MELBOURNE — It could have been another day at the Australian Open of frivolous themes, with the focus on Venus Williams’s latest risqué tennis dress. But then Williams screamed in pain as she lost the last point of the first set, limped to her chair and hobbled slowly off the court for treatment.
It was hardly out of line to wonder whether she would bother to return with her plucky, second-round opponent Sandra Zahlavova already up a set and looking eager to run (and grunt) for hours more.
But Williams, after 17 years as a professional, has yet to retire from a Grand Slam singles match, and when she finally re-emerged from the tunnel leading to Rod Laver Arena with tape wrapped tightly around her upper right leg, her usual, impassive expression was gone, replaced by a grim look that her mother and coach, Oracene Price, said she knew well.
“She had the no-lose look, the I’m-definitely-not-losing look,” Price said afterward, shaking her big curls. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen that one, but when I saw it, I quietly knew what was going to happen.”
Making it happen would require plenty more time and grinding effort, but with Zahlavova looking disoriented and ultimately distraught, Williams painstakingly turned the match around, winning the final two sets despite obvious limitations to close out a strange-but-true 6-7 (8), 6-0, 6-4 victory.
“It was really tough, but I’m a long way from home, and it’s such a long way home; I didn’t want to go back yet,” Williams, the No. 4 seed, said on court. “I don’t know what happened. I just started going for shots, and I’m not sure she was as composed as before. You’ve got to be able to play under all kinds of circumstances — good, bad, strange, weird, bizarre, all of the above. So I was glad to come through.”
Her delight may be tempered by the knowledge that her chances of going deep in this Grand Slam tournament are now significantly compromised. The problem, according to Williams, is a hip flexor strain, specifically in the right psoas muscle, a major muscle that runs from the lower spine to the hip.
“I’m going just to try to recover for Friday and try to get ready to play and bring my best tennis no matter what,” said Williams, who will play Andrea Petkovic next.
Injuries have long limited Williams, who is now 30 years old — cutting into her playing time and forcing her to play catch-up at many a Grand Slam event. She played little after Wimbledon last year because of knee problems and arrived in Melbourne without having played an official match since the U.S. Open semifinals last September.
She frequently appeared to be struggling for breath during her grueling first set Wednesday, which was brimming with rallies punctuated by massive shrieks from both players, prompting the British player Andy Murray to send the following Twitter message while watching the match on television: “Turned it on and thought someone was giving birth.”
But on the last point of the tiebreaker, Williams stretched high for a backhand and then reached down to grab at her lower abdominal area. She was unable to give chase as her Czech opponent slapped a forehand winner to close out the set.
Williams, grimacing, took plenty of time to reach her chair, calling for the trainer along the way, and then left the court for more than 10 minutes to be evaluated and treated before returning to play on in a tournament that she — unlike her younger sister, Serena — has never won.
“I think this being a major definitely has a lot to do with me staying on the court,” Williams said. “I really haven’t retired from a match in any tournament in quite a long time. I think that’s a testament to how I feel when I step on the court. I’m there to stay.” Williams has risked further injury before, playing and losing in the 2003 Wimbledon final against Serena after aggravating a strained abdominal muscle in the semifinals.
“It’s been a long time, so I don’t remember that pain anymore,” Williams said. “In recent time that I can remember pain, I think this was one of the toughest ones for sure. But I just wanted to stay on the court and try to survive and see if I could feel better another day.”
It has been, thus far, an exceedingly frustrating tournament for the underdog. All top 16 men’s and women’s seeds advanced to the second round, and there was another great escape earlier Wednesday in the men’s tournament when the ninth-seeded Fernando Verdasco saved three match points before rallying to defeat Janko Tipsarevic.
Williams, wearing a dress with a lattice-work midriff that she said had been inspired by Alice in Wonderland, was never in that vulnerable a position on the scoreboard, but she looked every bit as vulnerable in the early stages of the second set as she moved in a gingerly fashion along the baseline and did not bother to run down some of Zahlavova’s shots to the corners. But despite that obvious advantage, Zahlavova, ranked 97th, could not manage to win a game, making unforced errors in bunches and keeping the ball to Williams’s forehand when the backhand was obviously the more difficult shot for Williams to hit.
“It was not so good for me because I start thinking, ‘Can I win or can I lose?”’ Zahlavova said.
If Williams had lost, the United States would have been without a representative in the third round after starting the tournament with 12 players in the women’s draw. Serena Williams, the champion last year, did not make the trip to Australia to defend her title because she was recovering from foot surgery, which also means that Venus will not get the chance to defend the doubles title she won with Serena last year.
But in light of the painful developments Wednesday, perhaps it is best that Venus has to worry only about the singles in Melbourne.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/sports/tennis/20iht-TENNIS20.html?src=twrhp
No comments:
Post a Comment