26/03/2012 11:53 CEST - Rassegna internazionale

Venus, il sogno olimpico mette le ali (Miami Herald)

Venus Williams has one obsession that is driving everything she’s doing and every decision she’s making these days. Williams, 31, has Olympic fever and is desperate to play her fourth consecutive Olympic Games in London this summer.

Her fixation on the Olympics is heightened by recent health issues. At the U.S. Open last August — the last singles tournament she played before the Sony Ericsson Open — Williams revealed the reason she has been struggling on court. She is suffering from the energy-zapping autoimmune disease Sjogren’s Syndrome.

Williams’ Olympic quest was certainly the motivational push she employed to survive a two-hour 53-minute third-round marathon over fellow wild card recipient Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) on Sunday afternoon.

Williams, whose ranking fell to 134, looked lethargic during the opening set. Could it be that her two previous matches — a 6-0, 6-3 win over Kimiko Date-Krumm and a 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 upset over reigning Wimbledon champion and third-seeded Petra Kvitova — was all she had to give?

The last time Williams had won consecutive matches was at Wimbledon last summer, where she reached the fourth round.

That’s when Williams — the 2000 singles and doubles gold medalist and 2008 doubles gold medalist — remembered the Olympics. It was the momentum that helped her claw through the second set.

In the third set Williams faced a match point for Wozniack, but got lucky when the Canadian, serving 5-4, 40-30, netted a forehand. Williams later claimed she didn’t even know Wozniack had a match point opportunity in that 10th game where she broke serve. Williams finally found the victory line on her second match point in the tiebreaker, closing out the match with a surprising service winner.

After the match, Williams told the crowd “I needed that match.” What was behind that need? The Olympics, of course,

“I just kept coming back,” Williams said. “I tried not to let anything discourage me today. I kept thinking about how I really need this match and I need these points. I keep thinking about the Olympics, and I need my points.”

Her Olympic fixation is palpable, and it’s not solely about collecting medals.

“It’s just the ultimate level in sports,” Williams said. “It’s about participating. It’s about having that experience. It’s about having the honor to be good enough to be there. It’s just, you know, the pinnacle of sports.”

Williams has work in front of her if she’s going to qualify for the Olympics. The top 56 ranked players receive direct entries into the 64-player singles draw, and there are eight spots left open that are basically given out as wild cards.

By reaching the fourth round here Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, will move up to around the top 100 in the next rankings.

Top-seeded Victoria Azarenka, who is also planning to play at the Olympics, beat wild-card recipient Heather Watson 6-0, 6-2 in Sunday’s night match.

Azarenka will next face Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, who defeated Jie Zheng of China 6-2, 6-0, in the fourth round.

Williams’ fourth-round opponent, 15th seed Ana Ivanovic, is also focused on playing at her first Olympics, which will take place at the All England Club that also hosts Wimbledon. Ivanovic was part of the Serbian Olympic team that went to Beijing, but she had to withdraw with a thumb injury.

“I’m very thrilled to have an opportunity to play in London,” Ivanovic said. “It’s exciting I think for every athlete. Even though I didn’t play in Beijing, still, to be part of it was very, very thrilling. I think everyone wants to peak, [be] their best. I hope I can get a medal, any kind of medal.”

Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open champion, scored a 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) third-round win over Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia to confirm a date with Williams, who has beaten her seven of the eight times they have played.

“I definitely saw a little bit of [Venus]in today’s match, but once you step on the court and you can feel the ball and the speed of the ball, it’s a little bit different story,” Ivanovic said. “It’s going to be very difficult to focus on what I have been doing and try to apply things I have been working on.”