Unhappy birthday
Venus Williams routed by Zvereva in Wimbledon warmup
Posted: Wednesday June 17, 1998 01:35 PM
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Venus Williams had only two days of practice on grass before the match (AP) |
EASTBOURNE, England (AP) -- Venus Williams suffered an
embarrassing defeat on her 18th birthday Wednesday when she was
trounced 6-2, 6-1 by Natasha Zvereva at the Wimbledon warmup
tournament at Eastbourne.
Playing in a cold, blustery wind, the fourth-seeded American had
trouble adapting her game to the grass that had been removed from
the old No. 1 court at Wimbledon and transported to Eastbourne.
Williams rarely came to the net and rarely attempted a volley,
preferring instead to rally from the baseline. She was repeatedly
outplayed by Zvereva, a doubles specialist from Belarus who mixed
up her game and took the pace off the ball with heavy slice.
In the final game, Williams double-faulted and then sent a
forehand soaring over the baseline on match point to end a dismal
performance.
"I was very inconsistent and didn't play well," she said. "I
didn't serve well at all. ... I played poorly. That's the word."
Williams had only two days of practice on grass before the
match, and felt she had not approached it in the right way.
"I've learned that I'm going to have to practice harder and be
more serious in my practices," she said. "I wasn't overconfident,
but in practice I should play every point as if I were in a match.
Sometimes when I practice I try a lot of different things instead
of really focusing."
Williams' younger sister, Serena, fared better. She reached the
quarterfinals by beating No. 8 seed Ai Sugiyama of Japan 6-2, 7-5,
and will next face No. 3 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who beat Tamarine
Tanasugarn of Thailand by the same score.
Top seeded Jana Novotna advanced with a 6-2, 6-2 winner over
French qualifier Nathalie Dechy, while No. 2 Steffi Graf eased past
Britain's Samantha Smith 6-1, 6-2.
Also advancing was No. 5 Irina Spirlea of Romania, who beat
Italy's Rita Grande 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in a match suspended overnight by
rain, and then Kerry Anne Guse of Australia 6-0, 7-5.
Former champion and No. 7 Nathalie Tauziat of France was ousted
6-2, 4-6, 8-6 by Russia's Elena Likhovtseva.
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