It's A Matter Of Heart

by Savannah

There are some things that can't be coached. I'm sure others will find reason to find the extraordinary in other matches last night but in the final analysis there was only one real story.
I thought I had seen Sandra Zahlavova play before. I hadn't. Straight from the Michelle Larcher de Brito school of on court decorum I'm sure there were calls made to emergency services reporting that someone was being slaughtered. Venus Williams is known for being vocal on court (she's not in the league of de Brito or Victoria Azarenka though) so things were pretty loud on court. It says something when a long time tennis viewer like me can actually tune out the audio and watch the tennis.

Despite that my head snapped up when the unmistakeable sound of someone screaming in pain hit my ears. I saw Venus grab her lower right groin and my jaw dropped. "Not again," I said to myself remembering Venus had had a serious groin tear a few years ago, one that hampered her play - she did continue to play for awhile - for quite some time. Watching her limp off the court in agony I thought to myself that there was no way she would continue. And of course I was wrong.

I'm old enough to remember Willis Reed of the New York Knicks walking onto the court at Madison Square Garden with both knees taped to the max to tumultuous applause. That was how I felt when Venus not only walked back on court but picked up her racquet and resumed playing. She then proceeded to put on a tennis clinic. Visibly in pain she proceeded, not with flash, but with skill and knowledge to dismantle her upstart opponent who won the first set in a tiebreak that ended with Venus injury. Showing why she has won seven slam titles and playing with passion unseen for quite some time Venus won the second set 6-0.

The final score was 6-7(6), 6-0, 6-4. Don't believe any bullshit you will hear or read about what happened last night. Venus trended worldwide on Twitter because of the dress. In the end the dress was a secondary story. The big story was that Venus started a match and she was going to finish it. Kind of makes that "tummy ache" from a few years ago laughable doesn't it?