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WIMBLEDON, England—The Williams world in which we live
inverted again Wednesday.
You know
Venus Williams, 27, presumed waning, ranked No. 31,
seeded No. 23 out of Wimbledon nostalgia, aching at the
wrists in recent years, unseen in the second week of six
of the last eight grand slams?
She made
27 seem the new 17, hitting groundstrokes like daydreams
and moving like water.
You know
Serena Williams, 25, presumed roaring, ranked No. 7 on a
surge from No. 140 in 2006, winner of the 2007
Australian Open, hot pick to win Wimbledon, withstander
of an epic fourth-round match in which she crumpled to
the grass with a screaming calf?
She
resembled a patient in a physical-therapy facility, with
a bandage on her left hand for a thumb injury plus the
bandage on her left leg for her calf injury.
Venus
Williams demolished Maria Sharapova and said she’ll play
on well into her 30s.
Serena
Williams lost narrowly to No. 1 Justine Henin and said
she’ll play Cincinnati, Stanford and Los Angeles before
the US Open.
“I know
I have a lot of stuff that a lot of players don’t have,”
Venus Williams said after winning 6-1, 6-3.
“I was
probably at 40 percent or 50 percent,” Serena Williams
said after losing, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
IN a battle of former
champions, Venus Williams makes 27 look like the new 17.
-- BLOOMBERG
Everything flipped, and Sharapova flopped, and
Wimbledon whittled its women’s field to six with the last
Williams people expected, the one who slogged through
first- and third-round matches to win third sets by 7-5
after trailing by 3-1
in one and 5-3 in the other.
A
semifinal had Henin, trying to win her first
Wimbledon after winning everything else, and Frenchwoman Marion
Bartoli, gracing her first final four. A lingering
quarterfinal had French Open finalist Ana Ivanovic, 19,
and two-time grand-slam semifinalist Nicole Vaidisova,
18, while the other lingering quarterfinal had 2004 US
Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova against, suddenly,
Venus Williams.
That one
fixed to begin at 6 a.m. EDT Thursday and could prove a
formality according to Serena Williams, who said, “The
eventual Wimbledon champion, I saw playing in the fourth
round today, definitely.” She meant her older sister,
and that concluded another bustling Williams day.
Venus
Williams played the mid-afternoon. Serena Williams
followed immediately. Venus Williams so ransacked
Sharapova before a rain delay at 6-1, 1-1, that people
saw Sharapova’s father, Yuri, lecturing her in a
hallway. Venus’ father Richard Williams felt curiosity
but said, “I don’t know what he said because he was
speaking Russian; I’m not that bright.”
The
players returned for a 13-deuce game seemingly longer
than Elizabeth II’s reign. Sharapova won that but little
else. Venus Williams bounced Sharapova even more
emphatically than in the pretty emphatic 2005 semifinal.
She looked exhilarated and exited. On came Serena
Williams.
Standing
outside
Centre Court,
Richard Williams said he’d tried to convince Serena
Williams to withdraw, but she’d replied by saying
nothing. He spoke of bygone days, smiled and said, “I
was in charge then.” He said of Venus Williams, “I think
she could be a champion until she’s 34, I really do.”
While
Serena Williams began with Henin, Venus Williams
defended Serena Williams against charges she’d
embellished her injury in the fourth-round match against
Daniela Hantuchova, calling such criticisms “ignorant.”
She said she’d been helping attend to Serena and her
strained calf muscle on Monday and Tuesday, and that
“everywhere I ran to, somebody had a suggestion of what
Serena should do. I ran up to get her bananas. Some
stopped me and said, ‘She should do this, she should do
that.’ I’m going back saying, ‘Somebody said this.’
“You
know, one of the biggest jobs in my life is a big
sister.”
Having
sprained the thumb in the third set against Hantuchova
after her wailing topple in the second, Serena Williams
said her decision to play was last-minute. Her backhands
flew long and wide at times, but her will forced a third
set in a match of fine quality. She trailed 5-1 but then
only 5-3. Henin kept looking nervously toward her coach,
Carlos Rodriguez. She netted a sweet volley chance on
match point and elicited a crowd gasp.
Williams
finally lifted one last backhand just long, and Richard
Williams said her exit came as part relief. He thought
Serena played “very, very well,” and that Henin
“could’ve done a lot more to beat her.” He also said
he’d felt surprised at Henin’s frequent looks toward her
coach, Carlos Rodriguez, and that he now believed her
“about as mentally tough as”—he paused to find the
metaphor—“a duck on a dry lake.”
“I
thought she was as mentally tough as a duck in wet
water, but that is not true at all,” he said. “To see
her look up in the stands and have that sorrowful look
on her face, that is scary. I wouldn’t want to coach one
like that.”
All that
remained of a bustling Williams day was Serena Williams’
self-defense against the odd charges that she’d
exaggerated her second-set injury against Hantuchova and
play-acted her wailing and sobbing on court. She
reiterated she’d never felt such pain in her life as on
Monday night. She said she’d withdrawn from the doubles
with her sister.
Told
that her doubters included the 1991
Wimbledon champion and commentator Michael Stich, the eight-time
grand-slam champion garnished quite a day by saying, “I
mean, my career is actually more stellar than Michael
Stich’s.” |
