Forget Wimbledon: This Is Williamsdom

There was someone who kept Venus Williams from reaching her goals and achieving her dreams, and, no, it wasn’t the excitable, feisty teen in the household with a U.S. Open championship.

Serena Williams, 15 months younger, may have given her older sister grief by making some close line calls in their pre-bead kid days and made life more difficult by winning the family’s first Grand Slam singles title. But the sibling rivalry never quite caused the hurt and disappointment that another teenager did.

That would be 19-year-old Martina Hingis.

History may have been created Tuesday at the All England Club--the Williams sisters will meet in Thursday’s semifinals, the first time sisters will face each other at Wimbledon in the Open era--but 20-year-old Venus Williams got there by getting past her Swiss nemesis.

The loud scream, shrieks of excitement and wide smile after Williams fired a 118-mph ace past Hingis on match point said it all. Clearly, some baggage disappeared and Williams was traveling a lot lighter in the wake of her 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 quarterfinal victory.

Father Richard Williams was light on his toes in the Friends Box, applauding her effort,as was sister Serena, who already had dispatched Lisa Raymond, 6-2, 6-0, in an earlier quarterfinal. In the other matches, defending champion Lindsay Davenport defeated Monica Seles, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-0, and 17-year-old Jelena Dokic of Australia beat Magui Serna of Spain, 6-3, 6-2.

The drama of the day belonged to Williams and Hingis. After shaking hands and reveling in the victory, Venus nearly grabbed an American flag but thought better of it. This wasn’t some sappy movie, after all.

“No. That’s taking it too far,” she said. “Most of all, it was a good win for me because I’ve never advanced past the quarterfinals. The two times I was in the quarters, I had some tough, heartbreaking matches.”

So, had the weight of the world lifted? After all, Hingis defeated her in three other Grand Slam events: the 1997 U.S. Open final, the 1998 French Open quarterfinals, and most ruthlessly, the 1999 U.S. Open semifinals.

Really, you cannot be serious, Venus asserted.

“Come on now, no.” she said. “What do you mean? Naturally, if I had won the match, 6-2, 6-2, it would have been different. But I was doing a lot of running, I had some tough service games, some tough return games. When I hit the ace, it’s a great way to end it.”

Serena Williams had never seen her sister so happy with the exception of the run to the final at the U.S. Open three years ago.

“I guess we’re still kind of trying to soak it up,” Serena said. “That’s not the word I was looking for, but that will do.”

The competitiveness of the sisters’ matches on Centre Court and Court 1 was not even close. Serena, who served nine aces, beat Raymond in 41 minutes, including a 16-minute second set. Members of the Williams entourage were shuttling back and forth between the matches.

By the time Dokic beat Serna, following Williams-Raymond, Williams and Hingis were still playing. It was a taut test of nerves. Williams retrieved superbly, racing from side to side, and even once slipped on the court and scrambled up to resume the rally.

Williams won the first set, 6-3, in 37 minutes, finishing it with an ace. Hingis found her range in the second, helped, in part, by unforced errors by Williams.

The third set opened with five consecutive breaks of serve. Ahead, 3-2, Williams finally held at 15, even though she received a warning for a time violation when she went to her chair for a drink and stretched her leg after a point.

Hingis fought off two more break points in the next game, but a Williams victory seemed inevitable, and it came emphatically, as she held at love in the final game with an impressive display of power.

“She was probably a little bit more hungry,” Hingis said. “We both wanted to win. She was a tiny bit better today.”

As a veteran Hingis watcher, Davenport provided some insight.

“It seemed to me she was just playing so passive,” Davenport said. “I’ve seen her play aggressive before. Most of her balls were hitting the service line, not with a lot of depth or power. Venus was either hitting a winner or making an error. Martina never really took any chances or forced the issue at all.”

Passive play was never going to be a problem with either Davenport or Seles. Seles came out firing in the first set, and Davenport looked particularly out of sorts, hanging her head and slumping after errors. She double-faulted to lose the first-set tiebreaker.

But the turning point came in a grueling sixth game of the second set, which lasted 12 1/2 minutes. Seles, serving at 2-3, saved eight break points and eventually held to make the score 3-3. The effort cost her, though, as she won only one more game.

“Definitely my energy level wasn’t the same in the third set as in the first and second,” Seles said.

Said Davenport: “I really held my nerve together to stay focused and pull it out, just waited until I started hitting the ball better.”

Davenport has never faced Dokic and pointed out she has not watched the youngster play this fortnight.

The Williamses have played four times, with Venus winning the first three and Serena the last meeting at the Grand Slam Cup in Germany last October.

Serena offered the early scouting report, saying: “She’s an Ace. I’m a Smash.”

Later, outside the grounds, legend Billie Jean King was still excited after the long day. She raved about the improved backhand volley of Venus and how the arrival of the Williams sisters has created a Tiger Woods-type impact on the tennis world.

She spoke of the obvious pressures and problems of a sisterly rivalry, having coached the Williamses in Fed Cup a week after Serena’s U.S. Open victory.

“It’s terrible. Thank God my brother [former major league pitcher Randy Moffitt] was a boy playing in another sport,” King said.

Maybe father knows best.

“I won’t be here,” Richard Williams said of the semifinal. “I’m going to a funeral.”

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Wimbledon at a Glance

* Weather: Cloudy and cool with late rain. High temperature was 64.

* Attendance: 34,083. Last year on the eighth day it was 29,870.

* Stat of the Day: Lindsay Davenport won only five of 23 break points against Monica Seles.

* Quote of the Day: “I won’t be here, I’m going to a funeral.”--Richard Williams, father of Serena and Venus, on Thursday’s semifinal between his daughters.

TODAY’S MEN’S QUARTERFINALS

* Mark Philippoussis (10), Australia, vs. Andre Agassi (2)

* Pete Sampras (1) vs. Jan-Michael Gambill

* Patrick Rafter (12), Australia, vs. Alexander Popp, Germany

* Byron Black, Zimbabwe, vs. Vladimir Voltchkov, Belarus