Venus chokes again

[Connors]

Yesterday's loss was a classic example of Venus choking, like she did to Serena at the US Open. If you look back on her career, Venus has blown about 10-12 matches in majors that she was either heavily favored or blew a big lead. She's never won an Australian Open. Why?? She clearly has the game for it and when she's on, she's better than Serena, in my opinion.

For some reason, she gets tight and error prone in the biggest of big moments in majors, maybe excluding Wimbledon. Even there, she's blown some matches and has also been helped by the likes of Davenport and Henin gagging. If Venus had the mental ability of her younger sister in clutch situations, she'd be making a run at Evert's and Navratilova's record of 18 majors. As it is, she's done tremendous with 7, but you just know it could have been much more, especially winning at least one Australian. That's not acceptable for a player of her ability. She's had what, 12 tries?

 

[miyagi]

do you think she choked? or just played poorly in the 2nd and 3rd set??

 

[GameSampras]

Its a shame because shes the lesser of two evils.. Certainly not as arrogant as her sister. Maybe her mind isnt on tennis anymore as it once was. She seems to have lost focused.. Same thing happened against Serena at the USO.. Completely lost focus

 

[split-step]

Venus's game doesn't translate to slower courts. Especially as it exposes her weak second serve. It is definitely mental. There is no reason Venus shouldn't have won that match yesterday.

Carla never reached 100mph on her serve (most in the upper 80s) and Venus simply kept hitting the serve cross court right back to her, right in her strike zone.
She played very defensively. I was surprised at how little she changed direction of the ball.
This is one thing both Williams sisters do so well. Is redirecting the ball but she just kept hitting cross court.
She would get a short ball and just put it back in play up the middle.
Maybe her timing was off. Bad day happens to anyone.

In contrast, Serena when down 5-3 against Dulko hit a couple returns up the line for clean winners.

Carla played a good match. However, she didn't do anything above what I've seen her do before.
What was most impressive was her demeanour and focus. That will see her through a lot of matches.

 

[split-step]

do you think she choked? or just played poorly in the 2nd and 3rd set??

She definitely choked the 3rd set. I wouldn't say she choked the 2nd.

 

[saram]

I say she got beat by someone that just wanted it more...

 

[KwangSunPark]

I say she got beat by someone that just wanted it more...

No I think Venus had more passion.
Suarez-Navarro was just playing well.
Venus had her chance, I hope Dokic, Zheng jie or Shuai Peng wins the AO now that Ivanovic is out.

 

[get it in]

I agree. She got beat by someone who wanted it more. There wasn't a whole lot that impressed me with Carla's game other than her consistency. She's not that tall and not particularly fast. She does have a nice OHBH, though. At her height, it's hard to hit a big, flat serve so a lot of her serve were the spinning type and not particularly hard. Maybe Venus was hoping she could win by letting her opponent choke?

 

[ESP#1]

I thought she just got outplayed in those last two sets, i think maybe she wasnt mentally prepared for that type of challenge, btw i like venus,great talent, shes way cooler than her sister who never shows any respect to opponents playing abilities.

 

[miyagi]

Well I didnt think she played well or used her brain but I didnt think she choked.......she does need to step it up though very disappointing performance.

 

[blue12]

What was the score of this match?

 

[halalula1234]

her performance was disappointing. she led 5-1 in the third set but lost.

 

[janipyt05]

V didn't choke, it suggests she handed the match to her opponent that little Madam played her heart out and won the match because she played well took her chances V had loads of errors i take nothing away for Carla because she worked hard to win the match and win it she did.

 

[Fedace]

I don't think this was choking. Early in the year, Venus's forehand is just not in sinc. Her timing on the forehand is always off in the beginning of the year and makes ton of unforced errors there.

 

[kungfusmkim]

She didnt choke in my opinion. She just met a different player or player who she didnt play in a while, that uses a alot of topspin with a nice slice. Its partly true what ESPN commentators say. She never passes a round with out dominating the entire match. She always loses focus then comes back. Yes some matches she has dominated the whole playing field. But those matches are most of the time with st rounders. I think Venuis shouldn't have put a load of spin in her shots because, Carla is a clay court player who is used to playing with topspin. I saw that carla couldn't move in as much on venu's flatter shots. However, when venus started putting topspin on her forehand, Carla just drove her forehand/backhand right flat to Venus's forehand.

 

[lambielspins]

Venus didnt choke today though.

 

[MariaS]

I don't think Venus ever chokes. I do think she's not really sure of her game anymore. She's still fun to watch play.

 

[ttbrowne]

It was the usual Williams staged match....win one, lose one, 3rd set.

C'mon, Can anyone ever take their matches against each other any other way?

 

[janipyt05]

Yes because if they cheated it would plain to see. You make it sound like you could play a sibling it would be easy, did you see the Radwanska sisters play each other same thing bigger sister led 3-0 and lost the match full or errors and so fourth. Venus won because she won the bigger points and Serena was not winning the points which she should have. Simple

 

[tennis_hand]

It was the usual Williams staged match....win one, lose one, 3rd set.

C'mon, Can anyone ever take their matches against each other any other way?

ya. always like that.