oddkayla said:
Venus possesses an aura that without seeing it opponents are aware of it and are in awe. Plus opponents know they will not be seeing signs of weakness from her, which they can pounce on. She is not ruffled! Solid as a rock, whether she is winning or losing you will not be seeing the score written all over her face. She is just prepared for the battle and for war!
Which is what I love and respect about her! I was never one for flambouyance or unnecessary fist pumps!
an in-form Venus will always be a problem for Justine. what she needs is to get a win out of an out-of-form Venus to build her self-believe but the way things have panned out so far with the Henin v Serena matches and the 'quotes/non-quotes' by others i do not think Venus will let herself play henin off-form.
i don't know how this tragedy will affect Venus' game, this year whole has been unfortunate for Venus but it was really 2002 that Justine should have capitalised on as this was the Year Venus deliberately took a step back from tennis.
AI 2002 when asked why she bothered/how she was able to turn a set and 4-1 game around. her reply was to the tune that she wanted to make the score more respectable (one of the lessons she learnt from AO01 defeat to Hingis was that even if you are going to lose at least lose respectably).
Venus was prepared to lose that match but the manner in which she would have lost had she continued to play the way she was did not sit well with her hence her change in strategy. of course having clawed back a set, she remained focussed enough to win the match.
Justine really missed a big opportunity there, however, with Venus things are cyclical, Justine may have to wait a while for another such opportunity to present itself.