WATCHING SERENA WILLIAMS @ WIMBLEDON BY CHERYL JONES

Written by: Staff on 26th June 2014

WATCHING SERENA WILLIAMS @ WIMBLEDON BY CHERYL JONES

epa04278081 Serena Williams of USA returns to compatriot Anna Tatishvili in their first round match during the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 24 June 2014. EPA/TATYANA ZENKOVICH |

It’s the first Thursday of that fortnight known as The Championships. As surprising as this may be to tennis followers, it rained during competition at Wimbledon. It was the end of the day and only a few matches were held in tennis limbo on the women’s side. It will be Friday before the second round will have yielded its full roster of competitors for Round Three.

The most notably absent from the statistics today was Romanian, Simona Halep, (the recent runner-up at Roland Garros) who was to face Lesia Tsurenko of the Ukraine. I would say that the smart guesser would choose Halep. It’s not even midway through 2014, and this steady young woman has made it quickly up the ladder of tennis success to Number 3. She’s a quiet one, but she really has game. Her accomplishments on the junior circuit were merely a steppingstone to a genuinely flourishing game that has moved her into the world of the cream of the crop of professional women’s tennis. It was almost as if divine intervention suddenly took hold. She was there, not only in the top ten, but moving like a cakewalk contestant into a seat at the top tier of women’s tennis.

Many of the women in that level have been around for as long as most of us can remember and newbies must feel like they are understudies waiting to break into the rarified ranks alongside the likes of Maria Sharapova, Venus and Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic. There was no announcement, and even Halep must have felt that one day she was a wallflower and the next was the standby to the star of the show. She’s not quite there yet, but it might be what’s next up on her tennis dance card.

Serena Williams

As always, the star of the show has to step down before an understudy can step up. If Serena Williams has anything to say about it, she could be intoning, “Not so fast.” But then that might be because she had a little extra time to mull things over. Williams made an unbelievably fast workout of her match today. It was complete in a little longer than the blink of an eye – just 49 minutes was all it took. Williams was pitted against a South African competitor, Chanelle Scheepers. It was easy to feel sorry for Scheepers after the 6-1, 6-1 public humiliation.

The poor woman must have known it would be over soon, from the first glance at her own Wimbledon “luck of the draw”. It couldn’t have been a worse omen for someone who has never been ranked higher than 38 (and that was three years ago). Age couldn’t have been a factor though. She is a full two years younger than the 32-year-old American who has been breezing through the women’s draws for over 17 years. Williams has won over $54 million since becoming a professional. She has been on top of the women’s game off and on since 2002.

Williams has always said she enjoys winning. I am starting to believe her. There is no more need to prove how good a player she is. She can’t be searching for fame and fortune. That’s been a given for quite a number of years. She would be hard pressed to find a new avenue for “fame”. The realm of her public recognition has stretched much further than tennis alone could ever have taken her. She loves tennis. She loves being in the limelight.

Last year, we saw a new version of Serena. She was fit and steady and focused on her game. It was as if she had been reinvented in subtle ways. The Williams’ sisters have been able to depend on a gift that their father had purposefully plucked from the Richard and Oracene Williams family trees. Last year, Serena pulled all that together and realized that she could add more to those gifts by being fit. Now, she moves more easily than she ever has while playing on the tour. She seems hungry for another title at a major.

Serena doesn’t seem to mind that the trophy has the title, “Venus Rosewater Cup”. (Sibling rivalry might be rearing its competitive but loving little head.) Next up, Serena will face a representative from France, Alize Cornet. The 24-year-old Cornet is good, but it looks as if it could be another shortened workday. (Serena and Venus revived their doubles career on Wednesday. Together they moved a bracket forward in that draw. Their last doubles conquest at Wimbledon was during the 2012 Olympics when they won gold.)

There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of a roadblock in the way of Serena’s quest for more prize money at The 2014 Championships. She looks stronger than anyone on either side of the women’s draw. She is looking to perform her pirouettes in the final match of the competition. (Warning: No understudy need apply.)

There were a few other women’s contests today and there were winners and losers. Beside Cornet and Williams, a long list of contenders moved up to the next round. Ana Ivanovic, Eugenie Bouchard, Yaroslava Shvedova, Kirsten Flipkens, Andrea Petkovic, Angelique Kerber, Sabine Lisicki, American hopeful, Alison Riske, Vera Zvonareva, and a strangely subdued Maria Sharapova have taken their places in the slots that are the third round. There is no one, other than Serena Williams, [not even Sharapova] who looks as if she is more likely to be the champ when the Dish is awarded to the winner. Serena really wants to claim her sixth title.)

Topics: Alison Riske, Ana Ivanovic, Andrea Petkovic, Angelique Kerber, Cheryl Jones, Eugenie Bouchard, Jelena Jankovic, Maria Sharapova, Sabine Lisicki, Serena Williams, Simona Halep, Tennis, tennis grass, Tennis News, Venus Williams, Victoria Azarenka, Wimbledon

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10sBalls_com says:

June 26, 2014 at 5:40 pm

WATCHING SERENA WILLIAMS @WIMBLEDON BY CHERYL JONES – http://t.co/tcTwSC13Eg @serenawilliams #tennis #Wimbledon2014 #grass #WTA #Wimbledon