Venus keeps at it; tennis is her life

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The other day the man on the Tennis Channel was talking about Venus Williams as if she were part of a traveling exhibition as opposed to the champion she’s become. You never know, he said in what seemed as much a warning as a promotion before a match about to begin in the Western and Southern tournament in Cincinnati; how much longer we’ll be able to watch Venus.

A legitimate approach one guesses, at this stage of Williams’ remarkably long and until the last couple of years, eminently successful career. As you’re well aware, tennis is an individual sport. There’s no coach or manager — or franchise owner — to put you on waivers.

You play as long as you’re able, as long as your body and your ego permit, which for Venus apparently is forever.

As long as tournaments want you in the field, and since on Wednesday Williams received a wild card for the U.S. Open in New York in a week and a half, they still do.

Yet about the same time the announcement of Williams’ gaining a place in the Open, she was losing a second-round match to Zheng Qinwen of China, 1-6, 6-2, 6-1. Losing is a generous description. She was crushed, Zheng took 11 straight games and 12 of the last 13. Venus is 43, and if she can accept defeat after years of success, maybe the rest of us should. Still, it hurts to watch the great ones in any sport get embarrassed. Venus has been at the top, and if she can handle the struggles perhaps, we ought to just grit our teeth.

There’s an emotional connection to Venus in Northern California where as a 14-year-old in October 1994 at what then was called Oakland Coliseum Arena, she had played and won her first pro match.

Younger sister Serena, who is retired, would surpass Venus and be more outspoken, but Venus had her viewpoints and her triumphs. One was in the 2005 Wimbledon final over Lindsay Davenport in three sets after saving a match point.

In what surely is ironic, Davenport was commenting for the Tennis channel on Venus Williams’ unfortunate one-sided defeat on Wednesday.

Williams kept making unforced errors against Zheng, who is 24th in the WTA rankings. Venus, not surprisingly, is far down, a victory last week for the first time in months. 

We do what we choose. Tennis is Venus’ life and has been. Not a bad one, either. Although these days it could be much, much better.