Venus is There for Little Sis

Venus Wiiliams is in London. So is Diane von Furstenberg. And Martin Coles, president and CEO, Reebok brand. They are all in a fancy Knightsbridge hotel to sell sportswear and, incidentally, talk tennis. The collection is billed as Rbk by DvF. The removal of the vowels from their names is a clever play by Reebok, for both Nk or dds are likely to think twice before travelling down that particular branding road..

The clothes people are given the stage first. Coles talks the marketing talk. 'Our internal headline is discover Reebok the essence of the brand... cohesive... a sports industry that badly needs new news... fabric innovation plus superior fit and finish... the desires of today's modern woman to be strong yet sexy, to celebrate the body, to be an individual, and to merge fashion with function.'

All much as you would expect and useful only for a new compliment: 'Boy, have you merged fashion with function successfully this evening.'

Up pops DvF. 'The spirit of my brand is go forward... She [Venus] is a Venus... I thought it would be fun to put Venus in a corset... we all know when a woman feels confident all kinds of great things happen to her.'

Venus Williams (or Vns Wllms) looks confident, if faintly gawky, as she struts down the runway in her corset. But although many great things will almost certainly happen to her, winning a third Wimbledon title on Saturday week is unlikely to be one of them.

First, because she may well be injured. She missed a number of tournaments before the French Open, where she was defeated by Vera Zvonareva (or Vr Zvnrv), and is not bullish when asked about her fitness. 'I'm really praying to be OK, not pushing myself too far. I have treatments for all kinds of things.'

'Like what?'

'Well, you know, the toenails and the facials.'

She has kept her sense of humour, but it sounds unlikely that she will stay fit for the whole tournament.

Second, there is little sister Serena. In the programme plug, it mentioned that Venus 'has also appeared in the finals of four of the last five grand-slam tournaments', while omitting that she lost all of them to her sister. When they were growing up, it was Venus who was the natural. 'I always knew I'd be a champ. That's what I was told, and at that age that's what you believe. You know I was always really very, very, very good. Serena, on the other hand, wasn't very good at all. She was small, really slim and the racket was way too big for her. Hopeless.'

Now Serena's game is in the ascendant and the natural is not sure what to do, although she doesn't appear to mind. Her sister's defeats weigh as heavily as her own. Talking about the French, she says: 'After I was out of the tournament I transferred my hopes to Serena and I was more upset about her loss than my loss. We are always there for each other, no matter what.'

It has been and will remain a family affair - as long as a WIlliams name is on the trophy it matters little which one. To such an extent that people are asking whether now Serena is grown up and winning on her own, Venus might depart the stage. 'I'm really pacing myself,' she says. 'I don't see why I should not be around much longer.'

Perhaps, although the double negative isn't entirely convincing and she has always had other interests, including fashion - she collaborated with DvF on the designs - arts and books. She is the only tennis player who when asked if it was more important to her to be liked as a person or a tennis player would reply: 'Wasn't that the chief theme of Death of a Salesman ? To be well liked? I think you've got to like yourself first.' She is also probably the only tennis player who will admit in public that she is currently enjoying the music of Depeche Mode.

She is easily smart enough to bat away inconvenient questions. Asked to comment on Daniela Hantuchova's (Dnl Hntchv - it's never going to catch on) appearance as a prelude to one of those 'Why Oh Why Are Tennis Players So Thin These Days? Whatever Happened to Betty Stove?' pieces, she replies: 'My main goal is to play tennis well. I really can't comment on anyone's shape beside my own.'

Asked 'What would you say to people who accused you and your sister of making tennis boring?', she replies: 'That's for you to decide. I don't listen to the news. The papers stay closed.'

And when asked about the longish gap since she last won a grand slam - the 2001 US Open - she replies: 'I don't think it should be difficult to bounce back. I don't think we bounced out, to be honest.'

The 'we' is illustrative. Once again when asked a personal question she replies with a plural. This is not Thatcherite delusion but statement of family philosophy. Should Venus defeat Lindsay Davenport in the quarter-finals and Kim Clijsters in the semi-finals, and if her sister beats Jennifer Capriati and Justine Henin-Hardenne at the same stages, then the blip in Paris will have been erased.

But I doubt that this is about to happen. Like the golfers chasing Tiger Woods, the pack appear to have caught up. Venus may not use weights, but others have been doing so. Grass suits their game, but they are no longer the only two whom it suits. So dodgy is her fitness, so distant her best form, that I wouldn't back Venus WIlliams to beat the first seed she is scheduled to meet, the surprise French semi-finalist Nadia Petrova. Not least because Richard Williams is back on the scene. There he was on Friday, taking photographs of his daughter in her corset and improbably claiming that he wouldn't talk to the press.

Last year with mum, Brandi, in attendance, the sisters seemed more relaxed. Dad tends to be more inflammatory. Before the French Open he said: 'The whites have always said that black people were robbers. My daughters are robbers. They're going to rob you of your best shot and make it our best shot. My daughters are the best two robbers in the game.'

Maybe, but one of them is probably injured and has half an eye on a career in fashion design. Which is no preparation for a robbery.

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