Serena's Moveable Feast

There she was, in pain from an acute muscle spasm in her left leg and needing badly to  - how do I put this - pee. It was late in third set of Serena Williams match with Daniela Hantuchova, on a yet another raw, blustery day at Wimbledon, but the one thing Serena was not about to do was complain about the rain. Yet another in today's seemingly endless series of rain delays had given her fresh life, by virtue of the two-hour break that followed shortly after she had suffered her injury late in the second set of the match. In fact, Serena was the only person on the planet who was thinking, "Thank God for rain!"

Saved by the weather, Serena was able to spend 120 of the most valuable minutes in her career icing her leg and hydrating - hydrating so thoroughly that all the water had to find someplace to go, eventually, which led to an entirely different problem. In the middle of the third set, with Hantuchova serving, Serena asked if she could take a bathroom break and the chair umpire firmly told her, "No." (So much for British gents in gaudy striped jackets, right?). He told her that if she wished to go, she had to wait until the changeover before she served. But you know how it is - nature calls, and sometimes there are more
important things to do, like rip off a rival's head, stick your hand down her throat, yank out her heart, and woof it down.

Would you like a bit of our lovely chutney with that, Miss Williams?

That's pretty much how it went. Finding the high gear that went missing at the French Open a few weeks ago (hail, she never even got into second in that fiasco), Serena went on a tear and didn't lose another game, closing out the match 6-2. You've got to hand it to Serena: She keeps bumping in the ante in the Just How Bad Can My Own Bad SelfBe sweepstakes. It was just another day at the office, ripping heads, eating hearts, wiping out memories of red clay. Tennis is Serena's Moveable feast.

To take the essense out of the first three replies she lobbed out to an awestruck press corps after the deed was done: "I thought about, uhm, not finishing, but very briefly.  I thought I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I hadn't at least tried. . .I feel good about the accomplishment.  I've never dealt with such pain.  I can't believe it. . I can't believe I won. . .really. . . I think I was definitely saved by the rain.  I couldn't move before the rain.  Just everything stopped. I was definitely saved by the rain."

As you might expect, Hantuchova had a little something to do with this sacrifice to the Warrior Goddess. She lay down on the altar, smoothed out her toga, and passed Serena the knife. At one point in her own presser, a sad, subdued affair, Hantuchova was asked if she thought at all about changing her strategy during the rain delay, knowing that Serena was badly hobbled. "No, I was just focused on my game," she replied. ". . . tough, I feel sorry for them (injured opponents), what they go through,at same time have to be focused on what you do."

So let's get this right. Serena is playing on one leg and you decide it should play no part in your strategy?

Ohhhh. . .kaaaay

In fact, Hantuchova played the third set under the impression that nothing at all was wrong with her opponent. When she was asked if she felt she had an "advantage" after rolling through the tiebreaker (7-2) to even the set score, she said: "I don't think so at all.  I think third set was very even.  I would say that if, you know, maybe there was no rain, that would have been advantage for me.  But in the third set, there was nothing like that."

And finally, when she was asked if lost the match, or Serena won it, she said: "Tough to say.  I think I lost it.  I think Ihad my chances.  Maybe if I would have kept the ball in play a little longer, had been a little more patient, that could have been different.    I think the third set, there were couple points here and there that decided it.  Like I said, I definitely feel like I had my chances; just didn't take them today."

Well, about that she was right.

Still, you had to feel for Hantuchova. She felt sorry for Serena, as she has done for other opponents in similar straits. There she was, watching her opponent writhing in agony, representing a ticket to the Wimbledon quarterfinals. Perhaps that's why she decided to just "focus" on her own game. Whatever the reason, it helped contribute to setting up the rematch of Serena's French Open quarterfinal loss to Justine Henin. I have a funny feeling that, if she finds herself in Hantuchova's shoes, Henin will react a little differently. She's going to be looking for condiments.

There was a telling moment in Serena's presser that shed some light on her nature. She was asked how she felt when Hantuchova rolled out a drop shot in the third set. she said, "That pretty much set it off for me.  After that, I was so motivated to win. I was like, you know what, I'm going to do this. You know, I'm going to die trying."

Now consider Hantuchova's response to a question on that dropshot: "I don't know what dropshot you mean because I hit a couple. . . Well, I don't think there was anything wrong with me hitting the dropshot. I do it all the time.  Yeah, I mean, I do hit a lot of dropshots.  That's part of my game."

Note to Daniela: there is nothing - absolutely nothing - wrong with hitting a drop shot against your distressed opponent. Here's what Serena said, when asked if, in Hantuchova's shoes, she would have done the same thing: "Absolutely.  Like I don't know whyI got so upset.  Maybe it was just something in me that I needed to give me a push.  But I would have absolutely done the same thing. . .if not more."

Somewhere in there is the key to why Serena is in the quarterfinals, and Hantuchova was left muttering about not "taking my chances." Serena is dining on heart. Pass the chutney.