Venus humble after Clijsters victory

Venus Williams said last week that the only person who would beat her here would be herself - and she proved her point yesterday. She overwhelmed Kim Clijsters for the first 40 minutes, swung at drive volleys from mid-court as though swatting away insects, led by a set and a break, and then dissolved into a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat to the 18-year-old Belgian which cost her the Betty Barclay Cup title.

That big first serve disappeared, counter-attacks deteriorated into defensive scrambling, and the world No1's game became as low pressure as the damp Hamburg weather. After a strangely ineffective performance Williams wisely consumed a crumb or two of humble pie.

"Kim served well, moved well and got a lot of balls back, and she has a great base to her game," she admitted. "I hit a lot of great shots at the beginning but it is difficult to keep hitting these when someone plays consistently and keeps the ball in play." Plausibly gracious as it sounded, it was nevertheless a load of baloney.

No one plays a more consistent game than Martina Hingis, and hers was stridently dismissed by the champion in Saturday's semi-finals. Failing to take the initiative against Venus Williams is like tossing a match on to a firearm's arsenal, and usually results in high-velocity, high-decibel destruction.

The truth is this was not the real Venus Williams. She walked gingerly between points, appeared inhibited about using her left foot as a fulcrum while serving, and gave the impression she was carrying an injury. That may be a nastier blow to her hopes of winning her first Grand Slam title on a clay court next month than this defeat to a cocky and ambitious teenager.

Clijsters even bristled at the suggestion that practising with her boyfriend Lleyton Hewitt earlier in the week might have helped her. "I think perhaps I might have helped him," she said contrarily. But the depth of her conviction that she can emulate him as No1 was shown by the intensity with which she denied it.

Clijsters hung in hard and, when opportunities unexpectedly presented themselves, took risks in attack. Williams's strengths were in the good sense with which she handled the defeat. "I have to play better than that," she said, "but I will go home, have one day's rest, and work out what went wrong. I can be OK soon." But whether that will be soon enough for the French Open is another matter.

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