Timeless Venus Williams eyes one more Wimbledon magic spell
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Venus Williams is preparing to play at Wimbledon for the 24th time at the age of 43.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LONDON – The summer of 1997 saw Britain hand over Hong Kong to China, “Men in Black” top the movie charts and Harry Potter take his first, faltering steps at Hogwarts.
It was also the year that Venus Williams, just 17 and with white beads in her hair, made her debut at Wimbledon.
Her maiden experience of the grass-court Grand Slam was over pretty quickly, a first-round loss at the hands of Poland’s Magdalena Grzybowska.
Fast forward 26 years and the elder stateswoman of tennis is now preparing to play at the All England Club for the 24th time at the age of 43.
The American has been champion five times – in 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007 and then in 2008 when she beat her younger sister Serena in the final.
The seven-time Grand Slam champion is also a four-time runner-up at Wimbledon, losing to Serena in 2002, 2003 and 2009 and in 2017 to Spain’s Garbine Muguruza when she was 37.
A former world No. 1, but now ranked at 554th, Williams insists that she has no plans yet to follow Serena into retirement.
She prefers to march to the beat of her own drum.
“I don’t think anyone in life has anything to prove,” she said, when she last played at the All England Club in 2021.
“The only thing you have to do is pay your taxes or else you’re going to jail.”
Having played the tournament in four different decades, Williams boasts wins over the likes of fellow Grand Slam standouts Martina Hingis, Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters and Maria Sharapova – all long retired – on the famous lawns of south-west London.
Her 90-18 win-loss record comes with significant performances. The 2005 semi-final win over Sharapova avenged Serena’s loss to the Russian teenager in the 2004 final.
Days later, she defeated Lindsay Davenport 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 9-7 in an epic 2hr 45min final with Williams saving a match point.
Her 2008 final triumph over Serena is just her second win in nine meetings in a championship decider against her sister at the Grand Slams.
“You could never detract from winning Wimbledon, but I’m definitely thinking about how my sister’s feeling,” said Williams, after collecting her fifth and last title in London.
Recent visits to any tennis court, however, have been rare for her. She was sidelined for six months after injuring her hamstring in Auckland in January.
She returned to the WTA Tour earlier in June and fell to 17-year-old Celine Naef in the first round of the Libema Open in the Dutch city of Den Bosch.
She then bounced back in Birmingham to defeat Camila Giorgi in a 3hr 17min victory.
It was her first triumph over a top-50 player in four years as she became just the third woman this century to win a tour-level match aged 43 or over, joining Martina Navratilova and Kimiko Date.
As she heads to Wimbledon once more, she remains clear-headed over why she keeps playing.
“Three letters is W-I-N. That’s it. Very simple,” she explained. AFP
