The grand dame remains
Venus Williams isn’t going away, she’s in the Wimbledon semis
LONDON— Venus Williams has always had a certain languor about her.
The way she moves: unhurried, rather regal, almost ponderous at times on the margins of a tennis court.
It’s deceptive, of course. Those long limbs can still piston her fast enough within the ferocity of a match, ranging side to side, baseline to net, muscles flexing on the torque of a whiplash serve.
The grand dame of tennis, she’s been called, which has a vague dash of passé indulgence to it — like being known as the Dowager Queen, in the twilight of her game.
At 36, Williams is the oldest surviving entrant at Wimbledon, just as she was the oldest in the starting draw, a lifetime removed from the 17-year-old who first showed up at the All England Club with rattling beads in her dreadlocked hair. What is this, the tight-sphinctered denizens of the All England Club wondered.
“I still feel 26,” the American told reporters a week ago, smiling beatifically, with that girlish voice and delivery sounding so much younger than her age.
“You know, I don’t think anyone feels older. You have this infinity inside of you that feels like you could go on forever.”
Forever will at least extend to the semifinals of the most illustrious tennis tournament on the planet.
Fate and fortune might very well carry Venus right into a final with younger sister Serena on Saturday. Venus hasn’t reached a Grand Slam final since she lost to Serena at Wimbledon in 2009.
Whoever thought that would happen again?
A brilliant performance in Tuesday’s quarter-final against Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova vaulted Williams back into Wimbledon’s inner circle, a 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 deconstruction that wrapped up just as Serena’s even more lopsided match with Russian opponent Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was beginning, with mama Oracene rushing between courts.
It has been six years since Venus last contested a semifinal at SW19, with a lot of pain and illness misery in between. Many premature obituaries were writ- ten about The Girl Who Came Out of Compton and turned the tennis world on its head, until another Williams phenomenon bounded into the light.
And Venus, with her five Wimbledon championships, was overtaken by little sister on the luminary rankings. Together they’ve collected 11 titles here, excluding their doubles triumphs, appeared in a combined 16 finals, four of them all-Williams affairs. But Serena lapped Venus, dominating during years when Venus was debilitated by the Sjogren’s Syndrome that caused extreme fatigue and swelling joints. Although it was assumed Venus would shuffle off the stage, she never considered it.
“Retirement is the easy way out,” she said Tuesday. “I don’t have time for easy. Tennis is just hard.”
But it is all she’s known since those early days in her father Richard’s diabolical tennis laboratory. Just a kid, back in the ’80s, on those cracked asphalt Compton courts, when she first knew, just knew, that she was destined.
“When I was playing with my dad . . . like ’88, at Compton Park. Probably then.”
Destiny appeared done, however, the page turned for Venus when this Wimbledon fortnight began, though she had scaled the rock face again, climbing back into the top 10.
She is the eighth seed here, beautifully toned, healthy — a vegan now — with a new hairstyle, a weave sitting like a bird’s nest on the top of her head, threaded through with pink coils.
And just as avidly in pursuit of the Venus Rosewater Dish as Serena.
“The most difficult part of the journey is just not being in control,” she said, revisiting the years of decline and a malady that was hard to diagnose.
“When you’re an athlete, you’re used to being in control, being able to work for anything. Not being able to do that is a challenge.
“Also, it was a relief for me to know what was wrong with me because I hadn’t felt well in a while. That was, ‘OK, I’m not crazy.’ So that was a good moment.”
There were other ambitions, projects, a fashion line, to fill the vacuum. But nothing really occupied the space filled so long by tennis.
“This has been my life. What can I say? I wouldn’t wish it any other way. It’s been a beautiful life. It’s been everything.”
That sounds kind of black-bordered, an exit line. Far from it, with Venus and Serena competing here in doubles, and Venus booked to face Germany’s Angelique Kerber in their Thursday semi. That’s the same Angelique Kerber who beat Serena at the Australian Open early this year.
“Well, clearly, it was one of her best days on the court,” says Venus, instinctively defensive about her sister.
“That’s what people remember. When you become the champion, they remember your best day.
“I imagine that she will try to recreate that. Who wouldn’t?”
Seven times Venus has taken her championship bows at Grand Slams. But ask her about the glory days and she feigns a poor memory.
“Six years ago is ages ago,” she laughs. “I think I was most likely kicking butt six years ago, if I was in the semis or the finals. You have to be.”
But she will acknowledge one life lesson learned, from the perspective of her ripened years.
“It’s easy to be afraid. You have to let fear go.’’