Wimbledon Day Two — Venus Williams starts her title defense

By James Borg

Tuesday, June 24, 2008 | 2:33 p.m.

LONDON -- The second day of Wimbledon is traditionally called Ladies Day. It's the day when the defending Women's Champion gets a chance to step back on to the Centre Court in a quest to recreate the glory of 12 months ago. That honor fell to Venus Williams who picked up her fourth title here last year. Just for the record -- she hadn't struck a ball on grass since she won the title. That's some preparation.

Her opponent was the 19-year-old British girl Naomi Cavaday ranked just 197 in the world and offered -- like so many of our usual British players -- a wild card in order to compete in the championships. However, this left-hander's pre-match comments were of a confident tone, no doubt inspired by her unlikely performance a year ago when she had two match points against Martina Hingis. Well she certainly put money and mouth together as she went 2-0 up in the first set; in the first game Venus dropped her serve from 40-0 up. In the sixth game Williams managed to get her break back, but she missed two break points that would have put her 5-3 ahead. Eventually she was forced into a tie-break which she edged through at 7-5 and then sailed away with the second set, dropping just one point in three service games to win in straight sets 7-6, 6-1.

Was she worried at any stage? "No, not really. When I got the break at 3-all I was pretty excited, because 4-2 isn't as much fun as 3-1. She got a lot more balls back than what I was expecting. But I'm really blessed to be my height and to be able to move. I'm really excited about that."

Meanwhile on Court One, 2004 Champion Maria Sharapova was playing 27-year-old Stephanie Foretz from France. There had been much talk yesterday about the shock news that she had decided to abandon her short dresses in favor of men's shorts this year. This is the lady that played at Wimbledon last year in a white frilly skirt with wings, inspired by "Swan Lake." A switch to shorts? maybe it's because of the equal prize money that they now have with the men's players. Who knows.

Well she went through with it. She arrived on court, not just in white shorts but also in a white tuxedo-style shirt. We shouldn't have been shocked. Yesterday, Roger Federer arrived on court in a stylish cardigan and Serena Williams in a short raincoat. Wimbledon or Milan? The edges are blurring. As far as the match was concerned, it was a fairly routine 6-1, 6-4 grunting-to-victory performance from the Russian. Naturally, questions in the post-match press conference completely avoided the err . . . match. What inspired the white tuxedo look? "I love menswear in general. You know, I love tuxedo jackets. I also thought -- why not do shorts this year? You know, if ther's one place to do it, it's here. I love how 10 of the questions are about what we're wearing. It's amazing."

It didn't get any better -- there were no questions about the match.

The second main match on Centre Court was last year's finalist and world No. 2 Rafael Nadal ("the best Wimbledon Final I've ever seen, including my own against Borg in 1980" was the assessment of John McEnroe) who narrowly lost to Federer in that thrilling match but since picked up his fourth consecutive Roland Garros title this year plus a win jon grass just over a week ago at the Artois Queens Club championships here in London. He was playing a 22-year-old qualifier from Germany, Andreas Beck making his first appearance - also a left-hander. He managed to polish off in three sets 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 with some superlative serving and mobility and power. He faces a tougher round two match as he takes on rising star Ernests Gulbis.

Andy Roddick began his challenge (seeded 6th this year) against a 22-year-old Argentinian first-timer, Eduardo Schwank and brushed him aside in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (7-0). It's easy to forget that he was runner-up in 2004 and 2005 to Federer. His quest goes on.

Mardy Fish was up against Frenchman Richard Gasquet (a semi-finalist here last year). Fish himself could proudly boast of a win against Federer this year in the semi-finals at Indian Wells. The Frenchman proved too strong for Fish and finished in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.

There's a welcome return of Lindsay Davenport this year. She won the tournament back in 1999 and has been missing for the last two years from these lawns, due to motherhood and musing about retirement. She was playing the Czech player Renato Voracova -- and playing through the pain. She came through 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.

Tomorrow's key matches include Novak Djokovic as he takes center stage against Marat Safin. Defending champion Roger Federer has a tussle with Robin Soderling on his hands and Ana Ivanovic plays natalie Dechy. Serena Williams is also in action on another day that's forecast to be sunny with no rain -- no raincoats on court please Serena.

James Borg, a freelance journalist, has covered the All-England Lawn Tennis Championships for 31 years. He spents a few months in Las Vegas and did work for Caesars Palace. He lives in London.