Venus rises with happy feet

It would be somewhat wide of the mark to refer to Venus as the forgotten Williams sister but, having been beaten by her younger sister Serena in the past three grand slam finals, doubts have been cast on her ultimate commitment.

A nervy, error-strewn opening first-round victory here over Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia had the tongues wagging again, but yesterday Venus was back on firmer ground with a routine 6-3, 6-0 win over her fellow American Ansley Cargill, ranked 116 places below the No2 seed.

Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne, who completed a horribly one-sided 6-0, 6-1 second-round victory over Russia's Anna Kournikova, suggested that the vulnerability displayed by the Williams sisters this week gave everybody heart and made them appear human rather than superhuman. But try telling Cargill that.

However, the sisters are demonstrably more vulnerable here because their preparation has not been as diligent as many's. Hence the failure of either to reach the Australian Open final to date, although this may be about to change, and it may be Venus who has the better chance of winning.

Not that she is prepared to talk about such matters. Yesterday her post-match utterances ranged from her jewellery to the smell of the court.

"It smells like tyres," she announced, crinkling her nose. "I suppose when it's hot the court heats up and I guess it kind of bakes." And did her feet get stuck? "Oh no, I've got happy feet." Happy feet, and a snappy win.

Not the perfection of Andre Agassi, however. One wayward overhead had her mother, Oracene, in a fit of giggles. "The thing is, when you jump for an overhead very high, you have to time it right. If you do, it looks great. If you don't, you look like a hacker. So that was my hack shot."

Hack shots were very much a part of Lindsay Davenport's repertoire as she struggled to a 6-7, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan. Mostly the American, seeded nine, looked as if she wanted to be anywhere other than on court. She had points galore to take the opening set, and thereafter played a desultory game of catch-up which almost totally lacked conviction.

Davenport missed half of last season after arthroscopic surgery on a knee and she is still not moving at all well. She also served particularly poorly, and was lucky to survive. "I'm happy to still be around. I was frustrated with the way I was hitting the ball, and I wasn't able to penetrate the court."

Tulyaganova, 21, is a powerful player who has promised much without delivering, but this was another close match - of which there have been more than usual in the first week of the women's tournament. "We always get the rap that the top women win too easily," said Davenport. "I think the level of women's tennis has gone up and there's more depth."

Davenport is drawn to meet Henin-Hardenne in the fourth round and was asked how she compared the 2001 Wimbledon finalist with the other Belgian hope, Kim Clijsters. "People always talked about Justine as being a bit more talented because she has such a beautiful backhand. But there's no question that this year Kim's overtaken her.

"She [Clijsters] is really the one who has taken the step forward - it has been quite remarkable. She's gotten over the hump of being a player in the top five to seven and made it into the next echelon. And that's hard to do."

One player hoping to make a similar breakthrough this year is Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, the No7 seed, who won her second-round match against Adriana Serra Zanetti of Italy 7-6, 7-6 - an encounter not without its problems. "It seems to be happening to quite a few of the top players, and it shows how tough women's tennis is now," she said.

If you did not know better you might suspect the hand of the WTA behind these close matches and remarks. But that would be to take a conspiracy theory too far. Instead put it down to the time of the year, when lack of practice has levelled the playing field. It will not last, as Venus Williams proved against Cargill.