Venus Williams Sweeps Into French Open Second Round

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By Richard Pagliaro
Photo Credit: Costantini/Internazionali BNL D'Italia.com

(May 23, 2010) Appreciative whistles from the men in the crowd serenaded Venus Williams when she stripped off her black warm-up jacket revealing the black corseted, can-can style dress with red piping she wore onto Court Suzanne Lenglen for her first-round French Open match.

Williams was dressed to dance, pounced on short balls as if each was a mirror-ball moment, endured a few match point mis-steps but high stepped her way into the second round with a 6-3, 6-3, win over Patty Schnyder that spanned 80 minutes.

A clay-court dance between two of the WTA Tour's veteran set — the 31-year-old Schnyder was playing Paris for the 15th straight season, while Venus, three weeks removed from her 30th birthday, is making her 14th consecutive French Open appearance — offers the contrast in styles between the left-handed Schnyder's spins, slices and soft drop shots and Williams' explosive eruptions from the baseline and ability to close net with authority.

While Schnyder is a two-time French Open finalist who knows her way around clay, when Patty plays Venus it's like watching a woman wearing ear muffs play musical chairs against a tap dancer: Schnyder often looks out of step and ultimately displaced on court vs. Williams.

Past history plays a part: Williams raised her record to 11-0 against Schnyder and has surrendered just five sets in that span.

In that sense, Schnyder represented the ideal opponent for Williams: someone accomplished enough to offer resistance but lacking the power to pose serious problems.

"It's never easy to draw someone like Patty," Williams said. "She's so good on the clay and her game is much better than her ranking. That wasn't easy. I was really concentrated. I'm really glad to get through to the second round."

Continuing her clay-court success, Williams, who was runner-up to France's Aravane Rezai in last Sunday's Madrid final, has won 13 of the 15 clay-court matches she's played this season.

Since she fell to sister Venus in the 2002 final, Venus has not surpassed the French Open quarterfinals, falling in the third round in each of the last three years. She says the nagging injuries that have scarred her clay-court seasons inducing stops and starts in recent years have been behind her and credits her health with her success in regaining the No. 2 ranking give the Williams sisters the world's top two spots for the first time in seven years.

"Injuries are a part of sport. I definitely had my fair share but this year it shows I've been healthier and my results have been better," Venus said. "I'm so blessed to play this game and play it well. So injury or no injury I'm glad to be here."

Williams drew whistles before she struck a show. How much noise can she make on the red clay in what has been her least successful major?

If the seven-time Grand Slam champion can corral her sometimes sporadic serve — Williams served 53 percent and clanked eight double faults today — continue to hit through her forehand that can fray at the seams, move forward in the court with each short-ball opportunity (she won 12 of 14 net points) benefit from days like today with the sun-swept court playing fast which suits her  penetrating power, then she has a good shot to make a sustained surge into the second week.

Williams will play either Japanese qualifier Kurumi Nara or Spain's Arantxa Parra Santonja in the second round, followed by a possible third-round encounter with Dominika Cibulkova. The 26th-seeded Cibulkova, who reached her first career Grand Slam semifinal in Paris last spring, crushed Ekaterina Ivanova, 6-2, 6-0.

A week ago, Rezai, who crunches the  ball off both sides with biting authority, reeled off five consecutive games in toppling Williams, 6-2, 7-5. Today, Rezai routed Canadian qualifier Heidi El Tabakh, 6-1, 6-1, in a merciless 48-minute mauling to stretch her win streak to seven matches, with three of those wins coming against former World No. 1 players: Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic and Venus.

French fans are drawn to Rezai's flashy, glittery on-court clothes and her grip-it-and-rip it ground game that has seen the 5-foot-5 St. Etienne native whose parents moved to France in exile from Iran, a danger. Rezai said she's tuned out the pre-tournament buzz she created by winning Madrid.

"When you play tennis, you make sacrifices to reach that level so this pressure, you like it, it comes with the reward," said Rezai.

Rezai and Williams may well meet again in the fourth round. The fact that Venus and Serena are playing doubles together in Paris — the top-seeded sisters take on Kirsten Flipkens and Tamarine Tanasugarn in the opening round — may serve to solidify her singles game in that it gives Williams the daily repetition of serving, returning, hitting forehands and reinforcing that attacking mind-set to get the short ball, rip it and move in behind it.

For Williams, success hinges on how well she's able to apply spin to her forehand serve because when those shots fail her, it's often because her ball lacks height to clear the net.

When Venus' ball toss on serve strays, she sometimes drops her head and lets the toss drop too low. That was the case in the final stages of today's win as Williams slapped several first serves and her forehand into the net in blowing three match points. She kept swinging away though and struck successive forehand winners to close.

Her self-designed dress drew attraction for its cut, but Williams spoke like a woman who isn't much interested in scoring style points between the lines.

"Some games I didn't serve as well as others. Ultimately it's about winning every single
game. I just focus on the moment," said Williams, who played today like she's intent on making her 14th French Open appearance an extended stay.