Venus Williams for the French Open title? Quite likely indeed... - Page 2© Michael Cecilio
Page 2
May 9, 1999
Having said that, it was no surprise that Hingis roared past Serena in the quarter finals, and amazingly took 16 of the first 17 points of the match (losing one on a double fault). She exploited the fact that Serena had not had much experience on the clay, and drew errors from the 17 year old who was clearly rushed, pressured and impatient. But that was just one Williams' sister and she faced even more firepower from the older sibling in their semi final encounter. Hingis had won both of their previous clay encounters, having beaten Venus in last year's Italian Open final and in the quarter finals of the French Open. That was almost a year ago and things have changed considerably in the tennis world since then. In the past eleven months since their last match up, Hingis has shown some vulnerability on the court and has since not regained the invincibility that she displayed in 1997. Plus, Venus's game had improved dramatically, having eliminated a lot of errors and gaining a lot of consistency in her all-round game. And she had confidence as well from winning at Hamburg the previous week. It was all too much Williams for Hingis to cope with as she tired in three hard fought sets 6-4 1-6 6-4.
Mary Pierce has equally felt the brunt of Venus Williams' firepower. In fact, she has faced it twice in as many weeks, and both times in the championship match. It is amazing how much consistency, and mental and tactical strength Mary has gained over the past few months as she enters the rest of the claycourt season as one of the hot contenders. And justifiably so as she has reached two consecutive claycourt finals. She almost faced elimination in the third round, having been down a match point against Conchita Martinez who she's played three times already on the clay this year. Taking advantage of that extra life, she outhit countrywoman Sandrine Testud in the quarter finals and outsmarted another countrywoman Amelie Mauresmo in the semi finals. What is pleasing to see is that Mary has been playing much smarter tennis than she has in the past, and is willing to change up her game plan as the situation sees fit. This she proved against Amelie to whom she trailed by a set, but went on to win the final two by varying up the speed of her shots and throwing in the power winner at the right moment. And this she proved in Hamburg against Barbara Schett who also took a set off Mary in their semi final encounter, but faced a different kind of Mary in the final two sets as the world #8 stepped up the level of aggressiveness off the ground. Unfortunately, she faced a red-hot Venus Williams in the past two championship match encounters and was unable to gain any ground on her towering opponent. Both times she played the final match with injuries which limited her movement capacity. Nevertheless, Venus won convincingly in Hamburg 6-0 6-3 and in Rome 6-4 6-2, both times outsteadying her opponent with error-free power tennis.
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