All the dirt on Venus, Serena

So very long ago, when the Lakers took a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals, Venus and Serena Williams played a French Open final the next day.

Both players won.

Serena won by 7-5, 6-3, after trailing, 5-3. Venus won by grabbing a camera, joining the photographers’ corps and snapping pictures of Serena with her trophy. Serena and Venus won with that unmistakable residue of good parenting plus their first assumption of the top two spots in the world rankings.

Venus was only 21 then, Serena 20, and it seemed everybody would win, win, win many more times in Paris, and it seemed unforeseeable that they wouldn’t, as they haven’t.

Well, the last four French finals have presented a Justine, a Svetlana, an Anastasia, a Kim and a Mary, but neither a Venus nor a Serena, as that Saturday in June 2002 remains the lone finals appearance for either in Paris.

Roland Garros has veered from the site of the tilt in their rivalry from older Venus to younger Serena, to a frustration chamber with torment echoing across years.

Bummers since then include jeers from the audience dredging tears from a Goliath (Serena, 2003), quarterfinals lost within 28 minutes of each other (that’s 2004), two absences (Serena, 2005, 2006), losses to precocities aged 18, 17 and 15 (Venus, 2003, 2005 and 2006), and an epic loss to an opponent who gained by cheating (Serena, 2003).

Semifinals since then: one (Serena, 2003). Losses to Bulgarian girls who once coveted your hair beads from TV and pleaded with their mother to buy them some: one (Venus, 2005).

That vintage 2002 intimidation: historical. Expectations: lowered. Seedings: No. 8 (Serena) and 26 (Venus).

Assignments: right off the bat today, barring anticipated deluge. Serena Williams will start against 91st-ranked Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova at 11 a.m. in Paris (2 a.m. PDT), and Venus Williams will play 118th-ranked Frenchwoman Alize Cornet in the fourth match on the main Court Philippe Chatrier.

At least for the former, who might play No. 1 Justine Henin in a freighted quarterfinal, lowered expectations can double as a clever tack.

Before the 2007 Australian Open, Serena began the year ranked 95th and played one prep hard-court tournament, where she lost in the quarterfinals to an Austrian (Sybille Bammer). Before the 2007 French Open, ranked ninth, she played one prep clay-court tournament and lost in the quarterfinals to a Swiss (Patty Schnyder) at the Italian Open.

She up and won that Australian Open with a ferocious rush, and her chances here might hinge on how much the grinding French clay wants to sneer at this kind of comment, about her work since that loss in Rome:

“Well, I trained. I just was training. I went to Germany and was just training there for a little while. That’s it. Working out. It was really boring. I couldn’t wait to get here ‘cause it was like no more of those long, awful training days that you hope to not have.”

It’s toil here, odd for the culture of the 35-hour work week.

“Well, right now, I think the French Open is my No. 1 priority,” Serena Williams said, “simply because I have only one trophy and she’s really lonely, so she really wants a friend. And the other ones have friends, so this is the only one that I have that doesn’t have a friend.”

If the French doesn’t cotton to playfulness, other players still rate Serena a threat.

“I think the biggest competitors are Justine, for sure, she’s a winner two years here, three out of four,” said No. 3-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova, a two-time finalist.

“And then Serena, definitely, also. She’s playing extremely well.... I see those two are the main ones.”

Asked about Serena Williams and a prospective quarterfinal, Henin said, “Well, I don’t know her at all,” adding at length that she’d never take a quarterfinal for granted.

A quarterfinal meeting would mark their first French confrontation since their semifinal of 2003, a landmark match in the women’s tennis decade. Henin won, 7-5, in the third set after trailing 4-2, broke Williams’ 33-match Grand Slam winning streak and delighted an audience that sought new blood and cheered even Williams’ service faults.

That was also the match of the raised hand, when Henin asked for time as Williams served, then, after Williams faulted, denied to the oblivious chair umpire that she had made the request.

That year marked the turn, Venus having lost already in the fourth round to 18-year-old Russian Vera Zvonareva with 75 unforced errors, much as her loss to 17-year-old Russian Nicole Vaidisova in a quarterfinal last year was cluttered with 70.

The operative quotation might have been her statement in 2004:

“I think both of us would have liked to have had better preparation for this event.”

For as injuries and other breaks mounted in their careers, the French has punished them the worst.

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SERENA WILLIAMS

Prize money: $17,475,070; singles record: 338-70.

Singles titles: 28. Highest ranking: No. 1 (July 8, 2002)

Grand Slam titles (8)

* Australian Open: 2003, 2005, 2007

* French Open: 2002; * Wimbledon: 2002, 2003

* U.S. Open: 1999, 2002

VENUS WILLIAMS

Prize money: $16,414,549; singles record: 444-105.

Singles titles: 34. Highest ranking: No. 1 (Feb. 25, 2002)

Grand Slam titles (5)

* Wimbledon: 2000, 2001, 2005

* U.S. Open: 2000, 2001

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source: sonyericssonwtatour.com