Venus, Davenport out of Carson event

These things always look so good on the drawing board.

There was the vision of a possible rematch, in Carson, between sisters Venus and Serena Williams, mere weeks after their showdown in the Wimbledon final, and a few forehands away from where they grew up, in Compton.

Reality has a way of intruding, especially in the tennis world.

An exodus of top players from the tournament fields during the summer hard-court season is almost expected now, and Friday was no different as the East West Bank Classic lost top drawing cards Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport.

Both are suffering from right knee ailments.

Right knee, wrong outcome.

The event starts Monday at the Home Depot Center in Carson. Venus, the recently crowned Wimbledon champion, has not played this tournament since 2004.

Davenport and Venus Williams represent half of the U.S. Olympic women’s tennis team, and their injuries raise questions about whether they will be fit enough to play in Beijing.

The educated guess is that Williams and Davenport are being cautious with their dodgy right knees, giving themselves the best chance to be ready to make the trip to Beijing. In fact, Davenport pulled out of the event at Stanford this week.

Davenport’s comeback to the sport after giving birth centered around the possibility of playing in the Olympics one more time; she is scheduled to play singles and doubles. For Venus, the Olympics represented one of the most moving moments in her career -- when she won the singles and doubles with Serena at the 2000 Sydney Games.

In China, Venus is scheduled to play singles and doubles with younger sister Serena, who is, as of now, still entered in the Carson event. Other top players entered include Jelena Jankovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova, French Open finalist Dinara Safina and Daniela Hantuchova.

Venus said in a statement that she still intended to play the tour stop in Montreal, which starts July 28, as well as the Olympics. But an appearance in Montreal would be an unusual development, considering she hasn’t played a summer event in Canada since 1997.

--

lisa.dillman@latimes.com