Serena stays in as Venus goes out in third round

A French Open Friday brought a reminder that the Williams sisters dwell in a tricky reality almost unmatched on the sporting planet.

Each lives days in which she might balance the tension of her own upcoming match with the tension of an ongoing match involving a treasured sister.

Remedies can include old “Law & Order” episodes.

As Serena Williams woke and got going, Venus Williams began warming up to play an 11 a.m. match with the onrushing No. 4-ranked Jelena Jankovic. While Venus lost that match by 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, Serena mulled her own third-round date with 18-year-old Michaella Krajicek, still hours off.

She also avoided even a peek at Venus’ match.

“You know, she obviously didn’t play her best,” said Serena, now the only American left in either singles draw. “I don’t know. I didn’t see the match. I don’t watch TV matches. I can’t. I’m too nervous.”

Her own impending match -- which she won, 6-3, 6-4 -- demanded relaxation, which rules out watching her sister’s match, which roils her.

So ...

“Well, lately I’ve gotten into -- I’ve watched a lot of TV on my computer,” Serena Williams said. “Like I ordered all the ‘Law & Orders’ and all kinds of things on my computer. I mean, I woke up and I was just watching that. I didn’t even think about it. I didn’t want to.

“Obviously it was in the back of my head, but I had to focus on me, because I get too emotionally involved.”

She missed the most anticipated match of the first week of the French Open -- her sister, a five-time Grand Slam champion, against Jankovic, the scalding winner of the recent Italian Open. She missed the beginning before a sparse crowd as Parisians hadn’t quite gotten up and going and caffeinated, and she missed both a slugfest of a second set and a deflation of a third.

She missed 26-year-old Venus summoning vestiges of the old days and then enduring a reminder that the path from a six-month injury layoff -- August 2006 to February 2007 -- tends to run long, with many a winding turn.

“I thought Venus played very bad,” said Richard Williams, the players’ father and co-coach.

“I actually would like for her to gain a couple of pounds,” said Zina Garrison, the 1990 Wimbledon finalist, Federation Cup captain and daily guest in the Williams section. “She’s really thin. Sometimes as an athlete you’re going for that fine balance. I just think strength-wise, you need” a bit more weight.

After taking a 1-0 lead in the third set, Venus Williams wearied. In losing the last six games, she lunged for shots -- often backhands -- that tended to sail. “I felt a little bit slow,” she said. “I just got a little tired, and I couldn’t get my feet where I wanted them.”

Perhaps deep in “Law & Order,” Serena Williams also missed the usual smile-fest from the personable Jankovic, who played like a wall and fed off her rowdy gaggle of friends, agents, coaches and her mother, some of whom made her laugh with some Serbian joke at 3-1 in the third set.

“We are the only ones who are so loud,” Jankovic said, referring to the group as “the clowns.”

From almost quitting the game after losing an inconceivable 10 straight matches in early 2006 -- Australia, Tokyo, Dubai, Qatar, Indian Wells, Miami, Amelia Island (Fla.), Charleston (S.C.), Warsaw and Berlin -- Jankovic has become a player who has beaten Venus Williams three consecutive times, counting Wimbledon 2006 and Charleston in April 2007.

Said Garrison, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen somebody move as easily as she does.”

Yet, Jankovic found Williams unusually mighty for being seeded No. 26.

“It was an amazing third-round match, especially [since] I have to play Venus in the third round,” she said. “And when you see the other third rounds that they have in the draw, it’s really amazing. It’s really a shame that Venus had to go out so early. But this is the game.”

“Am I discouraged?” Williams said. “No, not at all. I feel like I’m playing well, actually.”

She’ll practice on hard courts for the grass courts of Wimbledon, her next event, a tournament she won after being seeded No. 14 out of French dust in 2005.

As Serena Williams put it, “You know, you just get on a really slick, old, ghetto court that’s real fast, and you’ll be fine” at Wimbledon.

She said that Friday evening, having walked the usual emotional tightrope through the day. Five-hours-and-change after her sister finished, she’d gone out in the chill and the clouds and the crowd doing the wave and banished Krajicek, who as a child idolized Serena Williams.

Droplets, shy of drizzle, fell throughout the match. Williams once wound up to serve, only to find Krajicek switching rackets. It didn’t look like too much fun.

“I didn’t think I played well at all, actually,” Serena said. “I thought I could have done a lot better. But, you know, I’m trying not to peak too soon. But at some point I’m going to start playing better.”

With the usual, unusual worrying done for Friday, she can worry about that on Sunday.

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French Open

Highlights from Day 6:

* Bryan twin power: Twins Bob and Mike Bryan of Camarillo are looking for their second French Open title. The Bryans won their first-round match Friday, beating Kristian Pless of Denmark and American Vince Spadea, 6-2, 6-1. American men went 0-9 in the first round of singles.

“You’ve got to really want it, and you’ve got to adapt a little bit,” Mike Bryan said. “These guys are usually thinking so far ahead to the U.S. Open and Wimbledon that they’re not willing to kind of change their game.”

Added Bob: “Different emphasis. Americans are waiting for the clay-court season to end -- and the others are looking forward to it.”

* Today’s top matches: Alla Kudryavtseva, Russia, vs. Maria Sharapova (2), Russia; Albert Montanes, Spain, vs. Rafael Nadal (2), Spain; Novak Djokovic (6), Serbia, vs. Olivier Patience, France; Shahar Peer (15), Israel, vs. Katarina Srebotnik (17), Slovenia; Lleyton Hewitt (14), Australia, vs. Jarkko Nieminen (20), Finland.