"I THINK the best thing about this sport is you can choose your own destiny. It's just you out there on the court. And you can be as good as you want, or as bad. The success is your success. And if you don't (have success], you have to look to yourself. I like that about this sport."
That was just part of Venus Williams' musings earlier this week, after she had rattled through another match without looking in any danger of losing a set. In the opening two rounds she had lost just ten games, easing through the draw. Yesterday the
defending champion was just as dominant, conceding a miserly four games to Carla Suarez Navarro in a match she won in one hour 21 minutes.
She had met the Spaniard just once before and that day she came off second best. But that was on the hard courts of the Australian Open, not on the grass of SW19 where Williams is so at home and has gorged herself on five singles titles.
"These were different circumstances. In Australia I had opportunities but didn't take advantage of them. Today I was determined to run away with it. In the end it got closer but I had learned from that (game in Australia] and pushed it forward."
It looked ominous for the world No 34 when Williams emerged from the warm-up already in fighting mode. Once again she had her leg taped up for extra support but she wasn't the only one. At the other side of the net was a mirror image in that regard, but it was the only real similarity. Receiving in the first game, Williams broke Suarez Navarro and then steamrollered her way through her own debut service game to love. The American kept the pressure on, easing to wins in the next two games.
"It feels really natural when I'm out there. It plays great and I just love it," said the 29-year-old. And it was evident in her play. The rhythm was right and she was getting in her serves, while also getting in 83 per cent of her returns in that first set. It was just too much power and good play for the Spaniard to withstand.
Even when the poor soul on the other side of the net eventually managed to get a fingertip-grip on a game and threatened to win it, manoeuvring her way to advantage in the fifth game, she was still pegged back and bettered by Williams, who completed the first-set whitewash in just 33 minutes.
It was her 28th successive set win at the All England Club since 2007 and with the opportunity of a third straight singles triumph in her own hands she was in no mood to hang about. If she could retain the Rosewater for another year she would be one title shy of Steffi Graf's tally and three short of Martina Navratilova's record nine. She says that is not a factor but it must appeal.
"I take it year by year and each one I get is mine, all mine. I don't think about Martina or Steffi. I take things match by match and don't over-think it."
There is no doubt, having won the Championships many times, she is one of the players best placed to know what it takes, and in her 13th year at Wimbledon, she is as dangerous as she has ever been. Although she claimed that nerves played a part in the early rounds, there was little evidence of them in this match and it was the ninth game of the head-to-head before the No 3 seed was breached.
It signalled a better start to the second set for her under-fire opponent. Having lost the first two games, Suarez Navarro finally held her own serve and then managed what had seemed unthinkable earlier in the match and broke Williams' serve, allowing the American a solitary point in that game.
"She held serve and I didn't have the best service game," admitted Williams. "Maybe I rushed it a bit and served a bit too aggressively. When the chips are down I start to force the issue even more and usually it works. You live, you learn, you play tennis, you learn too."
And she wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. From then on she held her serve and plodded onwards, tying the match up 6-0, 6-4 and she now faces Ana Ivanovic in the next tussle. She knows she can be as good as she wants or as bad. But for so long now it's all been success.
The full article contains 788 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
