For Serena Williams, It’s Time to Get Going

Serena Williams, body and mind in motion, hit the wall.

She was frustrated. One way didn’t work. Nor did another.

Williams was writing a biography, trying to put together thoughts and words for an on-line composition course.

Writer’s block?

Who hasn’t been there, or at least visited?

As it turned out, not Williams. She wasn’t blocked, although she was trying to maneuver through an intellectual maze.

“I am struggling right now,” she said. “I can’t figure anything out. [Starting] is the easy part though. I have to critique people. I don’t know where to go to do that. It’s just a very, very difficult course.”

It would be easy to say this was a metaphor for the game that brought her fame, but like anything else, that is not the total picture.

Williams, 19, has not won another Grand Slam tournament since her victory in the U.S. Open in 1999. Her best result since in a Grand Slam event was at Wimbledon last summer, where she reached the semifinals, losing to her older sister Venus, the eventual champion.

And, because of injury and inactivity, she is close to tumbling out of the top 10. She is ranked 10th, two points ahead of Elena Dementieva of Russia. In the Tennis Masters Series at Indian Wells, which starts today, Williams, the 1999 champion, is seeded seventh.

Seeded ahead of her, in order, are Martina Hingis of Switzerland, defending champion Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams, Monica Seles and Conchita Martinez of Spain. Sixth-seeded Mary Pierce of France withdrew Tuesday because of tendinitis in her ankles. Despite this, Serena will remain seeded seventh.

Hingis, who has won her last two tournaments, is in the same half of the draw as Martinez and Seles. Davenport has also won her last two events and will play either Corina Morariu or Nicole Pratt of Australia in the second round.

Serena will play either a qualifier or Adriana Gersi of the Czech Republic in the second round and has a potentially difficult path through the draw, if form holds, possibly facing Davenport in the quarterfinals, then Venus in the semifinals. Except for Grand Slam events, the Williamses rarely play singles in the same event.

Which brings us back to Serena’s game. Since that triumphant fall day in New York in 1999, she has won four events, beating Venus for the first time later that year, at the Grand Slam Cup. Last year, she won in Hanover, Germany; Manhattan Beach and Tokyo.

“My game is much better than it was then,” Williams said.

What also happened was that her impressive U.S. Open victory raised the bar in the Hingis household, as well as in Davenport’s. But the biggest change occurred closer to home. Serena’s best friend and doubles partner, Venus, ruled the tour the second half of last year, winning her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon and following it up with a U.S. Open title and Olympic gold medal during a 35-match winning streak.

Because Serena has played so infrequently--school obligations are part of the equation too--her ranking is not high enough for her to avoid the likes of Hingis and Davenport before the quarterfinals in Grand Slam tournaments. She lost to Davenport in the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open in 2000 and Hingis in the same round at the Australian Open this year.

Her only real stumble at a major tournament was a fourth-round loss to Elena Likhovtseva of Russia at the Australian Open last year.

“It’s very tough for me to watch the losses because usually when I lose, it’s because I beat myself and it is really tough for me after a while,” she said.

The three-set loss to Hingis in Australia was a classic contest. Hingis won, 6-2, 3-6, 8-6, after Williams, suffering from food poisoning, squandered a 5-1 third-set lead.

“That was a totally different situation,” she said. “I was barely alive out there.”

Since then, she has not played a tournament, having pulled out of Paris and Scottsdale, Ariz., citing health reasons. Rust, however, doesn’t seem one of Williams’ problems. Few players are better at coming off long layoffs. Before the ’99 U.S. Open, she had played only once after the French Open.

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Marat Safin, who suffered a back injury last week in Dubai, is unlikely to play at Indian Wells, Russian tennis officials told Reuters.

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Tennis Masters Series

* Where: Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

* When: Women’s matches begin today, with the final March 17; men begin play Monday, with the final March 18.

* Top women players: Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams, Monica Seles, Conchita Martinez, Serena Williams, Elena Dementieva.

* Tickets: (800) 999-1585.