JULY 2008

By Matthew Cronin

Not so long ago on a distant isle, the Williams sisters mowed down field after field of green grass contenders at Wimbledon.  Venus and Serena have dominated the world’s most prestigious tournament this century, winning a remarkable six out of eight titles and stamping their family mark more firmly at the AELTC than they even have at home in the comfortable confines of the U.S. Open.

“Special memories” is how four-time titlist and defending champ Venus describes her relationship with the grass. It doesn’t seem to matter what has occurred prior to the opening of the hallowed club gates; once the sisters saunter onto Centre Court, they once again become players to be feared.

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“It’s really not about being at the top of your game.  It’s about knowing what to do at the right time,” said Venus.

This year, though, might be different as the sisters are aging and there are plenty of new, talented kids on the block who have scored wins over them and do not clearly recall their true dominant period from ‘00 to ‘05, when Venus stormed to three titles (‘00, ‘01, ‘05) and Serena to two (‘02, ‘03). Only Maria Sharapova’s phenomenal breakout in ‘04 stopped what almost assuredly would have been six straight trophies for Compton’s most famous family when the then 17-year-old stunned Serena in the final. After Venus clawed past Lindsay Davenport in a dramatic, 9-7-in-the-third-set win in the ‘06 final that has gone down as one of the most thrilling and well-played Slam finals ever, France’s Amelie Mauresmo and her unique serve-and-volley attack finally came of age on grass in ‘07. But last year, after a poor first three matches, Venus beat up the field once again.  She didn’t drop a set, burying Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ana Ivanovic and Marion Bartoli.

“I was really in that zone,” said Venus. “No one was going to beat me.”

But Venus and Serena both fell out of the proverbial zone in Paris — Serena perhaps more significantly than her beloved older sister. Eight-time Slam champ Serena has taken shocking losses at the Slams before, but perhaps none more sizeable than what occurred on Court Suzanne Lenglen, when a previously in-form Serena completely fell apart in a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Slovenia’s Katarina Srebotnik in the third round.

Six-time Slam champ Venus has also had her share of eyebrow-raising defeats, but few where it looked like the 27-year-old clearly had aged, like she did in her 7-5, 6-3 loss to the spry Italian Flavia Pennetta.

It was only the second time that the once-dominant Williams sisters had lost on the same day at a Slam, the first time coming in Paris four years ago when Jennifer Capriati beat up Serena and eventual champ Anastasia Myskina ran past Venus.

“Just wasn’t a good day for our family today, but we always learn and get more determined after our losses,” said Venus. “We’ll just come back harder.”

While that may be true, whether they will come back more successful can only be answered at Wimbledon. Serena had come into the tournament in mostly stellar form, only dropping one contest since the Aussie Open, a third-set tiebreak barnburner to Dinara Safina in Berlin. But that was in Germany against a onetime top-10 player, her first tournament on red clay all year. Her loss in Paris to Srebotnik was against a competent veteran who has never performed well at the Slams; a woman whom she had beaten during her title run in Charleston; a player who is less than a consummate closer and who, of course, sadly fell in the next round.

Serena had chances that scaled up and down the Eiffel Tower, but this century’s most feared competitor blew them time and time again. She volleyed atrociously and yanked wide groundstrokes off her back feet. She buried a sitter overhead into the net on game point trailing 4-3 in the second set. Then she got caught in the Slovenian’s slicing trap in the next game and pushed a flat drop shot into the net to be broken.

“The ball was over there and her head was looking elsewhere,” said her mother and coach, Oracene, pointing three feet the other way. “It helps if you look at the ball and I could tell she wasn’t.”

In the final game, even when given opportunities to break back and seize control of the match, she folded. Srebotnik gave away her first match point with a backhand error. Serena then forced her into a backhand error on the next one. But then Serena’s hands shook again. At deuce, she erred on a negotiable forehand and on the third match point, she pulled her body to the right, skidded on her right heel and careened a forehand way wide, perhaps an uglier shot than any of the backhand volleys she missed by five feet. Serena, who has lived for big points, must have forgotten what the score was because she didn’t respond.

“That’s kind of always what I think. You know, just, ‘Okay, if I could just win these two points, then, I think I’d be okay.’ I just yanked a lot of them wide today. I guess [the match point] was just another one,” she said.

It was a totally inexplicable performance for a woman who, with Justine Henin’s retirement, came into the tournament as the odds-on favorite and left looking nowhere near the player who had trounced the field in ‘02.

“She was edgy. Her head just wasn’t there and I can’t explain why,” said Oracene. “She’s been like that since she got here. She wasn’t confident. She’s been in a funk for a couple of weeks.”

Just after Serena lost, one of her older sisters came off the court, pushed through some thick green doors and told another friend, “It is what it is.  You just have accept it.” Easier said than done for Serena.

Twenty minutes later, Serena came into the press conference with her cheeks blotched from tears. She was glum, but credited her opponent with playing well and didn’t say that the back injury that forced her out of Rome was bothering her.

“I wasn’t nervous,” she said. “She was getting a lot of balls back, and I might have let that get into my head. I should have just made my shots. She was just making some shots I don’t think she’s ever made before, or she probably would be in the top 2. I felt like I needed to press. I felt like I was able to get into it, but I just felt like I missed a lot of easy shots. I wasn’t able to capitalize.”

Oracene can’t put her finger on what was wrong with her daughter. She was completely puzzled as to how she could have been playing so well and then fall flat. Oracene says that she can almost always tell when Serena is going to win, regardless of the circumstances. She never had a positive feeling in Paris.

“She doesn’t have the mindset right now,” Price said with a firm shake of her head. “Her confidence isn’t there. I’m really trying to figure this out. She’s really hurting about this one. She’s feeling pretty low.”

If you look at Serena’s record at the majors since she won her Serena Slam from ‘02-’03, you’ll find no such loss to a much lesser player when she was healthy. Certainly, her defeat to journeywoman Jill Craybas at ‘05 Wimbledon stands out, but Serena had little match play going into that contest due to ankle and knee injuries. This time, she was healthy and hot.

Venus wasn’t nearly as shaky as Serena, but was simply outplayed by Pennetta, who was stung by her breakup with longtime boyfriend Carlos Moya last year, and has vowed to take a now-or-never approach to the rest of her career. That’s how she played against Venus; she was fearless, with newfound power, with an intelligence that allowed her to cut off the angles, change the direction of her shots and lull Venus into a false sense of security. On the last point of the match, her true ambition showed when she stood strong from inside the baseline, yanking Venus around, going crosscourt and down the line until she forced a weak reply and then rushed a forehand crosscourt winner.

“I got on the court and thinking, ‘Hey, I can win this match,’” the 26th-seed Pennetta said. “ It’s perfect.”

It was by no means perfect for Venus, who played okay, but she couldn’t raise her level at twilight when she needed to. She wasn’t as upset as Serena and there were no free-flowing tears a la the multiple elite teens who can’t keep their eyes dry after losses, because getting down on herself doesn’t fit with her life philosophy.

“I decided that’s not the approach I want to take,” said Venus, who hasn’t won a title this year. “That probably would be the easy thing to do...I just want to move on and be positive and be an adult about it. [But] I never get used to losing. I don’t think anyone gets used to losing. And if they do, then maybe it’s time to retire.”

Serena, who reached the French quarters last year, dropped points heading into Wimbledon, where she hasn’t won the title since ‘03 and lost to the now-retired Justine Henin last year. She’ll certainly be one of the favorites, but unless Venus shows up injured, it’s the defending champ who should get the nod. But Serena can’t worry about that, as she has to discover what went wrong early on at Roland Garros, whether it’s mental or physical, and fix it. The last thing she wants is to stay in her funk in London town.

“Maybe it’s a good thing,” Oracene said. “I really think she’ll come out swinging.”

For her part, Venus went home to Florida to practice on slick hard courts and was likely to make a quick turnaround with her racket bag stuffed full of turf cleats. She loves to sprint on the grass, and for whatever reason, it’s there that she discovers an innate sense of confidence on her shaky yet ultra-powerful serve and cuts loose. She’s turned into a terrific, sure-handed volleyer with extraordinary reach, and from the baseline, she’s perhaps the best defensive (yes, defensive) player Centre Court denizens have ever seen.

“She reached some balls like I’ve never see one person reach, and she would even hit it harder back to me,” said Marion Bartoli after the ‘07 final.

However, a seventh, Steffi Graf-tying Wimbledon title for the sweet-swinging sisters is by no means a lock. Sharapova has dictated all year long on fast surfaces and Ivanovic is clearly a more mature player than she was last year.

But the Williams sisters have felt pain in Paris before, so even if they appeared downtrodden in the City of Light, they have been able to turn around their fortunes quickly once their toes touch the grass.

“Usually I’m extremely upset about the result, and then I work even harder,” said Venus when asked about how she’s able to forget Paris and rule London. “So I’ll be working very hard at home and getting ready for Wimbledon.”

 

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