WIMBLEDON, England — It hasn’t been a particularly memorable start to the tennis season for Venus Williams. The former world No. 1 has failed to reach the final of a single tournament, and she was unceremoniously bounced before the semifinals in both Grand Slam events to date, the Australian and French opens.
But something magical happens when Venus alights at the All England club. She may have been reared a world away in Compton, Calif., but the manicured lawns that host Wimbledon each summer are her true home, as she has won the coveted championship four times in the last eight years.
Wimbledon’s grass courts, of course, have bedeviled many of the game’s greats — Monica Seles, Ivan Lendl and Ken Rosewall, to name a few. But they bring out the best in Williams, accentuating her power, the glorious reach of her 6-foot-1 frame, her lightning reflexes and uncommon athleticism.
“My game seems to just get better when I’m here,” Williams, the victor in 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2007, said earlier this week.
On Saturday, she took the next step in that progression, easing into Wimbledon’s fourth round with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Maria Jose Martinez Sánchez of Spain. On Williams’ final serve, a match-winning ace, the scoreboard said 127 mph, the fastest women’s serve ever recorded at Wimbledon. Williams has yet to lose a set in three matches.
There was much for tournament organizers to celebrate on the day known as “People’s Saturday.”
No favorites fell — a welcome change after the early rounds saw the exodus of 2004 Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova and top-seeded Ana Ivanovic, as well as third-seeded Novak Djokovic and two-time finalist Andy Roddick.
Among those advancing Saturday was second-seeded Jelena Jankovic, who wrenched a knee during a come-from-behind victory over the latest teen sensation, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark. Jankovic squawked and fretted her way through the match, challenging a half-dozen line calls and twice summoning medical assistance before prevailing, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Joining her was second-seeded Rafael Nadal, who is bidding to snap Roger Federer’s five-year chokehold on the men’s title. Nadal, still giddy over the Spanish soccer team’s semifinal victory in the European Championship, subdued a spirited challenge by Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2, 6-3.
After an uncommonly sunny first week, the tournament now takes its traditional breather, with no matches played on Sunday before play resumes Monday with 16 men and 16 women remaining.
By most accounts, the early upsets have strengthened the prospects of Wimbledon’s defending champions repeating this year.
For Federer, the toughest challenge remains a familiar one: Nadal, 22, whom he has met in the final in five of the last nine Grand Slam events.
For Venus Williams, the steepest hurdle is even more familiar: sister Serena. Neither had dropped a set through three rounds of play. And both have looked fit and proclaimed themselves injury-free during their march toward the July 5 final, which may well be an all-Williams affair.
The sisters have met in Wimbledon’s championship round twice, with Serena winning both times (2002 and 2003).
But Venus dismissed a suggestion that the ouster of any player — whether Sharapova, who was in her half of the draw, or the top-seeded Ivanovic — improved the sisters’ chances.
“The chances were wonderful, you know from the beginning, from Round One,” said Venus, 28. “That’s how we see it. The more we progress, obviously the closer it gets.”
Yet others still moped about the absence of Sharapova, the game’s most marketable player (no female athlete earned more last year, according to Forbes magazine, which put her earnings at $23 million, thanks to endorsements with Nike, Canon, Motorola and Land Rover), and world No. 1 Ivanovic, the striking 20-year-old Serb, whom Time magazine proclaimed the sport’s “next megastar.”
British television and radio broadcaster Sir Terry Wogan, among the luminaries in the Royal Box on Saturday, characterized the upsets of Sharapova and Ivanovic as “the great tragedy of Wimbledon.”
“For me,” Sir Terry lamented to the BBC, “the glamour has left.”
While disheartened Sharapova fans have been sniping on Web sites that she engineered her own demise by paying too much attention to fashion and too little to her tennis, Venus Williams took her side Saturday.
“Women in general, we like fashion,” said Venus, who is wearing a dress from her own clothing line, Eleven, here this year. “It’s a huge industry for the athletic companies. … In the past, Billie Jean King and Rosie Casals, they wore wonderful things that brought a lot of attention to women’s tennis, and that’s what they needed at that time. I don’t think in any way that it subtracts from the competition level or how well we’re playing. The fact of the matter is someone has got to win and someone has got to lose.”
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