Venus In Boston: Tired But Always Gracious, Brings Winning Smile

Smashing return: Williams flashes winning smile
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(Jim Davis / Globe Staff) Philadelphia Freedom tennis player Venus Williams in action during a match vs. the Boston Lobsters in World Team Tennis play.
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Globe Correspondent / July 11, 2008
MIDDLETON - Venus Williams yawned as she entered a hotel ballroom here yesterday, where she would have an eight-minute press conference before being whisked away for countless meet-and-greets.
Her schedule warranted the yawn, but she still defended it.
"I was actually a happy tired," said Williams in designer jeans with a white hat pulled low. She spoke softly and in short sentences. She certainly seemed tired, almost at that stage of exhaustion in which everything becomes humorous. It seemed that way because even with her Wimbledon titles almost a week ago, one could glance at her relentless schedule and wonder how she has enough energy to smile, which she did gracefully.
Williams flew to Boston yesterday to play in the World TeamTennis matchup between the Boston Lobsters and the Philadelphia Freedoms, the WTT team Williams plays for, at the Ferncroft Country Club.
Williams played three of the five events - women's singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles - and led the Freedoms to wins in the first two (5-4, 5-2). The Lobsters won the next three events, but the score was tied at 21 at the end of the fifth event, men's doubles, so the match went to a tiebreaker - first team to 7 points wins.
The Lobsters' Jan-Michael Gambill and Amir Hadid led, 5-1, but the Freedoms' Alex Bogomolov Jr. and Travis Parrott came back to tie the score, 6-6.
Gambill returned Parrott's serve into the net on match point, giving the Freedoms the victory, 22-21. The Lobsters fell to 2-3 in front of a sellout 1,556.
"That was crazy," Williams said. "I mean, wow, at 2-6 we were subdued and then we kept getting point after point. That's what World TeamTennis is all about - the competition.
"I'm happy [the Freedoms] got three wins while I was here so now I can go home a happy woman," she said.
Though she said she was "fine," Williams seemed to show the effects of her demanding schedule since winning Wimbledon.
On Saturday, she won the singles and doubles titles at Wimbledon, the latter with her sister, Serena; attended the Champions Ball at a posh hotel Sunday in London, a celebration of her fifth Wimbledon crown; flew back to the US Monday; played against Delaware in Wilmington Tuesday; played Delaware in Philadelphia Wednesday; left her hotel yesterday at 6:45 a.m. to catch an 8:30 flight to Logan International Airport, which arrived in Boston at 10:30.
There may have been a second or two to breathe somewhere in there. Maybe.
After yesterday's 4 p.m. press conference, Williams toured through tents full of sponsors and VIPs who wanted photos and autographs. She then met with children from Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and took many more photos and signed many more autographs.
At 6:54, she walked onto the court. Four minutes later, she was introduced with credentials that, like her 129-mile-per-hour serve, overpowered her opponents.
Before she started playing, Lobsters first-year coach Tim Mayotte said: "We're hoping she's going to be a little tired and jet-lagged, a little. She's been doing the talk show circuit, and that's tiring."
She didn't have to play for the Freedoms immediately following Wimbledon this year, but as she did last year after winning the Wimbledon singles title, Williams did anyway.
"I knew that I was going to be here and hopefully that would be the result that I had a long and wonderful Wimbledon, which was great, and that I would be coming here off the heels of it," Williams said. "That's perfect for me and I'm going to do it every year. If I can win two Wimbledons a year and then come play WTT, I'll do it."
After the match, she sat at a table as the autograph line stretched outside the court and she yawned once again as a man asked her to pose for a photo.
She'll fly back home to South Florida at 7 today and she sighed when asked what she'd do when she got there.
"Just rest. I have no plans. I'm just going to rest," she said, laughing. She's earned it.http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/File-Based_Image_Resource/dingbat_story_end_icon.gif
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.


Source: http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/tennis/articles/2008/07/11/smashing_return_williams_flashes_winning_smile/

rest up Venus.
Weird to say this but I think Serena and Venus have piled too much on their schedule w/ WTT after Wimbledon. Serena plays BOW next week too. Venus needs to take a nice break so she's not tired for the hard court swing. I would love to see her win the USO again.

they definitely SHOULN'T have played WTT this week

Serena will be dead tired for Stanford and she has LA too!

rest up Venus.
Weird to say this but I think Serena and Venus have piled too much on their schedule w/ WTT after Wimbledon. Serena plays BOW next week too. Venus needs to take a nice break so she's not tired for the hard court swing. I would love to see her win the USO again.
Agreed.
Venus will be well served to skip this particular WTT tournament. She can participate in later events

Take a break VEE/REE

Venus will be fine. She has a weeks rest. Anyway, remember last year? Wimbledon - WTT - Fed Cup - San Diego? Now that was a hectic schedule.

It seems like every year, we have this discussion on the heel of Wimbledon.
Venus needs to get smarter about her schedule.

Venus will be fine. She has a weeks rest. Anyway, remember last year? Wimbledon - WTT - Fed Cup - San Diego? Now that was a hectic schedule.

How about earlier this year Doha-Memphis-Bangalore in 3 weeks! :eek:


It's so admirable of Venus and Serena to play WTT after having such a busy Wimbledon with reaching singles+doubles finals. It shows how much they care. Venus probably hasen't had time to even soak her Wimbledon title in.

btw is Serena the only one playing Stanford?

Serena is usually smarter with her schedule, concentrating on big events

But Venus' schedule has benn a mess for the last 2 years
Playing tier 3 and 4 in Asia last fall
The Doha/Memphis/Bangalore trip in 3 weeks
Playing WTT a few days after Wimbledon
...

I was there! She did seem tired, but she was having a lot of fun out there. After her matches she was icing her leg. She talked to a few of the 12 year old girls who were sitting near me and they were completely unable to contain their excitement. I was really jealous. There was a huge autograph line, but only people who were younger than 16 could get an autograph. That saddened me. It was the first time I've ever seen her in real life--what a treat!

Venus is truly an American treasure. I love how she supports the American tennis ventures.

Venus is such a great role model for tennis (and for life in general). Rest up and come back prepared to play your best for the rest of the year!

whaaa? It looks in that pic above as if Vee has the short hair back again:o Don't say it is so or else Vee can look forward to a summer of crazy losses :(

whaaa? It looks in that pic above as if Vee has the short hair back again:o Don't say it is so or else Vee can look forward to a summer of crazy losses :(

From watching her WTT matches, it looks like she took the bulk of the weave out :lol:
http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/5423/veewttgr8.jpg

Rest up Venus. The summer hard courts and duplicating your 2000 year glory awaits you! :worship:

I wish BJK would move WTT to a different time of year for the sake of Venus.

I wish BJK would move WTT to a different time of year for the sake of Venus.
... Or Venus should skip this event.
I am sure BJK will understand.

But again, Venus has so much respect for BJK that she will not break her commitment to her.
Some time to her own detriment.

Hope she gets her well deserved rest :hug:

Venus has a whole week off now. Then LA on Wednesday, then Montreal, week off, Olympics.

Serena has off until Thursday. Then Stanford and LA, then 2 whole weeks off before Olympics.

The girls have spread their schedule out. If they have their physical trainers with them, they should be more than okay. I'm not worried.

Besides, you don't get to # 1 by resting on the sidelines. Serena knows she can grab it. At this rate, it'll likely be on the line in the USO Title match. What an image. Serena hoisting the USO Trophy and the #1 ranking along with it. :drool:

If you want to popularize the game, and increase the fan base, the stars have to go out and do meet-and-greets, and autographs sessions, and talk shows. Especially when they win.

If you want to popularize the game, and increase the fan base, the stars have to go out and do meet-and-greets, and autographs sessions, and talk shows. Especially when they win.

There is nothing wrong with that.
All we are saying, Venus needs to be smart about this.

I still remember in 2005. Following he win, she went on to Moscow to play 3 matches in the Fed Cup. And again keeping her commitment to Zina Garrison has to a lot to do with it.
When she was not playing, she was also doing several radio interviews with US press

She came back and made several appearances in NYC and played WTT at night.
She got burned out that summer and was exhausted in her match against Clijsters

I think Venus will be OK this summer, because there was no Fed Cup in addition to the WTT matches.

I'm bummed I missed her in the Boston area the other night, but I know some peeps that went and they were thrilled to see her in person. Of course one of my female friends also went to get a look at Jan-Michael Gambill, but she's a Venus fan too. :lol:

She has the week off so she will have time to rest.

I hope Serena isn't worn out!

She just needs to go home and chill in her pool for a few days and don't even pick up a raquet.