Rain gives Serena relief

TENNIS:Hot tears and cold weather dominated Centre Court yesterday as the Williams family found out that the seventh day does not always bring rest. Both sisters took to the courts, Serena to the main arena, Venus to the graveyard of the champions.

As events unfolded in staccato throughout a fragmented day, unseeded Venus climbed out of a deep hole, but Serena melodramatically collapsed with cramp in the second set of her fourth-round match against Daniela Hantuchova. Both though, are safely through.

Serena had won the first set and the match was poised at 5-5 in the second with Hantuchova serving at 30-15. The first indication of a problem was when the American lifted her left leg and hit it three times with her racquet as she moved into position to receive serve.

Moments later she collapsed with a long shriek, and as trainers, doctors, the umpire and even Hantuchova, wrapped in a towel for warmth, gathered around, it was clear the Australian Open champion was in severe pain.

As her anxious family looked on, Williams, after a long assessment, was given a three-minute medical time out as the trainer worked the troubled calf muscle. When Serena laboured to even stand up to finish the game, it was evident she could put no pressure at all on the leg.

Her Slovakian opponent served out for 6-5 and, remarkably, Williams, limping into every shot and ignoring anything outside her hitting area, brought the match to a tiebreak at 6-6.

While this was playing out, her canny father Richard could be seen pointing towards the sky, divining water. And as his daughter hobbled around in extreme discomfort trailing 2-4 in the tiebreak, the rain did indeed begin to fall.

It saved her. When the players returned later for the fourth time both of Williams legs were taped. She sought a quick finish, but destiny decided the drama would unfold in three parts and Hantuchova won the next three points for the set.

But nerves quickly set in for the 10th seed. Williams, screeching and wailing with each go-for-broke winner, and ably supported by an animated Richard, pocketed Hantuchova's serve for 4-2, the legs standing up to the crumbling game of her opponent.

Williams was hitting out at everything and, with the service break, then asked an empty Hantuchova to hold serve at 2-5. She couldn't, and a backhand into the net handed Williams the match.

"Going for broke was all I could do," said Williams. "I have that game. But it's a very low-percentage game. You hit a lot of winners but make a lot of errors too."

Earlier Venus Williams treated us to one of her crazy dance routines out on show court two. For a long time against Akiko Morigami, Williams looked like she was wilfully digging herself a hole. Morigami helped, but the unseeded American was shovelling hardest.

Against a more ruthless player, the elder Williams would have been heading back to her beloved Los Angeles to do what she likes doing in her spare time: dancing, writing poetry, reading, sewing, studying new subjects, collecting Asian antiques, being at home playing the guitar and staring in her reality TV show with Serena.

While she appeared to cruise through the first set 6-2 in less than 30 minutes, she did hit 11 unforced errors, but converted two of three break points earned.

But Morigami is one of those dashing players whose tennis life is dedicated to retrieving lost causes. It had served her well enough to beat 12th seed Dinara Safina in the previous round, and with Williams lashing out with 22 unforced errors, Morigami's industry allowed her prise it from her in 42 minutes for 1-1.

As the match had been washed out on Saturday, the two had returned to court yesterday with Williams trailing 1-4 in the second set and it had played on her head.

"It was very definitely on my mind," she said of sitting it out Saturday and Sunday knowing she was down a double break. "I mean, in that second set she had lucky shots."

Maybe. Either way the balls were not staying between the lines, and when Williams looks at her curious match statistics of winning three break points out of 23, she will know that significant engineering work is required. Trailing 5-3 in the third, she finally dug in, emerging a 7-5 winner and a happy, happy girl.

Jennifer Capriati was 14 years old, when she first competed at Wimbledon. Martina Hingis won the championship when she was 16. Austria's Tamira Paszek is not the first who cannot be served drink, buy cigarettes or vote to put a dent in the ladies singles draw. But yesterday's 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over Elena Dementieva, got heads turning as Paszek moves into the fourth round.

Making her Wimbledon debut, the teenager had an impressive start to the season, which saw her shave 100 points off her ranking. Now at 54 in the world, she meets Svetlana Kuznetsova.