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Page 6
Is Dominique headed for greatness? It would be quite fair to say that Dominique can potentially be a consistent top 10 performer, but it could be stepping over the line to say that she could become a great champion. Her greatest rival seems to be her own physical well-being, or lack thereof. Now we know that she can never be an Amelie Mauresmo or a Serena Williams, but in order to get to the top, she will have to somehow build her strength and eradicate the injuries she continually suffers from. She suffered an abdominal strain in her first Grand Slam quarter final in the 1997 Australian Open, which forced her to retire, and the injury has been recurrent ever since. In fact, she was hampered by an injury in her quarter final loss to Venus Williams last week in Rome, suffering from a left groin strain. Having said that, she is a solid player with some fantastic groundstrokes, but against the top players who hit the ball even harder, Dominique sometimes cannot provide much in the way of competition. There are times when Dominique hits some great patches of form, only to lose it one or two months down the track, and it is this consistency which can determine whether or not she can be a top 10 competitor. Of course, she has gained a little bit of consistency over time, which is understandably a difficult thing to do if you are a big-hitter and a risk taker like Dominique is. However, in order to improve upon her ranking and compete with the elite in the game, she is going to have to gain even more power on her groundstrokes and especially on her serve which she could possibly do if she were to build on her physical strength. An improvement in fitness would definitely not go astray and would help her run down some of the heavy balls of her big-hitting opponents. Finally, it would be essential for Dominique to improve on her consistency (ie cutting down the unforced error tally), and to continue developing an all-court game. Of course, this is all so much easier said than done...... :)
Without a doubt, the world #5 has gained a new lease on life on the claycourts of Europe. With two back-to-back claycourt titles to her name, Venus enters the French Open as the player to beat. Already this year she has defeated Hingis, Novotna, Graf, Sanchez-Vicario, Pierce, Coetzer, Kournikova, Van Roost, and even her own sister Serena. As I said before, is there anyone who can stop her?!?!?! :) Go To Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
The copyright of the article Venus Williams for the French Open title? Quite likely indeed... - Page 6 in Women's Tennis is owned by . Permission to republish Venus Williams for the French Open title? Quite likely indeed... - Page 6 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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