Venus on the Verge of Greatness; Henin Steeled for the Task

A number of women’s players have won Wimbledon once, players such as Jana Novotna and Conchita Martinez, Virginia Wade and Ann Jones. They were very good, great in some cases, and no one can ever take their one triumphant day at Center Court away from them. At the same time, there is no aura of tennis immortality surrounding them.

If Venus Williams wins in the final today, she will have taken the title for the second consecutive year and become the first to repeat since Steffi Graf in 1996.

Williams, a Southern Californian turned Floridian, like Tiger Woods, will still be far short of the Wimbledon titles won by Martina Navratilova (nine), Helen Wills Moody (eight), Graf (seven) and Billie Jean King (six). But, at 21, Williams could be starting down that path.

There was some question when this tournament began about how eager she was to go there. Wimbledon is a long campaign, 13 days of singles and doubles matches for the women, inevitable rain delays and scrutiny from the London tabloids.

If she were fortunate enough to still be playing on the final Saturday, the experts predicted that she, after a match against Lindsay Davenport in the semifinals, would find sister Serena, Jennifer Capriati or Martina Hingis waiting for her in the final.

Not a pigeon, as tennis players call opponents they are sure they are going to beat, among them.

If you had told her then that her final opponent would be Justine Henin, Williams no doubt would have been feeling more relaxed.

But perhaps it is time for everyone to reconsider Henin.

No matter how tough she finds things today on Center Court, the Belgian, 19, has faced tougher.

Her mother, Francoise, took her to the French Open when Henin was 10 in 1992. They saw a memorable final, with Monica Seles prevailing, 10-8, over Graf in the third set, and Henin predicted that she would be in a final some day at Roland Garros.

Less than three years later, her mother died of intestinal cancer.

Henin’s father, Jose, is a postman in Marloie, Belgium. He put her in charge of the household, including the care of two older brothers and a younger sister.

He insisted, however, that she continue playing tennis and, when she turned pro 2 1/2 years ago at 16, he soon became known as one of those overbearing parents who crazes not only his daughter but the entire women’s tour. Stefano Capriati used to be one of them. Damir Dokic and Richard Williams still are. It’s difficult to tell now about Melanie Molitor, Hingis’ mother.

Unlike some of the other young women, Henin gathered her courage and told her father to go home and stay there. He hasn’t traveled with her since this year’s Australian Open.

Her entourage now includes her 22-year-old fiance, her longtime coach and a friend-advisor-father figure whose own 8-year-old daughter was a victim in 1996 of a serial killer known as the Beast of Belgium. To this group, there is no such thing as a crisis on the tennis tour.

How, or whether, all of this will translate into Henin’s performance in the Wimbledon final remains to be seen.

In the French Open semifinals, she won the first set and was two points away from going up 5-2 in the second against another young Belgian, Kim Clijsters, when Henin folded. But that was at Roland Garros, where she had sat with her mother nine years before. She saw a ghost.

She says she is tougher now.

If her semifinal match Thursday against Capriati was an indication, she is correct. Henin, seeded eighth and playing on Wimbledon’s Center Court for the first time, lost the first set, 6-2, and almost withdrew while trailing, 2-1, in the second because of a badly blistered right foot. But she returned to the court and routed Capriati, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Williams hasn’t told her father to go home, but perhaps she no longer needs to do that. Unlike the media, she seems to have learned how to ignore him when necessary.

She breezed through the first set of her semifinal match against Lindsay Davenport, then, as she often does, lost her concentration and the second set. Evonne Goolagong Cawley, who had similar lapses, used to call them walkabouts.

Richard Williams walked out of this one, leaving his seat in the friends’ box. Venus never even knew it. By the time he’d returned, so had her game in a 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-1 victory for the player seeded second.

Richard talked the other day about the possibility of Venus retiring in the near future to seek fame and fortune on other, undisclosed avenues.

Asked about that Thursday, Williams acted as if she had no idea what her father had been saying. She probably didn’t.

“I’m too young to be thinking about retiring,” she said. “I think it’s too early to be talking about the end. I’m not there yet.”

Even if she were, she sounded as if the last thing she would be looking for is a new world to conquer.

“I don’t want to do too much,” she said, speculating on her eventual retirement. “I don’t want to work too hard, so . . . maybe I’ll be a couch potato.”

Where she is now is on the verge of greatness.

She and Henin have met once before, the Belgian winning this year at the German Open, 6-1, 6-4. That was on clay, but Henin has proved here that she has the game for grass. She does not, however, have the game on grass for the more powerful Williams.

Williams wins in two sets.

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Randy Harvey can be reached at randy.harvey@latimes.com.