"Turns out Venus Williams wasn't the only Williams whose U.S. Open was hampered by health issues.

Her sister, Serena, was bothered by pain in her knee and left town a day before Venus' semifinal loss to Justine Henin.

The Williams' mother and coach, Oracene Price, confirmed Serena's knee problem and also said for the first time that Venus has been taking medicine for anemia since shortly after winning Wimbledon in July.

When was the last time both were healthy?

``I guess when they first started,'' Price said"


http://www.tennis.com/news/news.aspx?id=104152


Using the words Justine Henin used in her interview after the Venus match, when told that Venus had stated she was not 100% healthy ..... "what a surprise" :wub:

roflmao roflmao :lmaao: :lmaao: :lmaao:

Amazing eh? :giggle:

What is there to say really? :shrug: It's just so laughable and classless. :shrug:

They can never admit that the other player happened to play better... :rolleyes:

Sourena is by far the worst at this, she is a disgrace to be quite frank... :devil: :angry1:

I agree. I think out of the whole family Venus is the only one who has some class - the rest .............. meh :sicky:


I do love Justine's sarcastic/dry reply "what a surprise?" with a a little smirk .... roflmao roflmao :lmaao: :lmaao: :lmaao: :lmaao: :lmaao:

Do they really think that no one knows what they are doing? Do they really? :shrug:

Venus admitted to being a little sick and dizzy but she gave Henin all the credit for the perfornance. Venus is a classy individual :D

she looked knackered by the end, and i believe thats why she lost. Henin just had that little more energy to keep her going

I won't start slating any player, but one thing that is so obvious is that when they atarted out, Henin generalyl gto battered by the Wiliams sisters. I think her head to head going into th elast match was 1-6 or something. However Justine has continued to show total dedication to the sport and has worked hard, grown in confidence and stature and now she is thrashing them. A far cry form when she looked the little underdog.

My point is I wonder fi the Williamses have taken their foot of the pedal a bit and as a result their fitness is a major problem? Not dissing them, both are remarkable players and so is Justine though.

Well I think Henin should be given full credit for the US Open. It was the best match by match performance of all of the slam winners this year. Her forehand is on fire I think this is her new strength (maybe players should hit to the backhand now??).

'Seem both sisters were injured' is not quite right. Venus felt dizzy and slightly off pace because of anemia. She decided to play so she can't be annoyed if it is why she lost. She wasn't as she showed in her interviews.

Serena was not as nice in her interviews I think she has to take a leaf out of Venus books sometimes she is just rude. But there were rumours throughout the tournament before the Henin match that she was injured. If what Richard says in true (and we know atleast she was still recovering from a thumb fracture and has had horrible knee problems) then Henin was given an extra advantage.

I beleive she would have beaten a fully fit Serena anyway though because Serena decides to hit with more topspin and slower whilst her movement is not what it used to be.

Henin is playing great she deserved it but I still think Venus and Serena at their best are unbeatable except to each other.

I keep hearing that while browsing other forums and I keep thinking the same thing to myself......

There is only so long people can keep saying that Serena or Venus at their best will win etc...... Justine has now beaten Serens at three straight GS Events and has won 2 GS Events from 3 this year. She has improved immensly. While it's true the William's sisters are not at their best I think even if they were it wouldn't be a clean sweep for them. I think it would now be a three way tussle for supremacy. Justine has improved that much in my opinion.

Had Justine played the Aussie Open with Serena on that form I would have been interested to see what Justine would have done to her. My personal opinion on this year's form is that Justine would have won that match.

If the Williams sisters were at their peak form they would indeed be at the top of women's tennis, but they would be sharing the titles with Miss Henin I believe.

:bs:

:blah:

:bs:

The whole ' we only lost the match because we were injured/ill/my right leg fell off/the cat died (delete as applicable) :blah: is becoming rather tired and frankly rather boring.

The Williams sisters just need to accept that sometimes the other player was too good for them. Their fans need to accept this also!

[he whole ' we only lost the match because we were injured/ill/my right leg fell off/the cat died (delete as applicable) is becoming rather tired and frankly rather boring.

The Williams sisters just need to accept that sometimes the other player was too good for them. Their fans need to accept this also!



roflmao roflmao
Oh Choka!!!!!!!!!
You kill me!!

OK, fair enough that they are often injured, and Serena's interview after her loss was definitely a bit beachy. I thought Venus showed a lot of class, though and kept trying to give credit to Justine, despite the fact that the interviewer only seemed to want to pry about what was wrong with Venus.

I see Venus as being pretty classy, and your constant attempts to rant about the Williams sisters perhaps a little less than classy. ;)

there's been a Seismic shift at the top of women's tennis-Henin is now a better player than the Williams sisters, or anyone else for that matter.
Such is the esteem in which the sisters are held i don't think people can accept the truth-the two titans are now easily licked by tichy justine.
As for the Williams sisters being unwell, injured, befuddled, broken or playing without the use of batteries is claptrap. Both were well in their previous matches-and lets face it none of the women players is 100% these days-you play through the niggles or you don't play.
Serena was slow against Henin because she was as nervous as hell-i've seen her like that before-prime example when she played Venus in a semi at Wimbledon. That's a mental thing-Henin is tougher mentally-i'm not quite sure what people think Henin has to do to prove this-she beat em both in straight sets in their own back yard-if it had been clay she'd have bageled them for Christ sake.

Would it have been better if Venus had retired from the match, the way Henin did in a slam final, when she wasn't feeling well? :whistle:

I'm not really picking on Henin, in fact I defended her in that whole episode, when I thought people were being too hard on her. I don't like to see people being unfairly hard on any of the players.

Not literally I hope... :unsure: roflmao

Nick you are the King of the Understatements... :bow:

roflmao

It's impossible to say objectively whether you should play on or retire in a match-as a player you do one or the other-that's fair enough.
The misconception regarding growing criticism of the Williams sisters is that the negative judgement is being made about them based on one match or two-it isn't.
This has been growing for quite some time-and this last year especially in relation to Henin's matches with the sisters.
There have been countless occasions where the sisters have used illness etc as the reason for losing a match-of course other players have too, but the sisters have done it far more than most.
However you couple with that with the fact they rarely give due credit to their opponent when beaten, and there father's quasi pathological belief in his daughters unwavering greatness-which to some extent i think they have imbibed, and you don't have to be Einsten to work out they may be less than economic with the truth.
I think their father has instilled in them the unacceptability of losing, and this has fuelled a kind of psychology of white lies and deflection when they are beaten.
People don't like an unsporting attitude, it sticks in the throat-we may recoil at what players occasionally say in press conferences, or interviews and everyone is allowed to make mistakes-but when it becomes habitual, we're perfectly entitled to pass comment.

I gave full credit to Henin she was amazing. What I'm saying though is I still maintain that Serena/Venus in the zone is better than Henin in the zone.

The longest extended periods of highplay i.e. Serena 2002-03 Venus 01-02 Henin late 03-04/07 show me also that they played at a higher level in their heyday.

What I hope is that they return to that form and fitness so we can see the matchups because they would be the best tennis ever seen on the Wta were they to happen.

I am defending them a bit here but I still mean to say Henin is the true player at the moment being dedicated to tennis. They need to put the hard work in too!

But the proof of the pudding will be if they do ever play when they are all in the zone. And who makes that judgement that the Williams sisters are in the zone? :shrug:

Does being 'in the zone' only happen when they win something and when they lose does that mean they are ill/injured/the cat died/their leg fell off? :shrug:

Agreed. And let's remeber that when Venus and Serena were at the top of their game, whenever that was, neither had such a complete game as Henin has now so I doubt they'd reign supreme. Physical and mental strenght were their big advantages, and at he rbest as she is now, Henin has equal mental strength has improved enough physically to rvial them

I would not say her mental strength is equal...certainly she is very strong. She was absolutely coasting against Kuznetsova. She was so dominant and still got the jips at the end.

I think Venus, Serena and Justine are the 3 best players on tour now. In one tourny, they've created quite a huge gap between the rest, and are jockying for the slams between them.

It's impossible to say who is the better player yet, but these 3 are raising the bar again just like in 2003. It's awesome to watch :bow:

In my opinion three straight wins in GS Events againts Serena tells me her mental strength is up there with Serena at least.

I think its Henins superior form this year that has garnered her those wins, not her mental strength. If Serena (and Venus the other night) had more match fitness, i think the results could have been different. Im sure Venus would have won this semi had she had the energy to win that second set, and Henin did have trouble serving it out

Thing is though Liam. Henin and Venus were both losing energry by the end of the second set. It's just Henin dealt with it better.

True Gav but Venus isn't as match fit as Henin (which is her fault) and has anemia.

She trains hard enough but if she had played more matches over the summer and didn't have anemia then maybe she would have held on to that second set.

If she is slightly aneamic then she needs to sort out her coach and fitness regime because that is one thing that should be monitored if she is competing. It can be sorted usually with iron or Vitamin B Supplments.

:bs:

and so it goes on... :blah:

Symptoms of anaemia are easily recognised, if she was suffering from this she should have got it sorted it out some time ago... :ok:

She has, she was first diagnosed after RG. No excuses for the loss however, but anaemia can make you feel a tad fatigued......

However it was Justine that beat Venus, not anaemia :)

Couldn't agree more... :ok:

I'm still pissed with the result still though :angry: roflmao

Well that's understandable dl :hug:

Ditto for the JJ match for me... :(

:hug:

JJ played a great match though :D

I dont think i could have handled a third straight GS defeat by JJ at a slam though :lol:

:lol:
I guess...

At least Serena isn't your fav, 3 straight defeats to the same player... :yikes:

Well in 2002/03, Venus lost in 5 consecutive finals to Serena :( :( :(

True :hug:

Looks like we are the only ones on here tonight keeping the WTA fires burning Dl... :B&B:

roflmao

My suspicion is that Venus and Serena did the hard work to get to where they did in around 2000-2001, but they did not need to work on their games much after that because they were so dominant. They may now be paying the price for the fact that others (i.e. Henin) upped their games since then to compete and the Williams sisters are finding themselves having to play at a higher level than they had to in order to win. They cannot be as hungry as they were before 2001 so it will be a considerable physical and mental effort to be as good as they want to be. You still have to acknowledge that the fact that they can win a GS each in a year when they have misfired as often as they have fired is an indicator of how formidable they are.

The final point is that could have beens count for nothing - their dominance is a thing of the past, they are playing in the now.

Oh, the Williamses can be extremely generous and classy in defeat if it's defeat in the hands of ANOTHER WILLIAMS.

Tut tut Choka