Venus restoring pride

WIMBLEDON, England — The second Monday at Wimbledon offers the rare treat of all 16 men's and women's fourth-round matches, and on this particular afternoon there was the even rarer sight of Venus Williams playing confident, mistake-free tennis.

Less than 48 hours after sitting with chin on hand while watching her sister Serena lose to Jill Craybas, Williams strode onto the same court against the same opponent, more concerned with righting her own game than restoring family pride.

She managed to do both. Williams won the first six games and the last six to overwhelm Craybas 6-0, 6-2, looking a lot more like the player who won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2000 and 2001 than one who hasn't reached a Grand Slam semifinal in two years.

Asked whether facing someone who just beat Serena particularly pumps her up, Williams looked down and laughed.

"I definitely would like to do it a little bit for my sister," she said, then paused before adding this telling phrase: "but mostly for me."

Williams used her 6-foot-1 frame to track down Craybas' shots to the corners and to win 13 of 14 points at the net. She limited her unforced errors to four in the first set, and after falling behind 2-0 in the second, Williams broke back at love.

First things first, though, starting with a match today against No. 12 Mary Pierce, back in the Wimbledon quarterfinals after a nine-year absence. It's a strong follow-up to reaching the French Open final.

Williams last went that far at a major at Wimbledon in 2003, also the last time she made a Slam's final four. She won only one title in the past 13 months, and that was a lower-level event where she didn't face anyone ranked above 39th. So her apparent resurgence was the most noteworthy development on a day filled with passing moments of interest for the record attendance of 41,386.

Some were the sort of odd occurrences brought about by the pressure of playing on Centre Court, such as Kim Clijsters' three double-faults in the final game of her 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3 loss to 1999 Wimbledon champion Lindsay Davenport. Or No. 24-seeded Taylor Dent simply watching a shot land at his feet — clearly in — to give away a break-point chance at 5-4 in the second set of 2002 Wimbledon winner Lleyton Hewitt's 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-3 victory.