Venus Deserves Speed Record

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 27th September 2013

Venus Deserves Speed Record

epa03881589 Venus Williams of the US reacts during her second round match against Victoria Azarenka of Belarus at the Toray Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament in Tokyo, Japan, 24 September 2013. Williams won the match. EPA/KIYOSHI OTA |

It is a strangely mixed day for the Williams sisters.

While Serena received the good news that without hitting a ball she had done enough to secure the year ending WTA world no.1 ranking for the third time in her career, Venus had to accept the double disappointment of third set tiebreak defeat Petra Kvitova in Toray Pan Pacific semi-final in Tokyo and being told the 129.9 mph serve she hit 24 hours earlier was not being accepted.

Venus had played more than three extra hours of tennis at this week’s event at the and was conceding ten years in age and 52 places on the WTA rankings to fellow former Wimbledon champion Kvitova. But she still managed a colossal battle lasting two hours and 24 minutes before capitulating 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 after hitting another nine aces.

But Venus, who earlier in the week had beaten top seed Victoria Azarenka and Simona Halep and then unleashed her apparently record breaking serve against Eugenie Bouchard, had been previously informed that a simple case of WTA bureaucracy had denied an improvement on the record she herself set at the 2007 U.S. Open.

On that occasion Venus let fly with a 129 mph thunderbolt and it was ratified because the WTA’s designated speed-gun, belonging to official statistician IDS, was doing the time-keeping. Unfortunately IDS was not the contracted company to collecting data onsite at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo.

Experts maintain IDS employs different technologies to its’ rival speed registering devices and these can generate significantly different readings for the same serve, particularly flat, wide serves.

Venus was ambivalent, saying: “I know I’ve been serving a lot harder in this tournament since I’ve come back from my back injury. It feels good, but I don’t know if it [the serve] was that hard. I hope it was.”

However it could be argued the IDS situation kept Venus the record anyway. In 2010 a serve by Sabine Lisicki at the Commonwealth Bank of Champions tournament in Bali was recorded at 130.48 mph but ratification was denied because a different brand of speed gun was being used.

Younger sister Serena, who pulled out of the Tokyo event citing fatigue, achieved her third year-ending top ranking with a 67-4 record that was sufficient to capture nine WTA titles, including two Grand Slams; the French Open and US Open.

“Serena has proven time and time again throughout her career that she is an incredible champion, both on and off the court,” WTA Chairman & CEO Stacey Allaster said of the news. “This season she continues to rewrite the record books, proving she is one of the sport’s greatest athletes of all time.”

The 32 year-old follows Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Lindsay Davenport, Justine Henin and Martina Hingis in the elite group of women’s players who have finished year-ending world no.1 three times or more. She will receive a trophy, presented by Dubai Duty Free, at the season-ending TEB BNP Paribas Championships in Istanbul.

Topics: Lindsay Davenport, Petra Kvitova, Serena Williams, Steffi Graf, Tennis, Tennis News, Toray Pan Pacific Open, Venus Williams, Victoria Azarenka, Wimbledon, Wta