Serena Closing the Gap

Is there a Betty Crocker Center for recovering gelato junkies?

Serena Williams seemed to think so as she riffed after winning the Italian Open Sunday, a pretty respectable prize for somebody who hadn’t won a clay-court tennis tournament.

“I really need some gelato,” she giggled impatiently. “They’ve got the best ice cream in the world here. Yeah, I guess you could call me a gelato junkie, and maybe someday I’ll have to go through the 12-step program at the Betty Crocker Center.”

Serena, in closing what she calls her “Venus gap,” was many tasty flavors of tennis player during her dazzling week on the central court at Il Foro Italico. She concluded with a double-dipping, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4, victory over the slight and stylish Belgian teenager Justine Henin, Wimbledon finalist last year to big sister Venus.

Oh, yes, Venus and “the gap.” Venus was supposed to win this tournament for the second time and burnish her No. 1 ranking. But something went wrong beforehand. A little heavy lifting strained her right wrist, causing her to withdraw to a front-row seat alongside mother Oracene Williams.

But that idleness allowed Jennifer Capriati to jump ahead and be designated No. 1 the WTA computer. Whereupon Serena out-bashed Capriati, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5, in the thrilling Saturday semifinal (probably the best match of the season), even though Capriati had three break-point opportunities to lead 4-0 in the third set.

After rescuing that one, Serena said, “I’m closing the Venus gap.”

Just as father Richard Williams informed the world a few years ago, his daughters are in a tussle for the top, currently holding their highest combined rankings: Nos. 2-3, Venus a length in front. Though slight enough to fit in Serena’s racket bag, Henin’s a slugger. But not a grinder. Her strokes, particularly the lightning-bolt, one-handed backhand, are effortless and pure.

But whenever Henin got too close for comfort, Serena turned on her power, speed and grit. She went vocal, her growls as menacing as her strokes.

“I’d rather stay calm and quiet,” she said, “but the grunting starts when things get intense.”

For a moment Serena was worried. And afterward she was sore from a strained right thigh and sprained left ankle that caused her to call an injury timeout in the seventh game. “When that happened I said to myself, ‘Oh, no, not that again!’ It was the ankle that kept me out of the Australian Open,” Serena said. “But they were taped before and re-taped during the timeout. I’ll be OK for Paris,” where the French Open starts a week from today.

It took 1 hour 40 minutes (of the 1:56 match) before serve was cracked, then in 1-2-3 fashion. Serena’s forehand sent her ahead 4-3, but the Belgian struck back for her lone break to 4-4 only to fall again immediately.