ALTHOUGH THERE are two players ranked ahead of her, Venus Williams is the player all but the tournament seeding committee feels is best equipped to carry off a sixth singles title. Already she stands third in the Open era with five championships and trails only Martina Navratilova with nine and Steffi Graf, who has seven.
This week her sister, Serena, arrived in London and, in a giving moment, declared that Venus was the best grass player of her generation. She should know. Serena is the only other multiple champion in the draw and has won this title twice, beating her sister in both finals.
Together they have won it seven times in the last nine years. Only Maria Sharapova in 2004 and Amelie Mauresmo in 2006 have broken the family hegemony.
Yesterday Venus had a reintroduction to grass against Swiss player Stefanie Voegele, ranked 97 in the world.
The 6-3, 6-2 win reflects accurately a cursory victory in the foothills of the tournament.
Even Williams conceded that much. “It was pretty straightforward. I don’t put too much stock into first-round matches,” she said.
Venus is always the quietly spoken one but she is also the one for whom the former US President Theodore Roosevelt’s adage holds true.
“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”
But Williams was giving little away. Her interview style is polite but perfunctory even when provoked with the suggestion that she has a comfort level on grass that few others have.
“No, I wish it was that easy. A lot of hard work goes into it, hitting the right shot at the right time,” she replied. “But obviously I feel good here and I take advantage of that feeling.”
Hoping to prevent her from taking too much advantage is the top seed Dinara Safina, whose run to the second round was only briefly delayed by Spaniard Lourdes Dominguez Lino. Divine intervention for Lourdes was really her best hope but alas, as in the truly hopeless situations, it didn’t arrive.
After making it hard for the Russian, the first set fell 7-5. Untidy from Safina but Lino was battling in what was always going to be her one shot at glory.
A second set comfortably taken 6-3 by the current world number one and three-time Grand Slam runner-up brought her head-to-head with her opponent to 4-0 and pushed her through.
Jelena Jankovic had similar, perhaps more terminal, problems to Safina. The Serbian sixth seed has been unconvincing of late and even hinted at taking a break from the game.
Yesterday she was forced to fight back from 5-2 in the second set against Germany’s Julia Goerges to close her out 6-4, 7-6.
“I showed my fighting spirit at 5-2. I didn’t give up. I just fought every point,” said Jankovic, who had to call a medical timeout at the end of the first set because of blisters and a broken toenail.
“I hung in there. Even if you don’t play your best tennis, be in the match and always believe you can win,” she said. “I think I’m more enthusiastic. And I’m more positive, as well. You have to look on the bright side, as well.
Other names that are expected to shine this week prospered but with various degrees of anxiety. Danish ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki coughed up her first set of the tournament 5-7 to Japan’s Kimiko Krumm.
Settling thereafter, a 6-3 second set and a 6-1 third re-established the status quo.
Former French open champion Ana Ivanovic also made tough work of sweeping aside Czech player Lucie Hradecka, ranked 58 in the world.
The 21-year-old Serbian, who is more comfortable on clay, is, like Jankovic, going through a fallow period. She was ranked number one in the world at around this time last year.
The 12th seed, who has yet to win a tournament this year, faced match points against her before she found some consistency in her game. She lost the first set 5-7 reclaimed ground in the second 6-2 and took the first of two match points for 8-6 in the third.
