Coming into this year’s Australian Open, Venus Williams was not on anyone’s radar to win the trophy. After a patchy first round match, she steadied herself and stood one match away from winning her first major since 2008. She lost to her younger sister in a tight two set match but still could leave Melbourne knowing that she is back to playing close to her best tennis. Although Venus has been inconsistent in the past and is still battling an autoimmune disease, there is no reason to think that she cannot challenge the world’s best at Wimbledon this year.
She loves the grass, and the grass loves her
Even as a young girl, Venus made it clear that she wanted to Wimbledon over any other major. By the age of 20, she had achieved that dream and from that day, she has had a love affair with Wimbledon. Appearing in a total of seven finals and winning five of them, Venus knows grass courts like the back of hands. Everything about her game is tailor made for grass. She loves to hit slice serves which work well on the surface and her volleying skills are amongst the best on the women’s tour. Venus also moves better than anyone on grass and that includes Serena. Venus’ flat groundstrokes also work well on the surface which means that she can penetrate through the court faster than most other players and take an offensive position.
If she gets a good draw and stays healthy, Venus could be on her way to another final weekend at Wimbledon. She did well last year and has every chance to have a similar result.
Women’s tennis is constantly changing
One major reason why Venus could walk away with a title is because (besides Serena) no other female players on the tour seem to be consistent.
Serena is the only player that you can count on to make a deep run at major. But eventually, even Serena will falter and if that happens, there is no one that can defeat Venus on grass court at her best. When Venus loses on grass, it is because she rushes the action. If she can calm herself down and breathe, she will be able to make a deep run.
Just like Rafael Nadal seems built for clay, Venus was built for grass. There is still no more intimidating sight in tennis than seeing Venus Williams at the net. Though the future is hard to predict, it would not surprise me if Venus made a deep run at Wimbledon.
