Venus’ next rival not born when she first played Wimbledon
WIMBLEDON, England — Only a mind-bogglingly long career can yield that kind of matchup slated for Friday at the All England club. On one end of the court for yet another third round will stand Venus Williams, who appeared loudly in her first Grand Slam final at the U.S. Open on Sept. 7, 1997. On the other end will appear Japan’s Naomi Osaka, who was born 39 days after that.
The 37-year-old in the equation has reached her 17th Wimbledon third round in her 20th Wimbledon. She has played 97 singles matches and could get to 100 this year if she reaches the quarterfinals. The 19-year-old, in her first Wimbledon, seemed half-startled Williams knew her name.
“Ohhhhh,” she said, with the lilt people often reserve for
“Awwww.”
“I’m kind of honored,” Osaka said, “because I don’t think I would have started playing if Venus and Serena weren’t, like, there for me growing up. It’s kind of weird to hear that maybe she even talked about me, I don’t know.”
Osaka, the 2016 Women’s Tennis Association newcomer of the year with a world ranking of No. 59, won 6-1, 0-6, 6-4 over No. 23 Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic, who is among those who refer to Osaka approvingly as “the Shinkansen … which is like a Japanese bullet train,” Osaka said Monday.
Williams, the 1997 WTA newcomer of the year now with a world ranking of No. 11 and five Wimbledon titles among seven Grand Slam crowns, won by 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 over No. 55 Qiang Wang of China, who rebounded from a 4-2 first-set deficit and forced Williams to dip into her artwork. “Of course there’s moments when your opponent seems to have momentum,” she said, “but I was always thinking about how I could turn it.”
Four weeks after her involvement in a car accident in which a passenger in the other car was killed, Williams fielded no questions about that topic.
Told of her 97-match career run at Wimbledon, the highest number in either singles bracket, she said: “No idea. Wow. I never look at the stats. So, wow.” Asked about the specialness of Wimbledon for her, she said: “It’s just all business,” and, “I like to live in the future. I want to accomplish more.” Of her longevity, a matter once seen as improbable so long ago last decade, she said: “I love doing this. You have to. It’s a lot of work, a lot of pressure. It’s not easy. Just love.”
In 1 hour 48 minutes on the court, Williams pulled out some brilliant stuff to get to love-40 in her key service break at 4-6, 5-4, and the backhand pass she used to close out that set. She drilled 43 winners to Wang’s 20 to offset her 33 unforced errors to Wang’s 21. As it ended, she smiled softly with a gentle left-fist pump, a temporally happy player.
In the hour and 49 minutes during which Osaka played Strycova, well, the 19-year-old was more effusive: “Well, in the first set,” she said, “I feel like before the match I had a clear plan of what I was supposed to do in order to win,” but in the second set, “I felt, like, my nerves were rising, so I tried to relax a little bit, and, like, relaxing wasn’t a good idea because she, like, started doing stuff. I started panicking. And then the third set I just really tried to focus and have, like, no regrets.”
Osaka alights at Wimbledon 20 long years after Williams turned up as a 17-year-old who lost a first-round tussle, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, to Magdalena Grzybowska of Poland.