DON’T MESS WITH VENUS FROM RICHARD EVANS, DOHA

Venus Williams was taking a deserved day off at the Qatar Total Open, having a routine practice with hitting partners on a court adjacent to where little kids were playing mini-tennis with coaches dressed up as Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Donald Duck.

 

Venus had finished her tough 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 victory over Barbora Zahlavova Strycova after midnight and there had been some quacking going on at the end as the players shook hands. Strycova had been upset during the match when, on numerous occasions, the umpire appeared to give Venus extra time to make up her mind over when to challenge.

 

The Czech obviously felt the former Wimbledon champion was being given the star treatment and she gave Venus an accusing look as they approached the net. She got one back, along with a terse question.

 

“Was that look for something?” Venus asked.

 

“Well done,” a slightly flustered opponent replied quickly.

 

“OK, good,” said Venus and stalked off to her chair.

 

The older Williams sister is the quiet, dignified member of the family, far more like her mother in temperament than her father, but Strycova is not the first player to discover she is not someone to be messed with.

 

As a result of Wednesday’s illness and injury affected day, Venus will play Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarter finals following the Polish player’s straight set win over Italy’s Flavia Pennetta.

 

Jelena Jankovic, obviously troubled a hip problem, had to quit at 6-1, 1-1 down to Petra Kvitova and Caroline Wozniacki’s opponent, Alexandra Dulgheru, also had to retire after a set with a virus that some people seem to have brought with them from Dubai. Wozniacki was pretty chirpy about life, despite having drawn attention to the fact, in a Tweet, that it was the anniversary of her break up with golfer Rory McIlroy.

 

Inevitably, she got asked about it in press conference. “I see positives in everything although I’m pretty sure I didn’t think it was very fun at the time. I just found myself hilarious yesterday. I think that’s my sense of humour sometimes.”

 

Wozniacki also refuted a suggestion made by Garbine Muguruza that it was difficult to make friends on the tour. “I didn’t think that’s right,” said Caroline who has made no secret of her close friendship with Serena Williams. “We have good friends on the tour. We go out for dinners. Serena was texting me just now. I have great friends on the tour and friends that I’ll have for a long time after I finish my career, too.”

 

Another gregarious member of the tour, Andrea Petkovic, struggled at the start of her match against Zarina Diyas out on Court 1 as the warmth of the day started to give way to the chill of a desert night. By the time the promising newcomer from Kazakhstan had won the first set, the wail of prayers emanating from nearby mosques were renting the air and Petkovic probably felt she could do with a prayer or two.

 

Wherever she got her inspiration from – coach Dirk Dier was a more likely source after an on-court chat – the 27-year-old German eliminated some forehand errors and turned the match around to win 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.

Topics: Doha, Qatar Total Open, Richard Evans, Tennis, Venus Williams

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