The other night, Venus Williams beat Kim Clijsters, 7-5 in the third, in the Billie Jean King Cup exhibition, the centerpiece event of the USTA's Tennis Night in America effort. This is a very solid idea; tennis needs all the hype and help it can get these days, because the focal points of the year are too few and far between to allow the game maximum growth. Innovative efforts like these are always welcome, and I'm surprised by how many of us - most of us - are really resistant to new and different ideas in how the game is presented or even played.
I mean, they can't even pass a rule to eliminate the let-cord serve, which to my mind is ludicrous. And here's fair warning - I'm on the verge of cranking up another post on one of my favorite pet peeves, the stigma against the underhand serve.
But let's get back to Venus. As I wrote the other day at my ESPN blog, Venus looked terrific against Champagne Kimmy. Her big swerve (that's no typo; does any other WTA player have a comparable slice serve?) was in good working order, and her exceptional court coverage enabled her to stand firm against the rock-solid groundstrokes of Clijsters. The Belgian U.S. Open champion has a great talent for leaning on an opponent and pushing her back. But Venus is one of the few women who can stand firm against her (or anyone else), and who remains very dangerous even if she's being forced back by penetrating groundstrokes.
Clijsters made an astute remark in her press conference afterward, in the midst of a very gracious tribute to Venus. She said, "As you get older, you don't feel as fresh after tough matches. You get a little injured here and there. Venus copes with it all really well. And I think she gets really underestimated, because she plays doubles as well as singles. I played doubles a lot, too, when I was young. But as time went on I found it was very hard to combine (singles and doubles success)."
Venus, in case you don't know, will be 30 in June. She hasn't won a major since Wimbledon of 2008, and no major other than the world championship on grass in almost a decade (2001). But this could be the year that she makes another big statement at a tournament other than Wimbledon (but give her credit for knowing exactly where to make a statement, when one is in order). There's no question that the clock is ticking on her career, even though Venus is blessed with natural gifts that make it plausible that she go all Navratilova on us, playing at a reasonably high level until the AARP calls for an intervention.
Granted, Venus missed an opportunity in Australia when she lost in the quarterfinals (in another 7-5 in-the-third thriller), but can anyone suggest that she "should have" beaten Li Na? Significantly, Venus has been on a tear ever since that loss, winning Dubai over Victoria Azarenka and toughing out a bunch of three-setters in Acapulco. Maybe the competition in Mexico wasn't of the first order; the larger point is that Venus's determination and fighting spirit were, and I'll take a player with fighting spirit over an relatively unmotivated one with loads of talent any time.
In Madison Square Garden, Venus fought hard again, and she looked confident and focused. When you add it all up, you almost get the feeling that Venus is on some kind of a mission, and I'd be surprised if her goal is to have a great winter. I'd like nothing more than to see Venus have a great year, because I always felt that she and Steffi Graf were the closest thing the WTA has produced to a female Bjorn Borg, and Venus even moreso than Steffi.
At his best, Bjorn Borg reduced the tennis court to something like a table-tennis platform; his wrenching topspin strokes and baseline-hugging style also evoked images of the ping-pong champ - a player who stood belly up to the edge of the table (or baseline) and played an east-west game big on covering the ball rather than hitting through it in a conventional, flat manner. This image doesn't do justice to either Venus or Borg's quickness or explosive abilities, but it will do.
Borg had near-perfect physical dimensions and balance (one of the most underrated of virtues for a tennis player); heaven forbid you ever see an errant Borg limb flying here or there, as you sometimes do with Venus. The only stray appendage you ever saw on Borg was a strand of that long blond hair. Venus is less perfectly proportioned and her balance isn't in the same league, but she's endowed with assets Borg lacked: long reach and mile-long legs - and the ability to cover ground expediently with them.
Rafael Nadal provides another useful comparison in a narrow way: Getting the ball by Venus - a simple enough idea to contemplate - has at times been as futile an idea as somehow penetrating Rafa's defenses. Even if you make progress, you're never going to just roll or punch through either of these players.
But let's compare Venus to a current WTA player, instead of the boys. Comparing the Williams sisters leaves me with one overwhelming impression: Serena is a natural-born tennis player, more than a natural-born athlete; Venus is more the natural-born athlete than tennis player. The thing that has most hurt Venus, and will pose problems for her going forward, is a merely ordinary feel for the ball, maybe even for the game in the larger strategic sense. She's a runner and a hitter, not a creative shotmaker (a la Serena) or master of court space. These relative weaknesses, especially in recent years, seem to be related to a basic looseness in her strokes - has anyone very looked at Venus and said, Now there's a player with really clean, grooved strokes?
In a way, that's been the price Venus had to pay for that great reach and long legs. She has a lot of different moving parts (that they move so freely complicates the job) that need to work in unison for her to play her best. And under duress - mental or physical, and especially when some degree of injury is in play - it's pretty easy for the process to go awry. This, I always felt, is what has prevented Venus from being unbeatable on clay, which might otherwise be her surface of choice. She's strong, swift, and has great range. Combine those with greater consistency off the ground and you own Roland Garros. Imagine Venus's athletic gifts combined with Dinara Safina's strokework.
The other flaw I see in Venus is a tendency to over-hit, or go for a little too much, when discretion might be the better part of valor. Sometimes, it almost seems like you can goad her into taking too big a cut. But that tendency can be addressed with simple mental awareness and discipline. By contrast, it's too late to do much about Venus's mechanics and stroke production.
All of which helps explain why Venus beat Kim the other night, with an assist from the no-ad format and a relatively fast surface. As Venus said, "I like no-ad, everybody goes for their shots, but you also try to avoid making mistakes. It can get pretty intense." Venus's great success at Wimbledon also supports the idea that her game looks most devastating when she can play quick points, with a measure of risk, on a surface fast enough to reward not only her shotmaking, but her ability to counter-punch winners. And on a fast surface, the great athlete who can react to a precarious situation with pre-emptive offensive power enjoys a significant advantage (see "F" for Federer).
It was encouraging to hear Venus say, after her match with Clijsters, that she's confident and optimistic about the upcoming Grand Slam season. "I see myself doing very well at the majors," she said. "I'm going in to win, and I have no doubts. I'm playing well right now, so I just have to stay healthy and keep up this level. I feel like I'm building momentum."
Venus also made a telling remark when she was asked about the no-ad scoring: "There are a lot of kids here, and I want them to see as much of the match as they can."
It was an oddly mature and thoughtful comment, coming from a star tennis player. Venus is all growed up, as one of my pumpkin rolling friends might say, even though tennis is largely a young person's game. We'll see how she navigates the perils therein, but I have a funny feeling we haven't heard our last big statement from her.