Tony Becca - FROM THE BOUNDARYWHEN The history of women's tennis is updated, as good as she is Venus Williams may not be numbered among the immortals.
Unless something dramatic happens between and now and then, Venus will end up in the shadows of champions like Suzanne Lenglen, Althea Gibson, Margaret Court, Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, younger sister Serena and probably even Yvonne Goolagong.
One thing is certain, however, when it comes to charisma, when it comes to sportsmanship, history will remember Venus Williams, a four-time Grand Slam champion up to now, a player who is as generous in victory as she is gracious in defeat, as one of the finest players, male or female, of all time.
In an age of prima donnas, Venus Wil-liams, win or lose, has always carried herself with dignity and last week at Wimbledon was no exception.
A former champion, few times a finalist, and the third seed, Venus Williams was beaten 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6) by 19-year-old Karolina Sprem of Croatia in a gruelling second round contest that lasted for one hour and 46 minutes, and although the chair umpire, Ted Watts, incorrectly called it 2-2 in the second set tie-break when it should have been 3-1 in her favour, she took it in her stride.
LOST TIE-BREAKER
Remembering that she went on to lead 6-3 before dropping five consecutive points to lose the tie-break at 8-6, there are those who have said that the call did not affect her, and although that is not necessarily so, they may be correct. In fact, based on her own words when she said that one point has never decided a match, they are correct.
There are not many professionals who stood to lose so much who would have reacted as she did, however - and based on the report that both players appeared perplexed when the call was made, based on her reaction after the match following the removal of Watts from the tournament, Sprem, who must have heard the call but said nothing, falls into that category.
The error came after a call for a fault on Sprem's first serve and before her attempt to serve again.
UMPIRE REPLACED
"Bad luck for him," said Sprem when told that Watts had been replaced as a chair umpire. "We have so many people on court and they need to know the score, not me. It was really a big moment for me."
She did not stop there. After a number of players, including Andy Roddick and sister Serena, had suggested that Sprem must have heard the call, that she must have known she had received a point in error, and that she should have handed it back, her words were: "I don't care. I don't care. This is behind me."
Did the criticisms upset Sprem?
"A little bit, yeah, because in this situation I don't know what to do," was her response.
Maybe it was the pressure of Wimbledon, and the pressure of playing against a champion why Sprem, a professional player, did not know what to do.
Chances are, however, had the point been called against her, she would have known what to do.
"I don't have a problem with this. I don't want to talk about him (Roddick) or about Serena," said the youngster who was later knocked out 6-2, 6-2 by veteran Lindsay Davenport.
In a wonderful contrast to what appeared the win-at-all-cost attitude of Sprem, Venus was all grace while talking about the match.
"I just think she played really well," said Venus Williams. "She deserved to win. Obviously, I would have loved to have done better, but it's impossible to be a winner or a finalist every year. She played some good tennis. Unfortunately, this won't be my event but I'll be ready for the next one."
That is class real class.
