| Friday, 4 July 2008 Written by Byron Vale Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert knew the other's game intimately. The two giants of women's tennis in the 1970s and 1980s played each other 80 times on tour. Yet even they could never have had such a thorough knowledge of their opponent's game as Serena and Venus Williams have with each other.
The two protagonists in the ladies' final live together, eat together, practice together, play doubles together and grew up together. They know each other's strengths, they know each other's weaknesses and they know each other's mind. "I think Venus hits harder serves than I do," Serena said earlier this week, when an all-Williams final was just a probability, not a certainty. "What else? We both run fast. I think the differences, I play more trick shots and drop shots and stuff like that. I don't hit as hard as V. Sometimes I'm watching her practise, I start thinking, 'OK, I can play that game'. But I feel like my game is really totally different than hers."
To be fair, no-one is going to be surprised by how the Williams sisters will play. They will both unleash rockets for serves then attempt to hit the fur off the tennis ball with every shot. And why should they play any different? Their tactics have been spectacularly successful over the course of the last two weeks.
For the record, this year Venus Williams broke the Wimbledon record for fastest serve - a 127mph effort - but Serena, with a top speed of 123mph, has served more aces than any female in the tournament: 48, 14 more than her sister.
Here is a selection of comments from some of Serena's beaten opponents en route to the final. "Her serve was simply too big," Zheng Jie, beaten 6-2, 7-6 in the semi-finals. "She was serving unbelievable today, especially in the second set. Sometimes four aces in a game. It's too much, there was no chance to break her," Agnieszka Radwanska, beaten 6-4, 6-0 in the quarter-finals. "She was serving bombs today, hit a couple like 118, 120s, I think. She's playing aggressive, she's coming to net, putting pressure on players, and I think a lot of girls will cave in," Bethanie Mattek, beaten 6-3, 6-3 in the fourth round.
In every match bar one, Serena has won more than 80% of the points on her first serve. Against Amelie Mauresmo, in the third round, she won just 63%. That match represented the nadir of the Serena serve, in which she lost three service games and double-faulted five times. In three matches since, Serena has double-faulted just once and been broken twice.
Amid all the questions at Serena Williams' press conferences about her rain coat and her relationship with her sister, there has been the occasional chance to gain a glimmer of insight into Serena's personality.
She hates to lose. She is a perfectionist. She has made the transition to grass this year faster than ever before. She has developed a slice shot. She feels good about her mobility. She rates Venus her toughest opponent. Her game is peaking for the final. Taken in their totality, Serena's comments belie the confidence of a player who has believed from day one that she would be in the final. And that she could win it. She certainly won't be overawed by playing the defending champion, or her sister.
"I always believe that I'm the favorite. Even if I'm not the favourite, I'm always going to believe that I am." Just the kind of thing Martina or Chris might have said in days of friendly rivalry gone by.
|
