Brilliant Venus realises a dream

By Nirmal Shekar

LONDON, JULY 8. ``I have a Dream.'' Those are, inarguably, the most famous words spoken by an African-American ever. And, four decades ago, those words inspired a whole generation of young men and women who played heroic roles in America's Civil Rights movement, one that sought to end years of injustice meted out to Blacks in the so-called Land of the Free.

In comparison, these same words spoken by a wonderfully athletic 20-year old women in the context of a sporting achievement would pale in the pages of history.

Nevertheless, Venus Williams has proved yet again - no matter that tennis might be a trivial pursuit compared to the great mission that the late Martin Luther King was in pursuit of - that this world belongs to dreamers who have the will and the courage to make them come true.

On a memorable afternoon on the most famous lawns in the world of sport, the line between dream and reality was a blur for Venus Williams as she beat Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in an hour and 23 minutes in the women's singles final of the Millennium Wimbledon Championships.

Venus became the first African-American woman to win the title here since Althea Gibson won her second Wimbledon title in 1958. The last black woman to appear in a final was Zina Garrison in 1990.

Ever since she arrived here, Venus has been talking about her recurrent dream of having won a Grand Slam title. And the young woman was ecstatic this afternoon after an emotional triumph that saw her run up the stands to the box for players's family and guests to hug her little sister Serena and her father Richard Williams who was unsuccessfully fighting tears.

``This is unbelievable. It is better than the men's cup in my opinion,'' gushed Venus as she held up the appropriately named Venus Rosewater Dish.

The start was delayed by half an hour because of the sort of rain that wouldn't even cause eyebrows to be raised in most other sports, including cricket. But grass court tennis is not a ball- game that can tolerate even the mildest of drizzles and Alan Mills, the chief referee, was a worried man as he stood at a corner of the court looking up at the skies.

Fortunately for Mills, and for the thousands of fans in the stands - including the former Prime Minister, Baroness Thatcher and her husband Sir Denis - the weather relented after the court coverers had conducted their exercise three times in a just over 20 minutes in full view of TV cameras.

And there was an Indian flavour to the great occasion, too, as Raju Tittal, a 12-year old from the Calcutta charity Future Hope, made his way in ahead of the two finalists in the company of the chair umpire Gerry Armstrong.

For the first time in the long history of this tournament, someone other than the chair umpire tossed the coin to decide which player would serve first. And little Raju, sporting a white T-shirt was considerably excited as he stood in the middle, waiting for Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport to arrive.

Raju had brought with him an 1835 silver rupee with William the Fourth's head and the little fellow was in smiling from ear to ear as he posed for photographs with the finalists after doing his job. In the stands, a delighted Duchess of Kent, who had chosen Future Hope for the unique honour, cheered for a full two minutes.

And once the match began, much of the cheering was for power and precision of Venus Williams's groundstrokes and her relentless attacking play. She started nervously - understandably, this - and was seized by a bout of nerves yet again at the finish - again, rather predictably - but overall it was a marvellous performance by the 20-year old playing in her first Wimbledon final.

``I've been going to bed at night and dreaming that I have won a Grand Slam title. Then I wake up and it is a nightmare. This is just wonderful, unbelievable,'' said Venus after beating Davenport for the first time in a Grand Slam event.

Davenport complimented her opponent for the accomplishment and said, ``I tried to come back in the second set but Venus was too strong in the end.''

As well as Venus played for the most part, it wasn't a great match. In fact, it wasn't even a good match. Davenport was half the player she was. Never the best of movers on court, the big American displayed the footwork of a octogenarian in a geriatric ward.

Perhaps the left hamstring strain was bothering Davenport. But whatever it was, she wasn't able to find the right sort of answers to question posed to her by her wonderfully aggressive opponent.

Venus, as all aggressors are prone to, made a bunch of unforced errors, some of them at rather inopportune moments, but, to her credit, she never wavered from her game-plan and stuck to her guns all the way to bring up a famous victory.

A lot has been said of Venus's powerful serves - the fastest in the women's game - but today it was her double handed backhand that turned out to be her main weapon. And she was supremely confident too when she ventured up, winning 11 of 15 points at the net.

Both women started rather nervously, losing their very first service games. But Venus it was who took command early as she broke to 3-1 on three successive forehand errors from Davenport and then had a setpoint too on her countrywoman's serve in the eighth game.

But Davenport fought off that setpoint to hold to 3-5, forcing Venus to serve out the set in the next game - which the fifth seed did on her third setpoint.

The second set saw a succession of broken service games before Venus held serve to 3-3 and then saw Davenport gift her the next game on a double fault.

Then again, Venus surrendered the advantage immediately and then played her best return game of the match. She set up an opening with a lovely drop shot and followed this up with a drive volley and finally Davenport hit a backhand long to give the black American girl the chance to serve for the title.

After an hour and five minutes on the court, Venus was a few big serves away from the most coveted title in the sport. But she faltered. Two double faults and two groundstroke errors let Davenport back into the match.

This might have proved too costly if Venus had not pulled up her socks and shut the door on Davenport in the tiebreak. That she did proved that here was a champion who had come to stay.

Two backhand errors from Davenport saw Venus open up a 5-1 lead and from there it was a matter of seconds rather than minutes. And when Davenport barely reached her powerful forehand on her second matchpoint, the ball flying off the frame of the defending champion's racquet, a defence had come unstuck and a dream had come true at once.

On Friday evening, six-time champion Pete Sampras, still nursing a sore shin in his left leg - he took treatment on court - did just enough to sail past the Belarussian qualifier Vladimir Voltchkov 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-4 in an hour and 39 minutes.

Sunday's final will be the great man's 15th in Grand Slam championships and his seventh here. He has, his Australian opponent Pat Rafter would note, never lost in a final here.

The second semifinal was more of a contest than we might have expected. Voltchkov, unbeaten in 15 matches until this semifinal and enjoying the best run of his career, hung in there in the first set and fought courageously before missing an easy high volley at 4-5 in the tiebreak.

As it turned out, the match was won and lost there as Sampras raced through the second set and then broke Voltchkov's serve in the ninth game of the third. ``I tried to fight but he was too good,'' said Voltchkov. ``To beat Pete you have to do something special.''

In a way, the Belarussian qualifier certainly has done something special here this fortnight. Until the other day a player who couldn't afford clothes and shoes to last two weeks on grass, he was richer by over Rs. 80 lakhs from the prize money alone here this fortnight.

Sampras, of course, was hardly concerned about money. The great man plays for things money can never buy. ``I am looking at it as a great moment for tennis, as a great moment for me,'' said the former World champion, looking forward to Sunday's match against Rafter.

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