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WILL DAD MAKE THE TRIP
TO THE FINAL?
Williams sisters will reach
pinnacle of No. 1 and No. 2 as Serena defeats Jennifer
By
Alix Ramsay
Special to tennisreporters.net
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Susan
Mullane
Camerawork USA, Inc.
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FROM ROLAND GARROS –
Be careful what you wish for – it might just come true.
More than 20 years ago Richard
Williams started out with an idle dream: to raise two Grand Slam
champions who would dominate the rankings as No. 1 and No. 2 in
the world. At 6:37 p.m. on Thursday evening, Richard got what he
wanted.
As the evening drew in, Serena,
the youngest of the clan, muscled her way past Jennifer Capriati
3-6, 7-6, 6-2 to reach the French Open final and, in so doing, moved
into the No. 2 slot in the world ranking. On Saturday she will play
Venus, her big sister and the world No. 1. For the time being, at
least, Richard's daughters rule the world and all that remains is
the business of divvying up the silverware.
Richard's dream has become
reality and now he has to live with the consequences.
Capriati, never at her most diplomatic when she has just been beaten,
was decidedly unimpressed with Williams family achievement. Pointing
to the key players who are injured at the moment – Lindsay
Davenport and Martina Hingis in particular – she thought Venus
and Serena had just made the most of a limited field.
"There's a lot of things
that have happened that kind of made them in this position, one
and two," she said with a certain edge. "They're just
having a good year this year and we'll see if they stay top. It's
just because not everyone's in the game, I think."
So, would it have taken longer
for Venus and Serena to dominate had everyone been fighting fit?
"Taken longer?" she asked. "I don't know if it would
ever happen at all. It's definitely gone in their favor in that
regard. It would be nice to see people coming back and really see
what happens then."
ERROR-PRONE SEMI NOT VERY
PRETTY
No wonder Capriati was annoyed. She
was fully fit and she had had the chance to beat Serena but she
fluffed it. It was not a match that will go down in history as a
classic. At its best it was intriguing, at its worst, it was awful.
Neither woman is known the delicacy of her approach and for more
than two hours they battered the ball back and forth without much
by way of a game plan. In patches, it was a spectacle but mostly
it was an error-strewn mess.
More than half of the points
were won and lost on unforced errors and, remarkably, Serena racked
up 76 blinding mistakes on her way to the final. It made Capriati's
total of 60 errors seem almost acceptable.
When it was over, Serena was
beside herself. She bounced around the court, waving at the crowd
and blowing kisses to one and all. She tried to congratulate Capriati
at the net – Capriati was in no mood for talking – and
even paused to applaud her opponent as Capriati stalked off court
in a huff. Anyone would have thought Serena had just won the title
… and that may be her undoing on Saturday. She still has a rather
important match to play and she needs to keep her enthusiasm in
check for another 48 hours.
Venus, meanwhile, cruised
through to her sixth Grand Slam final with a fairly simple 6-1,
6-4 win over Clarisa Fernandez. It took less than an hour and, save
for a slightly untidy finish – she was serving for the match
at 5-3 and was promptly broken – she was never under any pressure.
That comes now with the prospect of playing her sister.
She was full of the usual
praise for Serena but still made it clear that she would rather
like to stay where she is in the pecking order. Beating Serena here
would help reinforce that wish.
So far Venus and Serena have
played each other seven times and it has never been pretty. Their
confrontations are tense, nervy affairs and, for the most part,
Venus pulls rank as the elder sibling and Serena fades into the
background. Only once have they met in a Grand Slam final, at the
U.S. Open last year, and then Serena was overwhelmed by the moment,
the occasion and, as ever, her sister. Only twice has Serena ever
gained the upper hand but even then the matches were grim. Paying
crowds around the world have expressed their deep displeasure as
such anticlimactic events.
WILL DAD MAKE THE TRIP?
As for Richard, he cannot bear to
watch his girls do battle and he is unlikely to make the trip to
Paris for the final. Even when he does come, he spends half the
match nipping out for a cigarette to settle his nerves.
The crowd here will expect
to see the Williams sisters at their best. The sisters have pummeled
the opposition thus far and if they are seen to pull their punches
on Saturday, they will be booed, jeered and whistled down. Whether,
as sisters and best friends, they will be able to go for the kill
only time will tell but at least they should be seen to be trying.
They had better get used to the feeling, too, because as No. 1 and
No. 2 in the world, they will be seeded to meet in finals around
the circuit until someone can find a way to overtake them. Richard
Williams' wish has been granted; now we will see whether he really
did get what he asked for.
Alix
Ramsay has been covering tennis for British national newspapers
for the past 12 years. She was tennis correspondent of The Times
for three years.
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