Williams sisters back in time

WIMBLEDON, England -- A convulsive first week has forged a retro Wimbledon, such a throwback to 2002 that if you squint really well you can almost see the Lakers sweeping the Nets and Shaq-and-Kobe coexisting.

Here 16 women have reached the second week, and their configuration strongly suggests a final of Williams vs. Williams, as occurred remarkably for five of the six Grand Slam events between the 2002 French and the 2003 Wimbledon, but not since.

There’s No. 7 Venus Williams, the four-time champion in the bottom half of the draw, and there’s No. 6 Serena Williams, the two-time champion in the top half who won all five of those aforementioned Slams, and then there are 14 women who have yet to grace a single Wimbledon semifinal.

There’s no Justine Henin, who retired suddenly in May; no Amelie Mauresmo, who faded somewhat in recent years and lost to Serena Williams; no Maria Sharapova, who went meekly in the second round; no Ana Ivanovic, who went meekly in the third.

To cement the Williams-ness of it all, you had Venus on Saturday firing the fastest female serve ever at Wimbledon, 127 mph.

She did it on match point.

For an ace that went screaming into the corner of Court No. 1.

“I’m actually never trying to serve that hard, if that makes any sense,” she said. “It just comes big.”

Well, the 14 others do include Jelena Jankovic, the No. 3 player in the world but no grass-lover, as well as a whopping six players from the world’s foremost women’s tennis incubator, Russia.

“We are Russians,” said Alla Kudryavtseva, who shooed Sharapova and is one of the six. “We are coming up more and more.”

“I think it’s the backgrounds we’re coming from,” said Nadia Petrova. “We really have to work hard for better living, and I think it’s an extra motivation for us.”

“Because we had no support we grow up strong,” said Svetlana Kuznetsova, the world’s No. 4 player. “Definitely passing these times we are very strong. We are very tough.”

Others in the group of 14 include onrushing faces such as Hungary’s Agnes Szavay, the Czech Republic’s Nicole Vaidisova, Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska.

It just doesn’t include Williamses, whose moxie from claiming six of the last eight Wimbledons makes them the story of this tournament.

Even at the ancient tennis ages of 28 and 26, the Venus and Serena Williams who grew up in Compton have turned up to define another Wimbledon, and each has won all six sets en route to the fourth round. Concentration has been evident and pronounced enough that defending champion Venus Williams said, “I usually don’t know the day. Like today I didn’t know it was Saturday. I just knew it was the third round. That’s what it’s all about.”

They’ve cohabitated per usual: “We definitely stay together,” Serena Williams said. “We’re roommates. It’s pretty cool.”

They’ve spent the first week fielding questions about, say, Barack Obama, with both sisters saying they’re happy for him but won’t vote because the tenets of their religion -- Jehovah’s Witnesses -- don’t permit voting. They’ve answered questions about Justin Gimelstob and his radio comments about Anna Kournikova, about the crash-out of the American males. And mostly, while Sharapova lost to the No. 154 player and Ivanovic to No. 133, they’ve embodied a tranquil steadiness.

Now they’re going to rule Court No. 2 on Monday, where Venus Williams will play Alisa Kleybanova, then Serena Williams will play fellow American Bethanie Mattek, then after one more match they’ll return to team up for the third round in doubles, in which Serena said they sometimes spend changeovers talking about “boys.”

Asked if there’s a downside to all this, Venus said, “I think the downside to having a sister on tour is if she’s as good as you are.

“If she’s that good, you have to figure out a way to beat her. That’s probably the only downside of it.”

After all these bumpy years since 2002-03, all the hiatuses and outside interests and injuries, there’s a chance we’re going back there next Saturday to those once-familiar questions of whether one sister can figure out a way to beat the other.