Reborn Venus To Face Davenport

The Age

Saturday July 2, 2005

By RICHARD HINDS LONDON

MANY of the great stories in sport are about generational change. About the baton being seized from the last great champion by the next.

But as Venus Williams proved with one of her finest performances on Wimbledon's centre court, sometimes it is even more compelling watching a stubborn veteran stop time and grab that baton back.

In women's tennis, age is relative. The old-timer in this battle had just turned 25. But, entering a semi-final against the 18-year-old defending champion and universal glamour girl Maria Sharapova, they might as well have supplied Williams with a rocking chair and rug at the change of ends.

Even as she moved into her first grand slam tournament semi-final since Wimbledon 2003, stomach muscle and shoulder injuries were supposed to have diminished Williams' power and reduced her famous athleticism.

The press speculated that outside interests had dulled her focus and motivation. Beatings by opponents whom once she would have bludgeoned into submission - most recently by Bulgarian Sesil Karatantcheva at the French Open - had apparently depleted her confidence.

Or so the theories went.

That was until Williams rolled back the years, producing a 7-6 (7-2), 6-1 victory with a display of ferocious power and fierce intensity that ensured Sharapova's very best was not nearly good enough.

So the 2000-01 Wimbledon champion will get the chance to become the first woman since Steffi Graf to win a third title. That will be no easy task against Lindsay Davenport, who had to return to court one last night to complete her semi-final against Amelie Mauresmo that had been postponed on Thursday due to rain with Davenport leading 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-4), 5-3.

It took Davenport only three minutes to wrap up the final set 6-4. Having battled injuries that, last year, made her think that last year's Wimbledon might have been her last, a second Wimbledon title for Davenport would itself be a story of a veteran - a real one, given she is 29 - returning in triumph to the game's biggest stage.

She will meet a familiar foe. Williams and Davenport have played 26 times over eight years. Davenport has a 14-12 lead and has won their past four meetings, but Williams beat Davenport in their meetings in grand slam finals at Wimbledon and US Open in 2000.

Against Sharapova, Williams not only produced the type of display that, in recent times, had been seen only on videotapes of past grand slam glories, she did it in the face of an almost equally focused and deceptively powerful opponent.

Not that the self-consciously enigmatic Williams was willing to rate this among her great Wimbledon moments. "I played some great matches in Wimbledon semi-finals before, including 2003 (against Kim Clijsters) when I got injured," she said.

"This also was a good one. I did have some errors. But I think the good play did balance that out."

But as a measure of the devastating form Williams will take into the final, one of her few significant errors came on the first match point when she loped in to meet a short ball and, somehow, smacked it over the baseline.

That brought gasps from the crowd, some wondering if perhaps she had suddenly become tight and would struggle to finish the match off.

Sharapova was under no illusions. "I thought it was just kind of funny because I thought it was absolutely over," said Sharapova. "I was almost saying hello to the person watching the match. I mean, the whole court was open, she made an error. I guess the match is continuing."

Not for long. Williams polished off the victory two points later, her mask of concentration dropped and she doubled over laughing.

A nice change from the last time she won a semi-final here when she was doubled over in pain from the stomach muscle injury she was to carry into her losing final against sister Serena.

Since then, there have been times when it seemed unlikely Williams would be back. But she says she had no such doubts. "There were times, sure, where I was disappointed in how I played because I knew I could do better," she said.

"But all things in good time. Everyone has their moment in the sun, that's what my mum always says, 'Everyone has their chance'."

Williams says her chance has come again simply because she is healthy. In the past two years, she had not been able to prepare for tournaments properly.

"I would be in practice and say, 'OK, today I've got to work on my first serves first because I'm not going to last longer than an hour here', " she said.

But as she bludgeoned one ball after the other into the corner during the second set, extracting both easy points and ever more desperate shrieks from the overwhelmed Sharapova, Williams entered a place she hadn't been for some time.

Later, she tried to describe to those who had never been there what it was like in "the zone". "I think at the end, it doesn't matter who is across the net. It doesn't matter what they hit, it's all about you. It's about what you're going to do. It's about you focusing on what your plan is and doing the right thing, even if that means taking the L (loss)."

But, emphatically, Williams took the W. And then a phone call from Serena. "She called me and said, 'Can I have your autograph?'," said Williams, who explained the sisters always mocked each other like that.

Given Serena had beaten Venus in five grand slam finals since the older sister won her most recent title at the 2001 US Open, it was the older sister who would have been doing most of the mocking. Now, maybe, that will change.

© 2005 The Age

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