Venus hopes to rekindle fires that led her to glory
Matthew Cronin
After two years of dominating her sport during the summer months, Venus Williams concedes that her sister Serena came into the French Open and Wimbledon with more fire in her belly than she had.
"I was once in the position that she was and you fight as if you are wild," Venus told Reuters after beating Kim Clijsters for the $585,000 Back of the West Classic title on Sunday.
"I was still cruising on two great years and she was clawing her way through. She had much more fight. I was a little tired because it had been a couple of long seasons for me.
"There are a lot of factors that go into winning grand slams and I wasn't the best player in the last two. It's been a lot of everything for me."
However, Venus -- who lost her number one ranking to Serena at Wimbledon and stands nearly 1,000 points behind her younger sibling -- aims to change the current state of affairs.
Serena Williams (L) of the USA and her sister Venus Williams.
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During the Bank of the West Classic and for the remaining weeks leading up to the U.S. Open, the four-time grand slam winner is making technical changes to her game that she believes may give her the edge of Serena again.
Despite reaching both finals, her famed booming serve let her down in Paris and London and she wasn't returning or cracking her groundstrokes with her normal verve.
Serena ate up Venus's second serves on both occasions, putting her older sister on the defensive.
WEAK TECHNIQUE
"My techniques were weak and its obviously hurt me a lot, " Venus said.
"It's hard to change that when it happens. I tried really hard against Serena at Wimbledon.
"My serve was really great until the final and then I couldn't make it do what I wanted to.
"With my second serve, sometimes I'll go for it and sometimes I'll put more spin on it, but what I really need to do is be clearer in my mind what I want to do with it when I get out on court.
"It's hard to change your mind once your already in the match," she added.
Venus's technical problems have led to a loss of confidence against Serena, an unusual position for the two-time Wimbledon ad U.S. Open champion to be in.
"If you aren't doing everything right, it gives you much less confidence in all your shots, especially at the slams," Williams said.
"I wasn't able to do as much as I wanted to against Serena as I did against other players.
"Someone like Serena goes for every shot."
BIG FACTOR
While Venus concedes that regaining her confidence against Serena will be a big factor in determining who will win the U.S. Open should they meet, she said that a more ambitious style of play may be the key to her success.
"I have to start coming into net a little bit more," she said.
"I play a lot better when I come in. It makes it a lot easier on me."
Given that she has to defend titles in San Diego, New Haven and at Flushing Meadows and that Serena only has to defend her Canadian Open title and reach the final in New York, it is highly unlikely that Venus can regain her number one ranking until the autumn.
But Venus has plans to end the year as the world's number one ranked player.
"I hope it's me," Venus said. "I'm a competitor, too."
