**
**
by Bobby Chintapalli, Contributing Writer
Venus Williams is going through a (tennis) midlife crisis. I’m sure of it. Not sure of it in the way I might be if Venus told me so herself. More in the way of someone who’s watched Venus for a while, someone who knows turning 30 can make a woman want to try something new, someone who wants to start this piece with more pizazz than ‘maybe’.
Being Venus
One of five former Grand Slam singles winners left in the Wimbledon ladies’ singles draw, Venus reached the fourth round today with her win over No. 26 Alisa Kleybanova. She may be the only major winner who won’t play another major winner in the fourth round. Kim Clijsters will play Justine Henin, and Serena Williams may play Maria Sharapova.
But let’s talk about Paris, because that’s what got me thinking about this. And by Paris, you know what I mean. Not Nadia Petrova, the woman who beat Venus, or even Francesca Schiavone, the woman who beat everyone. I mean Venus’s tennis kit, that black lace number with nude underpants that was “about the illusion of bareness”. It was supposed to be like it wasn’t there, yet it’s the only thing about the French Open some ever saw. This dress and a few before this one got me thinking about Venus… and what Venus must be thinking about Venus as she enters her 30s. (She turned 30 last week.)
Her tennis made me wonder too, of course. Venus has been playing more this year and winning more too. In February she tweeted that she needed matches - then she lit it up. She won 15 straight, which took her to the Dubai and Acapulco titles and the Miami final. She has the highest winning percentage this year (85% compared to 84% for Kim Clijsters and 82% for Serena Williams). For her efforts Venus is once again a spot away from the No. 1 ranking she first reached eight years ago. Justine Henin 2.0 emerged after unretiring. I’m thinking Venus Williams 2.0 emerged before our very eyes, and I’m digging her.
Playing Venus
What must it be like to walk onto a court at Wimbledon to play this woman? She has more Wimbledon singles titles than any active player and more than any Open Era player but Martina Navratilova (9) and Steffi Graf (7).
I looked for the answer on the face of Rossana De Los Rios, Venus’s first-round opponent. The 34-year-old is one of eight women in the singles draw who’s older than Venus. De Los Rios turned pro the year Victoria Azarenka was born. She’s been on the tour a while and would know what to expect going up against this force of Wimbledon nature, right?
!RDLR
I got my answer on the first point, an unreturnable serve from Venus. It took De Los Rios aback, in more ways than one. Venus walked to the ad side of the court. De Los Rios stood there, at first likely to process the force of the serve, then to determine if the serve could possibly have been in. She challenged. The gigantic screen came up, the ball flew across it and fell in. The serve was good. You didn’t think about physics and technology – in this case, Hawk-Eye seemed an ode to Venus’s serve. But the show must go on, and it did with Venus serving three more unreturnable serves to wrap up the first game. Maybe De Los Rios scoured the WTA website the night before her match, maybe she knew the exact speed of the fastest-recorded serve on there (Venus’s at 129 mph). Watching her receive that first serve though, you sensed how different it is to know about that serve than to feel it from the other side of a tennis court.
De Los Rios (in the picture at left) managed to win a few games eventually and got into a comfortable groove for a while using body serves and more. For the most part though she didn’t believe in herself and Venus, with 27 more winners and four fewer unforced errors, didn’t let her.
Watching Venus
On ESPN2 Mary Carillo and Mary Joe Fernandez used some of the cruise-control match to chitchat. There was discussion about the Paris dress and this Wimbledon dress, which Venus says was inspired by Tina Turner.
Fernandez, on the French Open dress: “A little too much going on.”
Carillo: “Was it too much for you?”
Fernandez: “A little bit, yes. But I like this one.”
Carillo: “You do like this one… the flapper thing?”
Fernandez: “I do like this one.”
Carillo, laughing: “It’s flirty, it’s friendly… it’s everything I believe in. Yep, the people have spoken.”
There’s talk about tennis too, of course. Carillo and Fernandez had this discussion after Venus came back from 0-40 at 6-4, 4-2 in her third-round match against Kleybanova today.
Carillo: “Look at that – another recovery from Venus Williams. On this surface Venus can ignore the scoreboard, ignore 0-40 games…”
Fernandez: “She seems to recover faster from those little bad patches that she’ll have in a match, whether it’s the serve that gets her out of trouble or just one swing of the racquet on a return.”
Sometimes they say less. This exchange during the De Los Rios match, like the 64-minute match itself, was quick.
Carillo, on De Los Rios: “Is there anything she can do better than Venus Williams?”
Fernandez, without hesitation: “No.”
Carillo: “OK. Just checking.”
They meant no disrespect to De Los Rios, a woman who’s won an impressive 445 tour matches in her career. What they meant is that – whatever the version, whatever the dress – Venus is Venus.