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Tennis
By Nirmal Shekar
Serena Williams (left), who defeated her sister Venus for the Wimbledon women's singles title, gets a congratulatory pat from the loser on Saturday. Serena prevailed in straight sets.
The local bookmakers, Ladbrokes, might have offered fancy, and rather tempting odds, of Venus Williams and Serena Williams dodging each other's bullets 10 years on in a Wimbledon final, back in 1992 when Andre Agassi in full regalia— with bleached blond hair and all— was making history of his own on the centre court. But, for the Williams family, fairytales have become everyday reality and so it turned out this afternoon in the 116th championships that it took one of their own to stop the seemingly unstoppable woman — Venus Williams — who, with her exploits in the last two years here, had looked like an Immovable Object. In the event, in came the Irresistible Force in the form of Typhoon Serena to blow away her older sister's chance of emulating a few all-time greats of the game — the last was Steffi Graf, who won 1991-93 — by winning three titles in a row. Serena's 7-6(4), 6-3 defeat of Venus in an hour and 17 minutes in the women's singles final not only enhanced her status as the latest world No.1, but also enabled her to join the few all-court champions who have managed to win back to back titles in Roland Garros and Wimbledon. ``I came out firing in the first set. Two time Wimbledon champion — it's hard to beat Venus,'' said Serena who took home a cheque worth a few thousand tipping-change over Rs.3 crores. Venus acknowledged the younger one's superiority on the day. "She came up with the better shots,'' said the top seed. "At least I know that sometimes I can look at the trophy,'' she said with a broad smile, alluding to the fact that they live in the same family home in Florida. The Williamses have taken a lot of flak over the last two years for the way the matches between the sisters have unravelled, especially on the big stages of the sport. There have been allegations that some of them were even "fixed'' by their father Richard Williams. But, in the light of what we saw today on the centre court, it must be said that this one was perhaps one of the more competitive encounters between the two, not the least in the first set which was quite a thrilling in terms of the twists and turns and the relentless pounding by the girls. Yet, somehow it was difficult to get over the feeling that Venus was a strangely subdued player this afternoon, a rather wilted version of the one that dominated the event for two years. For one thing, she was not serving as powerfully as she has always done on grass — the average first serve speed was 101 today as opposed to her tournament average of 108 — and was also making far too many unforced errors (25 in two sets), some of them on the big points that turned the match. Asked a pointed question about her serve, Venus dodged the issue for a few seconds with as much success as she might have dodged those gangsters' bullets in her early teens before saying, "Well, maybe I wanted to last longer, all those matches. Maybe I wanted to have a better first serve percentage.'' And she added, tongue in cheek: "I like that answer, I really like that answer.'' That is the way it goes with these girls at post match press conferences after they have played each other in a major final. ``This is up there for sure,''said Serena, talking about the quality of this match in comparison with the others they have played. She has now beaten Venus in all the three matches they have played this year. "I was very focussed today.'' The players broke each other twice in the first set, although Serena seemed well in command when she broke to 4-2. But in the 10th game, the younger one made a pair of errors and Venus stepped on the pedal to break back. Then again, Serena was at her very best in the tiebreaker. When Venus gifted her two points on serve, the French Open champion had three setpoints. She took the set on the second with an "ace''. The serve was called "let'' by the chair umpire Jane Harvey but the sisters decided it was good and walked to their chairs. All Ms.Harvey managed was a typically English shrug. In comparison, the second set was a romp for the champion in the making. After trading breaks once, Serena capitalised on a forehand error and a double fault from Venus to go ahead 5-3 before serving out the match in style. Nalbandian's dream run On the No.1 court, David Nalbandian created another kind of history, as he became the first debutant to make the men's final in the Open Era. Playing his first ever grass court tournament as a pro, the Argentine completed a 7-6(2), 6-4, 1-6, 2-6, 6-2 victory over Xavier Malisse of Belgium. The match had been suspended last night at two sets all because of bad light. And Nalbandian, after all the drama of Friday — Malisse's heart scare, the rain delays and finally the postponement of the final set to Saturday because of bad light was a very relieved and happy man after running away with the decider in quick time. ``I cannot describe the feeling. This is a dream. These are the best weeks of my life,'' said Nalbandian, the first Argentine male to get past the quarterfinals here. He was pretty confident about his chances against Lleyton Hewitt. "I think he and me have the same chances of winning the tournament.'' The 20-year old Argentine, who jumped over 200 places in the world rankings last year to crack the top 50 — he is now ranked 32 — played wonderfully aggressive tennis, mixing things up very well, as he took command of the fifth set. Malisse went ahead with a break in the third game but tightened up when the final beckoned. Nalbandian broke back in the fourth and nosed ahead with a break in the sixth game, and then staved off two breakpoints to hold to 5-2. By then Malisse was a broken man, mentally. And when he played a backhand volley into the open half of the court on his first matchpoint, the young Argentine had made history. Nalbandian sank to his knees and was almost in tears before waving to his coach and friends in the players' guests box. And to think that tomorrow afternoon's assignment against Lleyton Hewitt will be Nalbandian's first visit to the centre court! ``I was thinking about winning after that early break and I was tense,'' said Malisse. He kept his nerve a little better.''Asked if the palpitation-scare of yesterday was anything serious, the pony tailed Belgian said, "My heart beats a little bit faster when I am stressed. I have had it before. It is nothing serious.''
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