Yet Again, Venus Is the Bomb

So her new hair-do makes her resemble some severe-looking homemaker more than one a tennis legend in the making, but so often the appearances of Venus Williams are deceiving. Her calm poker face, easygoing interviewing style and completely new look and fashion statements at each Grand Slam don't seem like the makings of an extremely competitive and shrewd conqueror. Sure, her latest get-up makes her a little shrewish, a little beyond categorizing, a little unrecognizable.
Anonymity seems to be something Venus Williams thrives on. Let Serena step into the spotlight while Venus achieves the rare feat among professional players of earning a college degree in her spare time, as she did at the end of last year. Let Maria Sharapova make gazillions off her one Wimbledon championship and one U.S. Open victory, while Venus quietly marches ahead with her four Wimbledons and two other Grand Slams. Let the commentators go on and on and on and on (will they ever shut up about it?) about Jenin Hardin's divorce and Lindsey Davenport's baby and barely a peep go out about Venus' engagement. Let the commentators act like winning Wimbledon and no other Grand Slam in recent years is some high crime instead of noting the incredible longevity of Venus' career: now spanning almost as wide as her famed reach at the net from her first singles Grand Slam victory in 2000 to her most recent one last year. Venus' record is nothing short of gaudy, and yet somehow she still slips below the radar. Maybe she likes it that way.
Let the tennis critics pick apart her game in the most condescending voices, like surely she most know better than to hit forehands in the net or go for the outrageous angles that have, when her game (far riskier than Steffi Graf's ever was) is on has won her piles of trophies. Where does she put all of them?
Hiccups? Sure, Venus Williams' career has had plenty of them. Her workmanklike, uninspired 7-5, 6-4 win over Camille Pin in the second round of the 2008 Australian Open wasn't exactly one of her shining moments.
But did you happen to notice how Venus fought through and found answers where there didn't at first seem to be any? The way she won when she wasn't playing in top form? And her characteristically brisk closing out of the match once she finally got the momentum?
Raw talent is a phrase that so often gets bandied about with the Williams sisters. But you don't win tennis matches on talent alone. It takes quick thinking, not just quick short steps, to become a champion, and Venus showed what an able strategist she is out on the court against Pin, running Pin from side to side to side and then figuring out that she could tire her out that way and finally nail a cross-court backhand or, when Venus finally started really moving forward and playing more positively, at the net.
Yes, Venus has been written off as in her twilight plenty of times and come back to surprise people with her amazing runs at Wimbledon. But at 28 later this year, you can't help but think Venus at some point really will be in the twilight of her professional career. Maybe even now. So is it OK to get a little sentimental when she steps out on the court?
Venus' steelly resolve on the court would suggest, absolutely not!