to because I’m not playing against girls every day hitting the balls like this,” said Bartoli, who had stunned No. 3 Jelena Jankovic and No. 1 Justine Henin en route to the final.

Read more … First Serve Roger Federer

“Venus played some unbelievable tennis. She reached some balls like I never see one person reach, and she would even hit it harder back to me. Sometimes she was hurting my wrist so bad because the ball was coming so fast to me. I can’t say a player can beat her when she plays like this on grass. It’s not possible to beat her. She’s just too good."

What’s incredible about Venus’ run is that she has essentially rewritten the same story that she enthralled us with ‘05, when she won a classic three-setter over Lindsay Davenport in the final. Then, she hadn’t been a big-time competitor for two years due a series of injuries that began — where else — at ‘03 Wimbledon, when she tore her abdominal muscle in the semis against Kim Clijsters and then fell in the final to Serena.

Shortly after her ‘05 victory, Venus got hurt again and since then has been off the tour more than on.

This fortnight, she entered Wimbledon in similar shape: creaky, without a lot of confidence and with just one title in two years, a minor one in Memphis earlier this season.

She was full of promise at the French Open, but then played a horrible, error-strewn second set in a loss to Jankovic. She didn’t start Wimbledon in fine fashion, staggering to a first-round victory over teen Alla Kudryavtseva 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 and then sweating out her thirdround win over Morigami. But after that victory on Court 2, she was rock solid all the way through, rediscovering her soul-destroying kick serve into the body, raking huge groundstrokes into the corners on mid-court balls and taking care of nearly everything thrown at her when approaching the net.

“There is no one who works harder than her on and off the court,” said Venus’ boyfriend, golfer Hank Kuehne. “She does everything she has to do. Most women who get into their late 20s are winding it down. She is going to be around for a while and play at the top level for as long as she wants to. She could be out here like Roger Clemens."

While Williams doesn’t have the baseball pitching legend’s sturdy physique, when confident, she still has a hand-rattling first serve, a corner-kissing return, an incredible backhand-down-the-line and now, a razor-sharp crosscourt forehand.

In the second week, she went “Serena” on the field, imitating her sister’s incredible run in Australia.

Serena came into that tournament with few high marks on her recent resume and then battled her way through one dicey early match after another before finding her form to win her eighth Slam title.

In some ways, the sisters are as different as strangers who meet on a practice court, but in others, they are as similar as twins. Venus watched how Serena scraped Down Under until she found her ethereal form and then she did the same at Wimbledon. “It’s not necessarily a competition,” Venus said. “But we motivate each other to get more.

When she sees me win here, she’s just going to go for it. When I saw her win in Australia, I knew I could do it. We just love each other and inspire each other like that. “ Now the two most ambitious siblings in sports have combined for 14 Slam titles. Neither of them will likely catch U.S legend Chris Evert and her 18 majors, but combined, they have a fair shot at it.

They dig as deep as any players ever have and have been doing so since Venus first broke out in ‘97 and reached the U.S. Open final as an unseeded 17-year-old. “You have to look within yourself and pull out something very deep to move forward with,” said her father and coach, Richard. “I remember when Venus was about nine years old she wanted to win more Wimbledons than anything else, so maybe that is why she plays so well here."

Venus says she understands the bounce of the ball better on the lawns than anywhere else and perhaps that’s why she became the first woman since the legendary Steffi Graf to win four titles in England.

She says she can play another seven years or so and Richard thinks she can win another three titles, which would tie her with Graf.

Whether or not that’s the case, Venus is back in the elite mix. If she can stay healthy — which will always be a question — she has a terrific shot at winning her third U.S. Open title.

Just in case anyone has been living on planet Maria Sharapova for too long, the Williams sisters are back and may just ride off into the ‘07 sunset with three of the four majors.

Any player who would count them out should loosen up her ponytail knot, because it’s obviously affecting her thinking. “As long as we’re fit, we just have so much to give on the court,” Venus said. “Obviously I feel fantastic. My sixth Slam. I want some more."

 

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