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Radwanska poses no challenge to Venus

— Photo: AFP

ON A ROLL: Venus Williams was hardly pushed by Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska in the women’s quarterfinals at Wimbledon on Tuesday.

London: Grass court tennis exaggerates both beauty and brutality like no other surface in the sport, not the least when the weather is hot and the courts are quicker.

And when you watch Venus Williams close to her best on a day like Tuesday in the 123rd Wimbledon championships — with temperatures touching 32C — the experience is almost surrealistic. It is like watching Mike Tyson and Nadia Comaneci on the same stage but doing entirely different things.

Ruthless pounding one moment, gazelle-like grace the next, brutal demolition now, awe-inspiring athleticism then … one upon another, the images flash across the eyes as if on fast forward.

It is a dizzy feeling, both for those watching and, in an entirely different way, for the poor victim — in this case, in the women’s singles quarterfinals, it happened to be Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.

In the event, the Pole might have been happy that it was all over in a hurry. Venus won 6-1, 6-2 in an hour and eight minutes. And it took that long only because the five-time champion appeared slightly distracted early in the second set when she lost two games in a row.

Venus had already raced to 5-0 in the first set before Radwanska realised that she too had a racquet in hand and may actually be able to do something with it. Promptly, she held serve in the next game.

Whether the supreme American felt any pity on wrapping up the first set in just 27 minutes, it is hard to say. But suddenly, for a brief while, Venus went walkabout and the Pole had the temerity to open up a 2-0 lead in the second set.

That was a mistake. For, what came next from Venus was a patch of free flowing brilliance — huge serves, sledgehammer forehands — that finished off the Pole in quick time.

Venus will play the top seed, Dinara Safina, in the semifinals. The Russian raised her game after a slow start to beat Sabine Lisicki of Germany 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-1.

If Wimbledon is an event that resonates on a frequency that no other tennis tournament can tune to, then Monday night was a clear example of this. It was the longest day in the old championship’s history and the time was 10.38 p.m. when the soap opera featuring the great British hope, Andy Murray, ended in the game’s grandest theatre.

At last, night tennis under lights and a closed roof arrived at the All England Lawn Tennis Club. And it could not have arrived in better form as Murray was forced to dig deep and find new vistas in his champion’s heart.

On the middle Sunday, you might have believed that Stanislas Wawrinka’s centre court appointment on Monday would be brief. After all, this is a tournament where we thought the only worthy Swiss opponent for the red-hot Scot was a certain Roger Federer.

But Wawrinka had other ideas. The 19th seed showed gladiatorial qualities in a match of sustained drama as he kept the thousands of home fans on seat edge until the very last. Finally, after three hours and 56 minutes, Murray sank to his knees as if he had won the championship itself.

The dramatic 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victory saw Murray go through the quarterfinals where he faces the resurgent Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Attacking Murray’s second serves right through the match and showing tremendous tactical nous, Wawrinka was discreetly and tidily aggressive. And he adjusted to the indoor conditions much sooner than Murray did.

The centre court became urgently alive as Murray fought back to win the second and third sets but the Swiss was not going to move over. As BBC I switched some if its favourite prime time programmes to other channels to accommodate a match that should have taken the ratings to a new high across Britain, Wawrinka not only took the fourth set but looked every bit the better player in doing so.

In the decider, after Murray sped to 3-0, Wawrinka roared back to knot up the set 3-3. But this was a night when the Scot was not going to be denied and he came up with a sure-footed sprint to the finish.

“I tried everything,” said Wawrinka. So, of course, did Murray. The great home hope wouldn’t be around still if he hadn’t.

In the mixed doubles championship, Leander Paes and Cara Black, seeded No.1, beat Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-3. In a second round match in the boys’ singles event, India’s Sudarwa Sitaram went down 2-6, 2-6 to Australian Bernard Tomic.

THE RESULTS

Prefix denotes seeding

Women’s singles:

Quarterfinals: 3-Venus Williams (U.S.) bt 11-Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) 6-1, 6-2.

1-Dinara Safina (Rus) bt Sabine Lisicki (Ger) 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-1; 4-Elena Dementieva (Rus) bt Francesca Schiavone (Ita) 6-2, 6-2; 2-Serena Williams (U.S.) bt 8-Victoria Azarenka (Blr) 6-2, 6-3.

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