Gee Whiz! Jie Zheng !

Nothing I've seen this week gave me quite the same feeling of exhilaration as watching Zheng Jie scare Serena Williams in the second set of their Wimbledon semifinal match, eventually won by Ms. Williams 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).

After having been more or less smoked in the first set, Zheng ran Serena around for the first six games of the second, eventually going up 4-2, only to have Serena come back in the seventh game to break back, all of which eventually did manage to break Zheng's back But not before the fiery little Zheng had Serena on the ropes, driving her left, driving her right, testing her forehand and backhand and speed.

Much to Serena's credit, she showed she had all those things, especially the speed. And the serve, always the serve with these Williams sisters. They seem to have no equal on grass, not when they're in shape, which they obviously both are at this juncture.

But Zheng goes about 5'4". A faster and more powerful woman at that height I'm sure I may never see again. Not on tennis courts at any rate. What a shotmaker ! In that great second set, Zheng had to turn it up, had to take some risks, and she came up aces. No, not literally "aces". Alas, she was short on those. Otherwise, we may have been watching a Venus-Zheng final tomorrow. Surely, Serena didn't want a third set.

Not that there's anything wrong with an all-Williams final. Venus is no slouch on grass herself and possesses an even more formidable serve than her sister. She's fast, changes directions well, and with those long arms of hers, it's almost impossible to pass her on anything, even the finest volley. You don't see many forehand or backhand winners down the line against Venus.

Serena holda a 3-1 edge in matches against Venus. And their father once maintained that Serena would eventually go further in the game. He knows their games better than anyone. But I think he was considering the single-mindedness of Serena rather than their actual games. And on surfaces in general, not on the turf.

I’d like to say it’ll be a matchup of power vs. finesse, but that’s not entirely true. Neither sister has a huge edge on the other in either quality. It’ll come down tomorrow to which sister wants it more. Doesn’t it always between the great ones? In any sport you can think of?

There’s no question, though, that Venus had the easier semifinal. Venus played Elena Dementieva, the queen of the Russian female contingent, which is prodigious. But Elena has trouble with her serve at all times, and it was no different against Venus. Williams the elder smoked Elena in the first set, and, although Elena staged a nice comeback of her own in that second set, you never really considered the possibility of an upset.

So Venus will come into tomorrow’s match feeling fresher and less beat up, but will those advantages outweigh Serena’s feeling of confidence she gained playing that little Chinese whirlwind? Who knows, maybe still one more pressure-packed situation will break her.

That is, unless Serena wants it so much that she’ll go through anything to hold still another Wimbledon title. Surely at this point in their careers, both sisters have given some thought to their rightful place in tennis history. And their prowess in that crown jewel of them all.

Venus will battle for her 4^th Wimbledon title while Serena will battle for her 3^rd. Venus is two years older, of course, but at 28 years of age, Venus still could win a few more. I think Venus’s game is more suited to that hallowed place than is Serena’s, and I think Venus will want it more, or at least just as much.

Whatever the outcome, a very deserving tennis player will have won it. Hopefully the weather will allow for an uninterrupted match, although, come to think of it, Serena will take an edge after any stoppage in play. There is no finer actress than Serena. And nobody who has more of a knack for turning chance into opportunity.

But I thank the fates for Zheng, who introduced a measure of heart and pathos into this 2008 Wimbledon. Zheng shocked the world, not to mention the All-England Lawn Tennis Club, by, first, getting into the tournament as a wildcard, and before too long vanquishing Ana Ivanovic, the newly proclaimed tennis number one.

She then ripped into Agnes Szavay, the 15th-ranked woman, and beat her in straight sets, making it 8 straight sets of undefeated tennis for her. Then it was Nicole Vaidisova's turn. Nicole finally gave Zheng a bit of a problem, but still lost in three sets6-2, 5-7, 6-1. After the ignominy of losing that second set, Zheng really turned it on, dark hair flying hither and yon, sneakers scorching the Wimbledon earth, and the willowy Czech didn’t have a prayer.

Pardon me if I had been getting bored of the women’s game, even if Ivanovic in the number one spot was something of a lark. For too long, it had been the same chorus of Russians and Czechs, every once in a while throwing in a Frenchwoman or even an Italian here and there. And all with seemingly the same game, power and shot-making from the baseline, all big, all power, back and forth, all match long.

The men’s game is even worse, Federer and Nadal, Federer and Nadal ad infinitum. And again in the 2008 Men’s Wimbledon final. Ho-hum.

So, take some time out to watch this women’s final. It’ll truly be matching the finest women’s grass players in the entire world. That they’re sisters makes it that much more intriguing. That Serena has the edge in grand slam finals vs. her sister adds a smidge, that Venus has the edge at Wimbledon a little more.

But only one of them had to beat that Chinese fireball. My guess is that it will have taken its toll.

Great Equalizers...Clay...Distance et al.

All week I have been amazed by the French Open tennis action, and what a difference the surface has made in the outcome of matches and tournaments. Thank God for clay, I thought. There’s always a good chance of seeing a Final you could never dream of when they’re sliding around on that red stuff. It surely beats the hard courts for long rallies.

And, sure enough, there was the lovely Maria Sharapova, while not actually looking too much like a “cow on ice” (as she had once referred to herself), losing to her compatriot Dinara Safina. The really big servers, the Williams sisters for example, had already been beaten. So the Roland Garros faithful had the pleasure of watching two rather unlikely semifinals, a Russian duel between Safina and. Kuznetsova and an all-Serb matchup of the elegant Ivanovic versus the quick-as-a-snake Jelena Jankovic.

And what a semifinal was the latter. Ivanovic proved that she’s not justt a pretty face, sliding back and forth with ease and grace while slamming winners left and right to come back in the third set to prevail. Safina beat Kuznetsova a bit more easily to advance, all of which sets up a tantalizing women’s final, one unimaginable on grass or blacktop.

As much as I await the men’s results, and the fate of the Frenchman Monfils, who has the misfortune of drawing Roger Federer later today, I look forward even more to the Belmont on Saturday afternoon, and wonder about the outcome of what has set up as a classic duel between Big Brown, winner of the first two Crown jewels rather handily and the bred-for-distance Casino Drive, half-brother (through the dam amazingly enough) to the last two Belmont winners.

The great equalizer will be the distance, of course, in that affair, not that there aren’t other variables to consider; Big Brown’s cracked hoof, for example, or getting stuck on the rail. But, even these two seemingly-unrelated questions are amplified by the 1 ½ mile distance. That is to say, one factor is aggravated by the other.

A cracked hoof, although it’s been pooh-poohed by Brown’s loquacious trainer Rick Dutrow, maybe wouldn’t figure too heavily over a mile and a quarter but what will it do over those last two furlongs, especially considering the injury did necessarily affect Big Brown’s training.

And, in a shorter race, Kent Desormeaux would figure to just sprint to the lead, thus staying out of trouble while saving ground. But will Big Brown be able to overcome the energy-sapping effort it’ll take to take the lead in a potential stretch duel after 11 furlongs? After all, there is a rabbit in the race and Casino Drive has the pedigree to get the distance.

The race is setting up for a late drive, either by Casino Drive or even one of the others, for, after all, this is first and foremost a horse race, and horse races tend to propagate unusual finishes. Otherwise, there’d be happy railbirds everywhere, and that’s a prospect I can’t even imagine.

Then, there are the NBA Finals, and the home-court equalizer. The advantages of playing at home in the NBA can scarcely be over-estimated. Without going into boring statistics, the numbers favoring the team on its home court are staggering. While some of the advantage is due to a familiarity with the court, and some due to the noise of the home crowd, it’s those whistle-blowers who have the greatest affect on the outcome.

Very unfortunately, I might add. Even the most die-hard NBA fans have this year cringed at some of the calls, none more noteworthy than the no-call in Game 5 of the Lakers-Spurs game that handed the victory to the Lakers.

Given the questionable nature of the trades that made this Celtics-Lakers death match possible, the ridiculous Pau Gasol trade from Memphis to the Lakers, of course, but also the timely Boston acquisitions of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, one has to wonder whether this entire season was story-boarded back in the New York offices of NBA Commissioner David Stern.

Happily, although the Celtics have jumped out ahead in Game One at home, the whistles did not largely figure in the outcome. It was more the defense of the Celtics and the ineffectiveness of Kobe, no doubt forced by the Celtics Defense.

In any event, though, it’s a no-brainer to figure that, once this Series finds its way back to La-La Land, the odds will swing to the Lakers, no matter what should happen in Game Two in Boston. Jack Nicholson, a host of other stars and starlets, the Laker-Girls, all that gold and purple figure to sway the result, if not the officials.

A discussion of equalizers would not be complete without mentioning injuries in football. I still savor with fondness the Giants playoffs-run this past year, but it was all the more remarkable considering the injuries the G-Men withstood throughout that run.

It wasn’t just Jeremy Shockey. There were what could have been devastating injuries to the secondary, against opponents who certainly should have been able to take advantage, Giants-killer Freddy Garcia, the irrepressible Tony Romo to Terrell Owens combination, and Hall of Famer Bret Favre.

Last but not least, if certainly the sweetest, there is the lingering image of Tom Brady, with Giants seemingly draped around, under and through him, trying desperately to find Randy Moss. In retrospect, it was a lack of injuries along the defensive line that spelled defeat for the Patriots.

In baseball, of course, there is a slight advantage to playing at home, but it never really seems to be a significant determinant of a game’s outcome. The great equalizer in baseball is pitching. Or the lack thereof, as the case may be.

I was reminded of this last night as I watched the Mets lose a close one to the Padres, on bases on balls followed by a hit batsman, served up by the usually reliable Scott Schoenweiss. But it could have been worse. It could have been Heilman.

The Big Lull

It's that time of year again, that interminable pause between the Division Championship Games and the Super Bowl. That week where we learn who plays dirty, who would've been better if certain players hadn't been present all year, who played on previous Super Bowl winners and losers. We get the initial point spread, of course, and everything but real live injury reports. So I turn off to football for several days each year at this time, and concentrate on better things, which translates to anything that moves. I usually start paying a bit of attention to college basketball, tune in to the tennis action and see what's happening with the Knicks and the Nets. Of course, there's hockey but I never really have warmed up (or cooled off) to ice hockey. Football will be fun again by Wednesday maybe.

At the Australian Open, Maria Sharapova was dazzling, both in power and athleticism. She ripped through every opponent out there, which meant Justine Henin and Jelena Jancovic as things heated up. She was devastating, her opponents seemingly had no chance. Then she was matched up against another 20-year old who had only been wow-ing most of a continent for a couple of weeks, the beautiful Ana Ivanovic from Serbia. Ironic that a final in a professional sport could come down to two individuals who could have ended up on Broadway.

Although Ana put up the good fight, there was no touching Maria, she was just too strong and too fast and too tall and too mean. And when she was done, she proved that she could be almost be too gracious. As she received her Championship award, she waxed poetic upon her text message from Billie Jean King and her love for the Serbian fans, was philosophical about her transformation from 2007 to 2008. And, of course, she was beautiful all the way.

She’s now won Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian. That leaves only the French Open. She may never get that one, as it’s anything but her natural surface, but, with this vibrant and imaginative personality, I wouldn’t bet against her. She just seems to try harder than anyone else. Despite all the money and fame, she has remained the Maria of old for as long as she’s been in the spotlight. And that’s pretty darned good.

As good as The Australian Open was, there were also some interesting things happening with Seton Hall, the Nets and the Knicks. Seton Hall has been proving it belongs in the Big East. The Nets are proving that you can sign a guy for less, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be the winner in the negotiation. See Vince Carter. The Knicks are showing that they can play creditable basketball, but whether the results are despite of or because of its management , it is really hard to tell.

The Knicks seem to finally be getting it. Maybe it took the fall of Stephon Marbury to finally make it happen. It’s truly been a phenomenon observable in New York, the disappearance of a star and the concurrent emergence of a team. It’s certainly been true with Marbury and may also be true for Jeremy Shockey and Tiki Barber and the Giants. The G-Men have never been better. Manning has never been more commanding. There have been some reports that Shockey may have been a distraction and may have detracted from Eli’s position as the leader of the huddle. Whether you believe it or not, I personally do NOT believe in coincidence. I’d trade Shockey next year. He’s become extraneous for the Giants. He’d no doubt benefit another team though. And maybe we’d get a third-rounder back.

The Nets have been just pathetic. They’ve lost eight straight, I think it is. Kidd wanted to play elsewhere but we signed him, Carter wanted more money but stayed, and Jefferson can’t save the day all by himself. So that’s what we have to look forward to. Good luck, Lawrence Frank. How do you spell “Prima Donna”?

And speaking of prima donnas, how about Daniela Hantuchova’s huffy exit from her semifinal loss to Ivanovic? We are to understand she was upset about the squeaking of Ana’s sneakers while Daniela was serving? I think it’s high time Daniela got out of the tennis game, to take her act elsewhere. There’re just too many sane tennis players around, Daniela. Take that bony ass on the road!

Oh, and then there were the Williams sisters, the nice older one and the silly squat one. Once again, they were interesting in defeat but only one was even halfway gracious in defeat. With the Williams sisters, it’s always about them. What it was that they did to lose rather than what their opponent did to win. God, it gets old. Retirement beckons, sisters!

If I could just get by this weekend, I’ll be fine. There should be enough basketball to keep me going until then. I can’t possibly listen to any more drivel from the football players, never mind the coaches. Bellichick and Coughlin, what a personality-fest this is gonna be…

I’ll tell you one thing though. I can almost feel the tide beginning to turn. The New York teams are ascending, the New England teams seemingly on the decline. The Giants lost to Dallas, then beat them in the second game. They lost to Green Bay, but beat them in the rubber match.

And, let’s see, yes, the Pats beat them, but not by much and not that convincingly. And now they’ll be meeting again. It’ll be mostly older guys against mostly newer guys. And a hobbling (or lying) quarterback against a newly-confident gunslinger. Yeah, I think I could wait another few days….