Venus gets past the first hurdle

23 June, 2009 14:12:00

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Voegele was a tougher opponent than her ranking — or the scoreline — suggests...

Nirmal Shekar

Venus Williams’s serve — normally a huge weapon on grass — was not as consistent against Stefanie Voegele, but that did not come in the way of the defending champion’s progress.

Sometime in the future, when it becomes possible to genetically design athletes to suit specific requirements, if someone wanted to build a female Wimbledon champion, that person would somehow try to get his hands on Venus Williams’s genome sequence.

The five-time winner of the Venus Rosewater dish is blessed with a body that is seemingly tailor-made for glory on grass — glory not merely in terms of titles but, more importantly, in terms of the lyrical, spirit-lifting tennis that the possessor of those limbs authors.

Few women, if any, in the entire history of the sport might have combined power and grace to quite the same effect on grass as does Venus who began her title defence in the 123rd Wimbledon championships with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland on Tuesday.

As elegant a grass court assassin — female or male — as the sport has seen, Venus covers the turf with a feline lightness of feet even as she produces lightning bolts of brilliance with her incendiary racquet.

“What makes Venus so dangerous on the Wimbledon grass is that she’s got the wingspan of a 747,” said Martina Navratilova, a nine-time champion.

The real value of athletic gifts lies in the ability of their owner to employ them in pursuit of greatness. And in her 13 summers at Wimbledon, Venus has used them remarkably well, running up a 59-7 record and winning five of seven finals.

If she has never really been the sort of person who lives and breathes tennis 24x7, then when the covers come off the courts in the planet’s most famous piece of tennis real estate, Venus displays the sort of passion and commitment she has seldom been able to bring to her campaigns at the other three Grand Slam events.

This is her spiritual home, this is where her heart is; and this is reflected in the brand of tennis that she plays on her beloved grass courts.

On a gorgeous Tuesday, in brilliant sunshine, Venus was slow off the blocks. The opening match on grass is always a tricky one even for a great champion and Voegele was not an easy opponent to deal with.

Although world ranked 91, the Swiss player showed no signs of nerves and simply refused to be intimidated by her iconic opponent in a match that, as a contest, was closer than the language of the scoreline might suggest. If her serve is a huge weapon on grass, then Venus was not quite consistent with it but only a fool will bet on this state of affairs not improving down the road. What is more, Voegele hit a few winners that you’d not associate with a player of such lowly rank and the American was time and again surprised.

Venus had to stave off two breakpoints to hold in her opening service game and despite losing serve in the seventh game — on her first opportunity to serve for the set — the champion closed it out the next time.

In the second set, Voegele stayed with Venus briefly — until 2-2 — before the 29-year old American pulled away for the charge home.

Sister’s respect

On Monday, her sister Serena had said Venus was the greatest grass court player of her generation. Although she was saying the obvious, Venus was delighted to hear about the compliment.

“Getting a compliment from her is great. I feel very good here. This has been a place of success. I enjoyed being out there,” said Venus.

In the men’s championship, Juan Martin del Potro, the 20-year old Argentine who had lost in five close sets to Roger Federer in the semifinals of the French Open, made an impressive start as he dismissed the French veteran Arnaud Clement 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 in an hour and 37 minutes.

Also marching into the second round in straight sets was Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, another French semifinalist. He beat Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia 7-5, 7-5, 6-3.

Following these two into the second round was the long-forgotten Aussie battler Lleyton Hewitt, the only man in the draw other than His Royal Highness Roger Federer, to have experienced the thrill of lifting the men’s singles trophy.

Hewitt, written off as a Grand Slam contender long ago, raced past Robby Ginepri of the United States 6-4, 6-1, 6-1.