Sisters simply in a different class

THE FULL spread of the ravine between the haves and the have-nots in women’s tennis was savagely exposed yesterday on another blistering sunny and humid day at Wimbledon. The hottest tickets were the players who play least on the tour and win most of the Grand Slams and now hopelessly dominate the women’s game, particularly on grass.

The rest of the world may ask what damage Serena and Venus Williams ever did on the terre battue of Roland Garros and just one title to Serena in 2002 will be seen as scant evidence for absolute authority in the game.

But yesterday the sisters again raged and thumped their way to the semi-finals with sublime indifference to the players on the other side of the net.

This quarter-final point in a tournament is designed to begin the serious testing process. It is when the top seeded players meet each other after they have cleared the chaff away in the first week. It’s a bottleneck where the strongest meet and expect to force the best from each other’s games.

In that respect the eighth seed Victoria Azarenka and 11th seed Agnieszka Radwanska were seen as decent and credible threats to the sisters’ advancement as well as future heirs to the Williams thrones. But in a blizzard of shrieks, aces and forehand winners that view was glumly revised.

Venus swatted the young and exuberant Radwanska 6-1, 6-2, and Serena took just over an hour to eliminate the hard-hitting Azerenka 6-2, 6-3. Neither defeated player had enough armour. Neither stood a chance with the Williamses on a full blazing Grand Slam footing.

Not only were the Polish and Belarusian teenagers outplayed but so comprehensively were their games broken apart that the spectacle teetered on the brink of humiliation, especially the 69 minutes it took Venus to dispose of Radwanska. The gulf between the two from working-class Los Angeles and the rest may be growing.

“If you are playing against Venus and Serena, it’s different than other opponents,” said Radwanska. “If she has a very good day, it’s just so hard to do anything on the court. Her tennis is so powerful. Today she was playing very well. It was very hard to do anything.”

The two are the only players left with a Grand Slam title and what a collection. Serena holds 10 majors and Venus seven, five of them won at Wimbledon. One or both have been in seven of the last eight Wimbledon finals, the 2006 match between Amelie Mauresmo and Justin Henin the only exclusively non-Williams event.

They have also faced each other in three finals. The fear now is that even the new players, who have grown up playing powerful games and are prepared to hit the ball as hard as they can on every point seem as far away as ever.

“I feel Serena and I work real hard,” said Venus. “That’s the first point. And second, if it was so easy we’d win everything. We still are definitely the front runners in tennis as far as being some of the best players out there. But if there were two players it would be a final. There are 128 (Grand Slam entry). I look forward to the challenge of whoever’s across the net.”

There was a point in Serena’s match in the first game of the second set where Azarenka earned a rare two break points. The American re-established the status quo with three consecutive aces in a match where she won 79 per cent of her first serves.

But like Venus before her it was more the manner, the ability to go up a gear, hit harder, run faster and bully the opponent. Tactics were doubtlessly part of the plan but the superior games of both sisters simply transcended any subtle manoeuvres their opponents may have had.

“We have a great game,” said Serena, who is always comfortable talking in the plural. “We have strong serves. I think we have pretty good returns. Just solid all-around court players. I think we move pretty well. I think that’s a pretty solid game. And I just feel lucky and blessed to have had such a good coach in my dad and my mom, who taught us this game.”

When a disheartened Azarenka came into her press conference, some of the questions were not subtly put. She was asked if it is the case the Williams are simply so good and the rest of the pack are not so good. An issue of class. “Yeah, yeah. These days yeah,” she said, adding. “In the French Open, maybe you couldn’t say that.”

On both accounts Azarenka was correct. These days the Williams are in a different, elevated world. But these days are grass days. Roland Garros serves its purpose. It holds out a glimmer of hope for the rest of the players in 11 months’ time.