Venus is back!

Venus Williams’ performance in defeating Maria Sharapova in straight sets today at Wimbledon was one of the greatest women’s performances I ‘ve ever seen.

Her athletism and power hitting was at times astounding. Her technique looked rock solid and in today’s match, Maria looked outclassed. The problem for Maria was that her game in many ways is very similar to Venus’ - though today it was most definitely not as good. They are both fearless and hit incredibly hard with great use of the court. Venus is without doubt the better athelete which showed today.

Venus’ groundstroke preparation was superb which allowed her to look comfortable for the majority of her shots - even at this pace. She loads very early for her ground strokes and as a result is rarely handcuffed by her opponent. She was striking the ball so soon after the bounce that at times Maria had hardly recovered from hitting her shot when Venus’ reply was on top of her.

I’m not suggesting that Venus will play like this again tomorrow or even next week - but if today’s performance is anything to go by, Venus is once again a major threat in the womens game.

Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams, Wimbledon 2007