Zvonareva must hope for chink in Williams's serve

TENNIS WIMBLEDON CHAMPIONSHIPS:IT'S HER 16th Grand Slam final, her sixth at Wimbledon. She's hit more aces here than any one in history and she's facing an opponent, who has never won a major and is the second lowest ranked player ever to get to a Centre Court final. The question for Vera Zvonareva is whether conquering Serena Williams is doing Everest without the oxygen and crampons.

Williams breezed up from the practice courts yesterday, was reminded about the remarkable decade she and her sister Venus have had, her 12 Grand Slam titles, Venus’s seven, the family’s annexing of the Wimbledon title since 2000 – they have won eight.

But she had her game face on, still in tournament mode. “I’m a really intense player,” she said. “Sometimes I do feel joy. But it’s rare because I want it so bad.”

When asked what a perfect Wimbledon would be: “Obviously winning,” she replied. What else.

The Williams family are here in bulk, mother, sisters, father Richard directing operations, cheroot in hand, a passive figure in the player’s box and a dispenser of home-spun wisdom to anyone who wants to know.

His daughter prepared for this year’s competition by playing in a mere five tournaments including the Australian Open, which she won and Roland Garros, where she made the quarter-final. At 28 years old injury is more a threat to a poor showing than opponents she has played and beaten many times before.

In that respect Williams has played Zvonareva six times since the French Open in 2002 and has won five of those matches. The last time the 25-year-old Russian beat her was in 2006 in Cincinnati on a hard surface. They have never played on grass.

Williams has been cautious but confident and Zvonareva guarded but hopeful and holding the attitude that in a one-off match, anything can happen.

Her main concern will be Williams’s serve and how to break it. In that she must hope for a few loose games from the defending champion and take advantage of anything available.

As Kvitova showed in the semi-final, Williams can be stretched if her opponent’s are prepared to adopt an aggressive offensive style, a strategy that can be high risk. She may also try to break up Williams’s rhythm by varying the play but with that serve, Zvonareva expects long periods of struggle.

“Putting too much pressure on myself,” Williams said was the biggest danger to her in the final. Pointedly it is not Zvonareva, or what she might bring to an apron of grass as familiar to the champion as her front lawn.

“On paper it looks like I should win. But Vera, I’ve played her several times and she’s beaten some good people. Her last two matches she’s been down a set, so she’s obviously a fighter.”

In all the Muscovite will also hope that given Williams’ overwhelming track record at Wimbledon and her hot favourite status, she might expect her to arrive on Centre Court on a tumbrel. Being confident about her strengths is an aspect of Williams’s game as much as her serve. But over-confidence would be no friend today. “I never get over-confident,” she said. “I did once a long time ago. Everyone goes through that where they are over-confident. Then you end up losing the match. So you never do that again. It definitely happened in my career, I think maybe playing Monica Seles once. I played her in LA. I was over-confident and ended up losing. It’s important not to do that.”

Zvonareva will have to remind herself of the one good game she played against the American in Cincinnati. Apart from that there is not much of a reservoir from which she can fish out positive thoughts. “I will have to stay aggressive and not let her dominate. I will have to sit down with my coach and see what are the best things to do,” she said.

“I will try to fight for each point. I will try to make it difficult for her on each point, try not to give her any points. There is always something you can remember about those matches and use it for the future. But I know it’s going to be a new day. It’s not going to be easy.”

Never is last day on Centre Court.