Williams Fritters Away Semifinal Berth at Roland Garros

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The New York Sun

Argh! Ick! Ugh! Huh? Come on! #$@! Those were the phrases that came to mind yesterday as Venus Williams, heretofore the last American singles player in Paris, stumbled out of the French Open. There are bad tennis matches and there are terrible tennis matches, and then there was this match, terrible squared with an extra helping of awful. Good for Nicole Vaidisova, all of 17 and brimming with talent, for putting a miserable first set behind her and winning 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3. Bad for Williams. Very, very bad.

Joining Vaidisova in the semifinals were her next opponent, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and the two best players in the world, Belgians Justine Henin-Hardenne, the defending champion, and Kim Clijsters, whose athleticism and powerful groundstrokes snuffed out Martina Hingis’s first visit to Roland Garros in five years.

Those three semifinalists, all major title holders, were no surprise, and Vaidisova was not much of a shock, either, considering her potential and her confidence-boosting victory over top seed Amelie Mauresmo in the fourth round. Yet the fact that Williams would throw away a match against an inexperienced opponent was an incredible disappointment.

The 25-year-old American had played better in each of her matches – and then yesterday she made 70 unforced errors. Yes, 70. In 29 games. Vaidisova won 110 points in the match, 64% on Williams’s mistakes. Of the 207 total points played, 34% ended in a Williams error. In her first-round match, Williams had an error ratio of 30%, but since then she had kept it below 25%, including 19% in her last match.

Hold on a minute, you say, haven’t scoring officials at the French Open received some criticism for their definition of “error,” which often includes service returns? Even if the scorers have put too many misses on the error side of the ledger, those complaints are overblown. Missed service returns can be errors – Williams proved that time and again yesterday on routine second serves from Vaidisova that she blasted long. And it seems silly to suggest that Williams, sister and hitting partner of Serena and a lover of pace, could have been overwhelmed by Vaidisova’s strokes, even when the ball was hit right to her. The young Czech hits big, but not big enough to blow an athlete like Williams off the court.

I thought the scorers were generous to Williams. They ought to have saddled her with 20 more errors for mental gaffes that otherwise did not appear on the stat sheet.

In her four previous matches, Williams had followed her father’s advice and played attacking tennis, charging the net and keeping her opponent’s off balance. Against Vaidisova, she abandoned that strategy until the third set.

Vaidisova is a more formidable slugger than Williams’ previous opponents, and more likely to hit a passing shot. Still, staying back and trying to rally with her made no sense. For one, Vaidisova has better technique, and Williams is not yet as consistent as she was at Wimbledon last year. For another, Vaidisova rarely plays an opponent who can attack like Williams. The pressure might have gotten to her, especially if Williams applied it early in the second set (Vaidisova blew a 4-1 lead in the first set and 5-2 lead in the tiebreaker).

Williams was lucky to win the first set from the baseline. Although she made 25 errors, Vaidisova was no model of consistency, making 29 of her own. The rest of the way she made 28 more, compared to 45 – gasp – for Williams. In the third set, Williams blundered on 41% of points. And when she did try to approach, after it was too late, she often missed or charged in behind drives that were too short or too far from the sidelines.

Though it was hardly a stellar performance from the teenager, it wasn’t bad for her first Grand Slam quarterfinal on her least favorite surface.

“I’m still in my little la-la Land,” she said. “I’ll figure out something tomorrow.”

Kuznetsova obviously figured out a lot about her quarterfinal opponent, Dinara Safina. After falling behind 5-1, the former U.S. Open champion won 12 of the next 13 games for a 7-6(5), 6-0 victory. Safina won three points in the second set. The young Russian has a powerful game, and she showed exceptional poise in defeating Maria Sharapova after trailing 5-1 in the third set of their fourth round match. The only way she should have won just three points in a set is if she had a broken elbow.

As for the Belgians, neither has lost a set so far. Henin-Hardenne endured a valiant effort from Anna-Lena Groenefeld, a woman who makes the most of her talent and plays stylish tennis at the baseline and at net. Henin-Hardenne can execute such tactics even better, yet so far this tournament she has remained mostly at the baseline (she only approached twice yesterday). When she commits a mere 19 errors, as she did yesterday, this strategy works well enough. Chances are she will have to take more risks against Clijsters.

Clojsters excels at defense, and yesterday she also kept Hingis off balance with deep, forceful drives and 31 winners. It was a difficult, though entirely predictable, loss for Hingis. Her late round success at major tournaments depends not just on her tactical prowess, but poor form from opponents. When a sprinter like Clijsters is moving well and hitting consistently deep shots, Hingis stands little chance.

The winner of Henin-Hardenne and Clijsters will be the favorite in the final. Both Vaidisova and Kuznetsova can hurt their opponents from the baseline, but neither of them is playing consistently enough to beat one of the Belgians at her best. Kuznetsova, who had two match points against Henin-Hardenne at Roland Garros last year, should reach her second Grand Slam final. At this point, Henin-Hardenne has the look of a winner. Then again, I’ve said the same about Williams these past two weeks. Talk about unforced errors.

tperrotta@nysun.com


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