lead-up to the U.S. Open

The grunts got louder, which usually means Serena Williams' game is sharpening. Then the wild service tosses, which bedeviled her in the opening set, got under control. Now, all Williams had to do was find a way past Melinda Czink's big deliveries to land in the quarterfinals Thursday at the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford University.

She got there with some prodigious serving of her own and the kind of athleticism and great running that the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour needs right now.

If the WTA is to get itself back on the competitive track against men's tennis, it needs the Williams sisters playing serious, injury-free tennis. Keep fingers crossed. So far, so good.

The Wimbledon champion's 6-3, 7-6 (7) win over Czink in Palo Alto, Calif., showed that she is taking this year's lead-up to the U.S. Open with total sobriety.

Williams doesn't have to do anything more to authenticate her credentials as a contender for the greatest woman player ever. She has for years been capable of being the best player on the WTA Tour, when she wants to be, and right now there's no doubt about her motivation. I haven't seen it this high over a two-year period since the early 2000s.

If she wins the U.S. Open, she will be the first woman to snap up three Slams in the same year since, well, Serena Williams in 2002. Plus, she would become the first woman to win four out of the last five majors since Steffi Graf won six out of seven from 1994 to 1996.

We've pointed out before on Bob Larson Tennis News that it's unusual for Williams to play as many as three of the five U.S. Open lead-ups, but it could be a sign of a higher-than-ever emotional attachment to the game right now.

It's certainly possible she'll pull out of one of the two tournaments still on her plate before the Open, claiming injury or exhaustion, but I don't think so. She looked extremely hungry in this win Thursday, and had a serious fight on her hands from the No. 56 player in the world.

Czink is big, strong, has a high-velocity first serve and no wimp second. The serving in this match reminded one of those big blasting confrontations between Lindsay Davenport and either of the Williams sisters, and Czink twice served her way out of love-30 situations in the second set that would have left Williams serving for the match.

But she's a career No. 50 because she doesn't have the consistency to win back to back matches deep in major tournaments. She played one of her best matches Thursday, gaining eight break points in the opening set, though not converting any. There would be only one in the second set, however, as Williams, still dripping a little rust from a three-week layoff after Wimbledon, slowly put her game back together.

Serena had caught four service tosses in the opening set and a half and several other times had to reach out wide to serve balls that had been tossed well to her right. She probably should have caught those as well. Still, she made the mid-match adjustment and put that problem to rest. Physically, she looks great. Her movement, especially in the second set, was outstanding, and it was primarily responsible for bailing her out of a defensive position at 7-7 in the tiebreak, allowing her to win that point and serve out the match.

She had 10 aces, well over her per-match average of six, and 41 winners to 28 unforced errors. The match was not witnessed by anything close to a full house on the Stanford stadium court, which was a bit surprising with so many Silicon Valley workers picking up unemployment insurance and a warm Thursday that seemed perfect for tennis viewing.

Serena is into the quarters vs. Sam Stosur and U.S. tennis needs her to roar on, play all three of these lead-up tournaments, then arrive at the U.S. Open as the favorite and to go from de facto No. 1 in the world to No. 1 in the rankings.

Charles Bricker can be reached at bricker@tennisnews.com
 

Charles Bricker