SISTERS SLEDGEHAMMER ARE HUNGRY
Venus is short-changing her fans. Three starts at the US Open – three wins, total: 192 minutes on court, or 64 minutes per match. Take away those 90 second sit-downs on the changeovers, and it’s practically a passing glimpse of the long and lean Wimbledon champion.
A Polish reporter asked Venus how she liked playing in Poland. Reflecting on winning Warsaw in 2004, she said, “I never would have dreamed that people in Poland actually cared about what I do so much. So many big fans. I thought maybe my last name was Williams-owski.”
Her 6-2, 6-1, victory yesterday at the Billie Jean King Center didn’t last much longer than saying Williams-owski. Knocking 32 winners past the Ukrainian blonde Alona Bondarenko, Venus glided to the net for nine of them. That took 56 minutes. Paraguayan Rossana de los Rios endured for 59 minutes (6-0, 6-3), which was OK because Rossana didn’t have to pay her baby sitter very much. Aussie Samantha Stosur was the fans’ friend, hanging around for 77 minutes (6-2, 6-3).
Not much hard labor for Venus. Yet. However, waiting to pounce in the fourth round is a Pole who will not be blowing kisses in Venus’s direction or addressing her as Miss Williams-owski: fast-rising 19-year-old Aggie Radwanska. Aggie, ranking No. 9, first gained notice by sabotaging Maria Sharapova in the third round a year ago. She was No. 30 then.
Can you believe this is Venus Williams’s 10th US Open?
“Well, wow, I got close to winning,” she beamed, recalling that improbable and unprecedented 1997 debut. “A lot of great memories.” She shook her head happily, the mass of black curls seeming a mini tidal wave.
She came in at No. 66, a 17-year-old, becoming the only non-seed ever to make the women’s final — actually a kids’ picnic involving prodigies. Martina Hingis, who won 6-0, 6-4, was a few days short of her 17th birthday.
Who bumped whom? I asked her.
She grinned. “Yeah, that was a classic. “Hey, 10 years later I’m still not talking. I think she took the blame.”
Whatever, whoever, she was a presence for all time, a gangly 6-feet-2. Faster than you can say Williams-owski, she mesmerized the game where an introduction meant the most: New York.
One of her victims, Joannette Kruger, moaned, “She’s inside our heads.” They had never encountered a black kid, any kid so threatening on a tennis court.
The truth was, Venus laughs, “I didn’t know much about tennis. I guess I had a little talent, and that helped. At that point I just hit as hard as I could and went for everything. I remember the third round, Anke Huber, and I learned how to take some pace off the ball. That helped but I just didn’t understand anything. So I was just playing, doing what I was taught [by her parents]. I didn’t understand the strategy so much.
“I was young and didn’t listen well. I’d like to think I’m wiser now.
I wondered why she stopped wearing beads in her hair. She looked like the Queen of Sheba, so regal, when she first appeared at Flushing Meadow. I loved the look.
“That was so last millennium, kind of a kid thing. When you’re a kid you wear beads. You can’t mess up your hair because your hair is in beads. Now I’m a little older I can figure it out most of the time.”
I remember them fondly.
“The Wimbledon win [her fifth Big W] helped me a lot to change my mentality, to realize not everything had to be perfect all the time. If I don’t have a perfect practice, I know I can play, and don’t really get upset about the whole tournament. I think that helps me relax and had a lot to do with playing well at Wimbledon.”
While Venus was talking, Little Sister was duplicating. Serena beat the perky Japanese, Ai Sugyama, 6-2, 6-1. Same as Venus’s score over Bondarenko. But Serena was a slowpoke, using 10 minutes more, 66.
Unfortunately for them, the Sisters are on a collision course for a quarter-final engagement, a rematch of their Wimbledon finale. Venus has the tougher assignment in the Pole, Radwanska, while Serena opposes France’s Severine Bremond, No. 121.
Venus hasn’t won the US Open since 2001, Serena since 2002. To put it mildly, they are hungry-owski!
Tags: New York, Tennis, Venus Williams
August 30 2008 10:36 am | US Open
