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VENUS CRUISES OVER JUSTINE FOR ANOTHER SISTER CLASH
Clijsters meltdown keeps 'Serena Slam' alive
By Alix Ramsay
Special to tennisreporters.net
FROM THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN – Here we go again. Another Grand Slam final, another Williams sisters showdown.
For the fourth consecutive major tournament and the fifth out of six, Richard's girls will do battle for one of the most important prizes in the game. This time, though, it will be slightly different.
Normally the sisters arrive at this stage of the tournament having hardly broken a sweat. If Serena has been head and shoulders above Venus for the past 14 months then Venus has been just as far ahead of the rest. Suddenly, though, the family has a new challenger in the formidable form of Kim Clijsters.
Had it not been a choke of quite startling proportions by Lleyton Hewitt's girlfriend, Serena would have been demoted to no more than Venus's chief cheerleader come Saturday. From 5-1 up in the third set, Kim trembled, shook and eventually fell apart to lose 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
As if the best player in the world needed any more help, the WTA's injury policy saved her bacon, too. A break down in the third, Serena called for the trainer to patch up her right foot. The ball of her foot had been giving her gyp before the match started but, on further investigation, Michelle Gebrian, the medic on call, discovered a further three blisters.
Regarding each one as a separate injury, she declared that Serena should have two consecutive injury time outs: one to treat the ball of her foot and one to treat the blister on her toe. Heaven knows what might have happened if she had broken a nail as well. In short, the WTA policy allows anyone famous to do whatever they want with the proviso that they finish the match.
The crowd was less than impressed. They were on Clijsters' side from the start – well, she is going out with their local hero – and they are sports aficionados. They like a match to be fought fair and square and any hint of cheating is barracked loud and long. Even if Serena was in pain, the way
the injury break was handled was enough to rile them and if they were ambivalent towards the world No. 1 at the start, they were positively hostile at the end.
THE MELTDOWN
Through all of this Clijsters kept cool and waited. She had kept pace with Serena from the start and then she had upped the ante. Running down every ball as if her life depended upon it, she had managed to turn defense into offense. Serena's pace did not worry her but Clijsters' sheer nerve
and shotmaking was beginning to give Serena the jitters. And then it all went wrong.
After nearly two hours of hard graft, Clijsters had two match points. Serena, sensing danger, defended them well while Clijsters, sensing a place in the final, was slightly tentative. For that she could be forgiven. But the way she then folded, losing five games on the trot was a horrendous
waste.
Serena was through and she was mightily relieved. "I kept fighting," she said. "I thought: I don't want to lose 6-1. Then I said: I don't want to lose 6-2. So, I just kept fighting and the next thing I know, I came back.
"Kim, she's not only a good tennis player, she's a great person and I think she'll make a great champion because she's always positive. Even if inside she's dying, she always looks positive. I think Kim is definitely a main challenger to us this year, to the Williams sisters."
Tellingly, it was the first time Serena had expressed a definite opinion about Clijsters since the tournament began. Now, of course, it was safe to praise her opponent because she had just beaten her. Before she had kept her thoughts to herself and that is always a sign that a champion is
concerned. About Venus, though, she was a fulsome as ever. Then again, she keeps beating big sis, too.
VENUS CRUSHES JUSTINE
Venus has ambled through the draw without dropping a set. She has played well in patches and she has racked up errors in bucketloads but no one has been able to give her a match. Justine Henin-Hardenne proved no different, losing swiftly and efficiently 6-3, 6-3.
At Wimbledon it was easy to predict which sister would win: Venus looked and talked like a beaten woman before the final had even started. This time around it is harder to judge. The pressure is on Serena to complete her "Serena Slam" but the confidence is with her as she appears to have her sister's number. And Venus is talking down the encounter.
"Four in a row," she mused, "Hopefully it will be different than the last three. At least I'm always in position to be the victor."
Serena, too, is not making any rash pronouncements. "We just always are battling out critics out there," she said. "We never really get out to a strong start at the beginning of the year. Venus is actually playing a little better than me at this tournament so I have to make sure. I just go to pull something out of my back pocket to be able to go on to the next level because she's playing really well here."
Provided her foot problems are not a major cause for concern, the obvious tip would be Serena for the title. She has done it before and there is little to suggest she cannot do it again. She is also the one who can, when absolutely necessary, cut down her errors and barge her way through a
match. And having waited until she was 20 to get the better of her big sister last year, she is not looking likely to stop now.
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