By Charles Bricker
This was a surprising loss by Venus Williams on Tuesday, but it was not shocking and anyone who is “stunned” or in “disbelief” that the older of the sisters won’t win Wimbledon this year hasn’t been watching her closely enough.
There are nine super-major tournaments on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour schedule (the four Slams, Key Biscayne, Indian Wells, Madrid, Beijing and the playoff championships at the end of the season). Williams hasn’t won any of the last 13.
In May, just before the French Open, I wrote: “Is she still a world class player? Yes. Is she still a threat on one of those ‘any given Sundays? Or Mondays? Or Tuesdays? Yes. But she’s 29 (now 30). The forehand is in and out and there are players who can exploit it. There is now a major dropoff between her first and second serves. That second serve at times looks as big as a pumpkin.”
With Wimbledon temperatures into the 80s for a second straight day, Williams once again displayed nothing even remotely close to an adequate second serve and was soundly beaten by the No. 82 player in the world, Tsvetana Pironkova, a tall, lean Bulgarian and career qualifier who has been around long enough not to get nervous at the mere sight of a Williams sister. The score was 6-2, 6-3.
Venus was only 12-15 on her second serve (6-9 in the second set).She had only three break-point opportunities, cashing in just one. Meanwhile, Pironkova was 4-for-12 on break-point chances.
Let’s go over the litany of Williams non-title performances in the biggest women’s events, going backward.
* 2010 Wimbledon: Out in the quarters to No. 82 Pironkova.
* 2010 French Open: Out in the round of 16 to No. 20 Nadia Petrova.
* 2010 Madrid: Runner-up to No. 24 Aravane Rezai.
* 2010 Key Biscayne: Runner-up to No. 16 Kim Clijsters.
* 2010 Indian Wells: Did not play, personal choice.
* 2010 Australian Open: Out in the quarters to No. 17 Li Na.
* 2009 WTA Championships: Runner-up to No. 2 Serena Williams.
* 2009 Beijing: Out in the round of 32 to No. 39 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
* 2009 U.S. Open: Out in the round of 16 to unranked Kim Clijsters.
* 2009 Wimbledon: Runner-up to No. 2 Serena Williams.
* 2009 French Open: Out in the round of 32 to No. 31 Agnes Szavay.
* 2009 Madrid: Out in the round of 32 to No. 26 Alisa Kleybanova.
* 2009 Key Biscayne: Out in the semis to No. 1 Serena Williams.
* 2009 Indian Wells: Did not play, personal choice.
* 2009 Australian Open: Out in the round of 64 to Ni. 46 Carla Suarez Navarro.
* 2008: WTA Championships: Winner, defeating No. 9 Vera Zvonareva in final.
You could argue a case that she’s been runner-up at four of these tournaments, losing twice times to Serena, which is certainly no upset. No one is saying Venus Williams doesn’t continue to be a major threat at an event, but I wouldn’t have made her the favorite at this Wimbledon if her sister was unable to play.
She remains a top player, but she’s not, as the rankings currently suggest, No. 2, and I doubt if most of the players on tour would consider her No. 3, either.
The Andy Roddick loss on Monday to Yen-Hsun Lu, however, WAS shocking. Roddick’s best set was the fifth, and he lost it when he was broken for the only time in the match.
I thought he was hurt by two major problems in this match. First, as well as he served, he was surprisingly flat too much of the time on service returns. I didn’t see a lot of bounce in his step, as if he was waiting for Lu to make an error.
Second, the backhand which he had improved so greatly over the last three years, looked like 2005 all over again. It was never going to be a lethal backhand in ground stroke rallies, but Roddick had turned his backhand into a passing-shot weapon and, in the baseline rallies, it had become a solid, reliable stroke.
He wasn’t going to beat you with his backhand, but he wasn’t going to hurt himself with it, either. It had developed into a backhand that kept him in rallies, allowing him to become more of a grinder, which greatly aided his game.
Against Lu, however, there were so many unforced, really unfathomable backhand errors. And his lack of confidence with the stroke, as the match wore on, gave Lu more chances to seize control of the rallies.
Andy will go home to Texas, blow off some steam and get ready for the U.S. hardcourt season. If the next two months don’t get him pumped up higher, it will be time to start thinking he’s going into a fade.
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Rafael Nadal vs. Robin Soderling on Wednesday and it’s a toss-up. Nadal played spectacularly on Monday in beating Paul-Henri Mathieu, while Soderling, who hadn’t been broken in his first three matches, lost serve four times to David Ferrer, whom he struggling enormously to defeat in five. Soderling’s serve went seriously south in that match, but he’s had a day to get it ironed out. And he’s got to return better to win this.
Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com