Sisters blind to new world order

THERE are none as blind as those who will not see and when it comes to the Williams sisters, they simply refuse to look around them.

Venus Williams' loss on Friday night to Justine Henin in the semi finals of the US Open should have come as a salutary lesson to the older of the playing sisters, but instead the result was brushed aside, explained away by tales of illness and dizziness. Venus was not in tip-top form, she felt "sick to her stomach" and Henin "played well".

The fact that Henin - who was having physical problems of her own - out-witted, out-played, out-hit and out-thought Williams seemed not to matter to America's first family of tennis. The Belgian has been struggling with breathing problems for months and, in the less-than-clean air of the Big Apple, she has been suffering for the past few days. No matter, she was still fitter, faster and stronger than her rival despite conceding eight inches in height and 34lbs in muscle. She was also choked by nerves at several points during her 7-6, 6-4 victory and still she found a way to win.

The American journalists, who have a cosier relationship with the Williams camp than any other media group, immediately sought out Oracene Price, the mother of Venus and Serena. From Ms Price, they learned that Venus had been ill for a while. She may have anaemia, she may have an inner ear infection but, either way, she has not been right since Wimbledon. And yet Venus, who only admitted after her loss to Henin that she had been "trying to keep the points short" throughout the championships, had clearly been the woman in form until she met the world No.1.

If, indeed, Williams has an inner ear problem, it is a condition that needs to be addressed quickly. When Alicia Molik was felled by a similar complaint in 2005, she missed more than a year of tournament play. From a career high ranking of No.8 in the world, she fell off the map and is only now, two years later, back up to No.69 in the world pecking order.

Yet illnesses and excuses notwithstanding, there is a small shift in momentum to be registered with this loss. Henin's win over Venus came one round after her win over Serena - and that was only the second time that anyone had beaten both sisters at a major tournament (Martina Hingis was the first back in 2001 at the Australian Open). To ram the point home: Henin had beaten them on their own turf, on a hard court, on their favourite surface.

Due to the vagaries of scheduling, seeding and the Williams' playing programme, Venus and Henin had not met in four and a half years. And prior to Friday night's encounter, Henin had lost all but one of their eight matches. As expected on Friday, Williams looked at Mighty Mouse across the net and served big, hit bigger and waited for the inevitable result. But Henin had changed in those intervening years and Venus, in a nutshell, hadn't. Neither had Serena in the round before.

"They still do the same thing as five years ago," Henin explained simply and quietly. "I change my point of view when I play against them. I still have a lot of respect, but I'm not scared any more. It's been really, really important to me in this tournament to play both of them. It was a great challenge and I did it, so it's great.

"They both have a lot of personality and a lot of character and I think they are both great champions. I can admit that, and it's tough to play against them. But you should ask them what they feel about my game."

And there's the rub: neither Venus nor Serena take the oppositions' game into consideration. As Serena snarled when asked if it had been a case of her losing to Henin rather than Henin beating her: " I think that's usually the case with me, that it's for me to win or lose."

That Richard Williams and Oracene Price brought their two daughters as far as they did speaks volumes about their daughters' natural talent, athleticism and fighting spirit. But that when the sisters reached the top, the fact that neither they nor their parents thought to employ a recognised tennis authority to continue their development says more about their lack of understanding about the modern game.

Serena is the fighter of the clan and her champion's heart has won her several major titles from a standing start, this year's Australian Open being a case in point. But for her to succeed, she needs the opposition to be scared of her. Now that Henin has beaten her in three consecutive grand slam quarter finals, on three different surfaces, the fear factor in Belgium, at least, will be considerably diminished. It will not be long before word spreads in the locker room and the young names, such as Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic, look at Serena as just another old dinosaur waiting to be beaten.

Venus, meanwhile, has won just three titles in the past two years. Two of those trophies have come at Wimbledon - and that is where she feels most at home - but she plays more than her sister, puts herself in position to win more than her sister, and yet still comes up empty handed more often than not.

Venus is now 27, Serena will be 26 at the end of this month. Both of them are set in their ways and both of them are, by tennis standards, old. Both might have another grand slam title or so in them but with a technique that was made up along the way by their mum and dad, they become more vulnerable the older they get.

The rags-to-riches story of the Williams sisters is a fabulous tale of winning against all odds. In their pomp, they were remarkable players but the tragedy is that they could have been so much better. The pity was that they refused to look around them.