VENUS GOES DOWN AND OUT WITH INJURY

Under the microscope: examining Jennifer vs. Serena
Can Kim take Serena? Venus' default reminiscent of year

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

FROM THE HOME DEPOT CHAMPIONSHIPS – The 7,000 or so fans that showed up at the $3 million Home Depot Championships in the Staples Center did and again saw why Serena has become the most impressive closer the tour has seen since Martina Hingis in 1997: She has no fear that she's going to significantly err when she goes for outright winners on the big points.

Jennifer Capriati is a little afraid in the clutch, which explains why Serena eked out a high-octane 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals.

An hour or so after the match, Jennifer had little idea why she lost, offering up the "a few balls, her, a few net cords there," explanation. Maybe, when she and her father and coach, Stefano, review the tape of the match, they'll see that Jennifer took her foot off the pedal at a precise moment in the third set and let Serena strap on her seat belt in the driver's seat.

Ahead 3-1 and holding a break point a break point in the third set, Capriati backed off a relatively weak Serena second serve and pushed a forehand into the net. It was Jennifer's blowtorch of a forehand and excellent returning that put her in a position to win. She should have crunched it down the line and she knew that. That's why she clenched her teeth and stared disgustedly at the floor.

"Maybe on that point I should have gone for it," said Capriati, who only hit 11 winners to 42 from Williams. "On other points, I went for it, too, and I missed it. You can't look at one point that I should have done this or that, you have to look at the whole match."

While that's true to some degree, but it's pretty obvious what occurred afterward.
Williams held to 3-2 and then broke Capriati to 3-3 when she rifled a backhand winner down the line. Serena then held strong to 4-3 and in the next game – which we can nickname the "Nightmare of the Nervous Net Cord" – Jennifer barely held on, at one point slamming the cord after another let cord ball from an extremely loose net went against her.

Susan Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

Capriati was given a gift by the unusually error-prone Serena when Williams missed a makeable forehand return of serve on break point and Jennifer held to 4-4.

But Williams held to 5-4 with a strong service game and then just like in the second set when she Serena broke her to win the set, Jennifer couldn't buy a first serve. Capriati barely missed a drop volley winner at deuce. On match point, she framed a backhand well long.

"I had so many chances," said Capriati, who has now lost to Serena six straight times. "It's just a matter of a few points here and there. She was playing great."

Without question, Serena is a better player than Jennifer is now. She has a much more lethal, much more dependable serve (she crushed 14 aces to 2 from Jennifer in the match) and is more adept at closing out points. Jennifer can retrieve with the best of them and often dominates lesser foes with her power, but she cannot out brawl Serena when the younger Williams is at the top of her game. Here's the scoreboard: 42 winners for Serena vs. 11 for Jennifer.

"Her serve is great," Capriati said. "She's strong off the ground and can mix it up. Sometimes she's erratic, and that makes her difficult to play. And she's smart." Give Capriati credit for perhaps being the tour's fittest players, but if she wants to beat Serena again she's going to have to come to net more (she was 3 for 9 vs. 14 of 17 for Serena) and make her serve into a weapon.

If she doesn't and Serena stays healthy and hungry, Jennifer will never take a whiff at the roses laid at the table of a No. 1 again.

Can Kim take Serena?
This is the 19-year-old Clijsters first appearance in the finals of the Championships. With her win over Venus, it is projected that she will finish the year ranked No. 4, ahead of countrywoman Justine Henin. Kim says it's no big deal to her who's No. 1 in Belgium, but you can bet that it matters that the ultra-competitive Justine.

It's hard to tell whether Clijsters who have taken out Venus, but she looks as good as she ever has and is sure to push Serena on Monday. Kim has a much better serve than Jennifer and is one of the fastest players on tour, but she's not always accurate with her strokes and is 0-5 against Serena.

However, three of their matches have gone three sets, including their last meeting, a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory for Serena in September in the final of Tokyo.

"I have to play my best if I want to beat her," Clijsters said. "You're never going to get any easy matches with her."

As Serena said, "If I don't play better, I might not win. If I do play better, there is a good chance I will win. She's going to go for a lot of winners and I'm going to hit a lot of winners. It's going to be a lot of power."

The only real edge Clijsters has is that Serena has had tougher matches than she has had here, so if she manages to push it to three sets, she may be able to wear her down. But Serena has so many friends and family around watching her in LA that she will go through a wall not to lose, which will make it even more difficult for Clijsters to outlast her. Simply put – Kim is going to have to play the match of her life if she's to take home the title.

She needs an infusion of Lleyton in her blood.

Venus' default reminiscent of year
Back in January when she arrived in Melbourne, it was thought by some that Venus Williams would win her third straight major and go on to dominate the year. But an injury and a charged up Monica Seles knocked her out of the Australian Open and she was never able to regain the ferocity or edge she had when she went back to back at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2001.

She didn't win a Slam this year and on Sunday Venus was forced to retire with a left calf injury down 0-5 in the first set of her semifinal against Belgium's Kim Clijsters.

So much for her dreams of a dominant year.

"Under ideal circumstances, it would be nice for Serena and I to be in the finals, but if I was out there I would play different," said Venus, who will finish the year ranked No. 2 behind Serena. "I'm on an emotional train and I'm tired and I have been through a lot today. I hope Serena wins, but I can't watch it."