Venus, Champion Again
WIMBLEDON, England — A few hours after she won her fourth Wimbledon title and played her fourth exquisite match in four days, Venus Williams, dressed for a night on the town, let it be known that she and her sister have lost none of their stature on the women's tennis tour, no matter what the world rankings might say.
"I think when we step out on the court no matter what we're ranked, I think the other player feels at a disadvantage, to be honest," Williams said. "They feel like they have to play their best and we have to play not our best. Going out on the court, that's in my head, so it's probably in theirs." If it wasn't in everyone's minds before this year began, it is now. In Australia, Serena Williams won the first major of the year despite a lack of practice and a few extra pounds. At Wimbledon, Venus came within a game of losing to a journeywoman, and then spent the rest of the week pummeling three of the world's best players and Marion Bartoli, a surprise finalist who played some of the best tennis of the season this past week . For a woman who had spent the better part of the last year failing to escape the third round of majors and resting an injured wrist, it was a remarkable turnaround, one that only a Williams sister could execute. Williams made it sound like it was more difficult for her to maintain an ideal playing weight than win the title.
"I just don't keep weight on," she said. "Just working on eating a lot. Just everyone around just me making me eat a lot. Even when you're not hungry, just eating, so that way you can put more muscle on."
How many more major moments do the sisters have in store for us? It's not likely that they will begin to dominate the tour again, as they did from 2000 to 2003, when they won nine out of 16 major titles. Age, injuries, and the younger women on tour ought to prevent that from happening. But there will be more major titles, no doubt. Richard Williams thinks Venus can win into her mid thirties, especially at Wimbledon. The way Venus played this weekend, tearing up the grass with her long strides and knocking her normally erratic forehand into corner after corner, it's hard to argue with him.
Either way, Venus is now among the greats at Wimbledon, up there with Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras, with Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, and Billie Jean King, the only three women other than her to win four or more Wimbledon titles in the Open Era.
"If I could be in the same sentence as those guys, amazing," she said. "I'll be proud sitting in my rocker at 80."
