Faces Clijsters next.
STEADY Flavia Pennetta pushed Serena Wil liams, who in turn, gave Kim Clijsters every reason to expect the end of the line in her comeback U.S. Open will be in Friday’s semifinal.
Williams, who unflatteringly gives her Slam conquerors no credit, offers the vanquished little mercy, too. In last night’s 6-4, 6-3 triumph, she won 86 percent of her first serve points, hit 22 winners to Pennetta’s nine, looked like no one who possibly could have lost matches this year to Klara Zakopalova, Patty Schnyder, Francesca Schiavone, Samantha Stosur and Sybille Bammer.
“I don’t know, maybe it pays more,” said Williams earlier in tournament, asked why Good Serena magically reappears in New York, Melbourne and Wimbledon and leaves her evil twin in Madrid.
“That wasn’t a very good answer, but I guess I’m trying to pay off my mortgage, so I should do better. If I had won the U.S. Open Series . . . I tried, though. I placed, which I think was the first time ever. Maybe next year I’ll win.”
Maybe next year fans in Cincinnati — far more challenged by their mortgage payments than is a $25 million career prize money earner — will pay to see the best woman tennis player in the world actually try to play like it. But when Williams condescends to show up on behalf of a WTA Tour that has seeded her clothing and jewelry lines, she is there just to warm up, one more reason fans have had a hard time warming up to her.
When Roger Federer, the best men’s player not only in the world but in the history of it, choked away a 5-1 third-set set lead to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Montreal last month, it almost was incomprehensible. When, after a third consecutive slam final loss to Rafael Nadal, Federer lost two meetings to Andy Murray earlier this year, it was taken as another sign of decline, not disinterest.
Reports of his demise were premature, of course. A win over Robin Soderling tonight will put Federer into his 22nd consecutive slam semifinal, a staggering measure of consistency that on top of his 15 slam wins rivals Jack Nicklaus’s 19 second places in majors on top of his record 18 championships.
“As long as it’s going, you go with it but it’s not something I aim for,” Federer said. “I try to [successfully] defend the title here, not just reach another semi so my streak stays alive. I’ve got to look at the bigger picture, stay healthy, play a proper game, choose the right shots. All of a sudden you forget about the streak.”
Rod Laver, at 11 major titles the only argument remaining as the greatest player of all time because of his pre-Open era ineligibility, made 16 of 17 semis bridging his five absent years. No one else has come close to the Slam-in, Slam-out Federer because the caliber of competition, deeper than among women who have sent Serena down to four quarterfinals and one third round defeat in the last three seasons, hasn’t allowed anyone to come close.
Federer’s four more majors than Williams’ is apples vs. oranges, but if Venus is her sister’s Rafael Nadal, 61 Roger career titles to Serena’s 34 tells us how many more Serena left out there. Also, why Federer will be remembered as the greatest ever and Williams for how perhaps she could have been.
