Venus Is Back at the Controls

Everything seemed the same, at least on the surface, a comfort zone of familiarity.

Venus Williams was winning at a Grand Slam. Quite easily, in fact. And after the third-seeded Williams finished off a 6-2, 6-1 victory in 51 minutes against Ashley Harkleroad in the first round at the Australian Open today, Williams spun and waved to the crowd at Rod Laver Arena.

There is a bit more beyond the quick print snapshot of Williams’ first match since Wimbledon. For the first time since the 2002 Australian Open, she was riding solo at a Slam because her younger sister Serena was unable to play in Melbourne, not fully prepared for this tournament after a recovery from knee surgery.

Serena’s presence was manifested in the form of mobile phone text-messages to Oracene Price, the coach and mother of the sisters who was sitting in the Friends’ Box. Also here in Melbourne is 5-year-old Jair, the son of Yetunde Price, who was murdered in Compton in the early morning hours of Sept. 14.

Venus’ eyes welled when she was asked about her half-sister on Saturday morning in a pre-tournament news conference here. Yetunde had worked as a personal assistant to Venus and Serena and was on hand to comfort Venus at Wimbledon when she was in pain from a chronic abdominal injury, which kept her out following Wimbledon.

Three days later, her eyes were smiling when she was asked about young Jair’s appearance in the Melbourne newspaper, The Age. There were several pictures of him helping out as a ball kid during one of her practice sessions.

“Yeah, he thinks he’s a star, ‘I’m a star,’ ” Venus said, smiling, imitating him. “ ‘See my picture in the paper?’ [He] showed everyone his picture. I’m like, ‘Oh, God, we’re not showing [him] any more pictures.’ ”

She would know something about that intangible star quality. Williams’ long-awaited return helped provide a significant boost to a Slam lagging in that department, hit hard by a series of withdrawals.

Although the score was one-sided, Williams showed signs of rust, at times, committing 23 unforced errors and double-faulting five times. That was to be expected from someone who had not played an official match in six months. But the occasion did not overwhelm her with emotion.

“Well, I guess it’s a little bit sentimental, but at the time I was really very focused in on really my performance,” she said. “Afterward, it was really just a breath of fresh air, just like, ‘Oh, yes, I’m back now. I’m doing good.’ I guess the only way to understand how it feels is to actually have been in the position I was in.”

But there was one moment of concern. In the fifth game of the first set, Venus was going up for a high swing volley and came down wrong on her right ankle and winced. The mishap did not appear to hamper Williams and it actually seemed to force her to shorten the points and go for more winners.

Rod Laver Arena must have had some negative vibe going. Cecil Mamiit of Los Angeles was not nearly as lucky as Williams in a frightening-looking accident. His match against 15th-seeded Lleyton Hewitt of Australia followed Williams-Harkleroad, and on the last point of the second set, Mamiit went crashing into the umpire’s stand and jammed his right foot underneath it.

Mamiit took an injury timeout and had the foot wrapped but lasted only one more game, winning it on his serve. It was clear he was in major discomfort and he retired, and Hewitt took the first-round match, 6-2, 6-4, 0-1. Officials said Mamiit had to leave Melbourne Park to go for a X-ray.

The odd element is that this is the third consecutive match in which a Hewitt opponent has retired because of injury or illness.

“I’ve never had anything like this,” Hewitt told an on-court television commentator.

He didn’t subscribe to the Curse of Hewitt theory, saying: “I don’t know about that, mate.”

Hewitt is in the same part of the draw as second-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland and they could meet in the fourth round. Federer, the Wimbledon champion, had little trouble with Alex Bogomolov, Jr., winning, 6-3, 6-4, 6-0. Federer, who is here without a coach, was irritated by Pat Cash’s comments in a British newspaper that Federer’s game would suffer without one.

“I cannot believe what he says,” Federer said. “Everything he said is not true. I don’t even know Pat Cash. As long as I don’t really know him, I can’t take it seriously because he doesn’t know me then in that case.

“I know what is true and what is not true. What he is saying is definitely not right. It’s not fair.”