Wimbledon: Serena Struggles to Stay Focused on the Job at Hand

Serena Williams, admirably unhampered by her lack of knowledge, was anxious to talk about a wide range of subjects after her first-round win over Jie Zheng. She has become a big England football fan, she said. "When England went one-love down and then they made the goal, I was like 'Whoa'. Venus and I love to play football."

But does she understand the offside rule? "Offside? No. I just know that everyone falls down. I don't understand everything but I know you get points when you score a goal."

She is also keen to talk about her travel plans. "I would love to go to the east coast of Africa. Is that the Ivory Coast? I really want to go to the west coast . . . I'm not 100% sure of my background."

She also wants to talk about her new fashion line, Aneres. "It's my name spelled backwards. It's really cool." And she will make her big-screen debut in the comedy Beauty Shop this year. Then there is her work with inner cities - "I have made an incredible impact on the inner city. We are really blessed because we had parents that really supported us."

She describes herself as a "crossover celebrity", explaining: "All the time I'm in one of those US publications, whether it's People, Us or In Touch. I can count on being in there every week."

The worry about Williams is that she seems equally vague when talking about her tennis. She played poorly by her standards yesterday, as she set out on her campaign to win her third title here in as many years, even though she won 6-3, 6-1. There were 24 unforced errors against her unfancied opponent. But she appeared to be in denial afterwards.

"Are you guys going to coach me now?" she asked when the subject was raised. "You're going to talk about unforced errors? I think it's one of the times when I played pretty decent."

But she did not. This was a lumbering performance, the sort often associated with the younger of the phenomenal Williams sisters a few years ago. The trouble with being a crossover celebrity is that it can take the edge off your crosscourt volley. Distractions abound. And Serena, like her sister Venus, needs to be very focused.

She has been away only a year but SW19 must feel a very different and colder place. Since she beat Venus in the final for the second year in a row, both sisters have suffered multiple injuries and the rankings have been dominated by the Belgians Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne.

If neither Williams wins here it will be the first time since 1998 that neither has held a grand slam title. And the pair looked set to dominate the scene for an aeon.

Serena, dogged by shoulder and knee problems, ended an eight-month lay-off when she won the Nasdaq-100 Open in April. She reached the semi-finals in Rome but lost to Jennifer Capriati, who beat her again in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros. This month she slipped to 11th in the rankings, the first time she had been outside the top 10 since August 1999.

But there is no Clijsters or Henin-Hardenne at Wimbledon this year, and the twin pillars of the Williams sisters could once again cast the rest of the women's draw in their shadows.

However, there is possibly another problem. Serena and Venus are still coming to terms with the murder of their elder sister, Yetunde. The last time the family was together was one year ago, at these lawns.

None or all of this could have been passing through Serena's busy mind as she restricted Zheng to a single point in the opening two games yesterday. Zheng gave the appearance of someone afraid to visit the net in case she got tangled up in it. And the Chinese player also failed to convert any of her nine break points, so there was only going to be one winner.

But Williams still made life difficult for herself. She won the first set in 29 minutes with a smash that secured her second break of serve. And she ran away with the second as Zheng's resolve faltered. But despite the power and consistency of her serve it was clear that all was not well with her game.

Both backhand and forehand were vulnerable as the unforced errors totted up. Zheng, ranked 52, was simply not good enough to take advantage of her opponent's frailty.

Afterwards Williams assured us there was nowhere she would rather be. "When I'm on the set of a movie, it's exciting. I love it. I love being there. When I'm designing a dress, an outfit, I'm really into that. But it doesn't beat walking out on to the Centre Court at Wimbledon."

Judging by her taste in clothes, she shouldn't give up the day job just yet. At least her dress yesterday was an improvement on her garish contribution to Roland Garros. That was a pink and orange outfit, several sizes too small, described by someone as the last mango in Paris. Serena Williams is about as fashionable as Dame Edna. As bashful, too.