Look out if Venus puts her mind on game

Venus Williams loves reading, fashion design, her family and winning Wimbledon. She does not love tennis.

Workouts bore her, and she admits to slacking off the second half of 2000. The more she won, the less she practiced.

But Williams said the next few months will be different, now that she has won Wimbledon for the second consecutive year.

"I'm going to practice more," she pledged. "I think I can capitalize better, just really work on more things in my game – moving forward, taking the ball early, just some new strategy that I can add. I didn't really do that last year."

The prospect of Williams devoting herself to tennis is tantalizing for her many fans and frightening for the rest of the women's game.

Last year, Wimbledon marked the start of a 35–match winning streak for Williams that included the U.S. Open and the Olympics. It was a remarkable run, especially given her carefree attitude toward the sport.

"I had about eight wonderful days of practice before Wimbledon that lasted me the whole year," she sheepishly admitted. "At the Olympics, I didn't hit hardly at all. I'd get out there, I'd be practicing, I'd just be fooling around. Really, if you start fooling around, your game gets worse."

So she discovered. Against Martina Hingis at the Australian Open in January, Williams endured the most lopsided loss of her career, a 6–1, 6–1 defeat in the quarterfinals. Then Williams lost in the first round at the French Open.

But at Wimbledon she regained her form of late last year, advancing easily through the early rounds, then beating Lindsay Davenport in the semifinal and Justine Henin in the final. She extended her winning streak at the All England Club to 14 matches.

"I love Wimbledon," she said. "It's great not to have to lose here."

Williams played better as the tournament progressed, smacking serves harder than Andre Agassi and blanketing the net with her imposing 6–foot–1 frame. But she was also erratic, sometimes losing the groove on her serve, hitting wild groundstrokes and moving with the awkward footwork of a young colt.

At 21, she remains an unpolished diamond, partly because of her ambivalence toward her career. When asked if tennis is a passion for her or just something she does well, she smiled and paused before answering.

"Tennis is something I'm really good at," Williams said.

She has won three of the past five major events but remains ranked No. 2 behind Martina Hingis, who lost in the first round at Wimbledon and won her most recent Grand Slam title 2 1/2 years ago. Hingis gets the edge in the rankings because Williams plays less often and less consistently.

Williams offered an amusing response when asked if the top ranking is among her foremost priorities.

"Grand Slams definitely are No. 1. Then No. 2, for sure, is No. 1." She laughed at the unintentional word play. "Oh boy, that sounds like a Dr. Seuss book."

Regardless of rankings, Williams and No. 3 Jennifer Capriati are now the dominant players in the women's game. Capriati was upset in the Wimbledon semifinals by Henin, ending her bid to sweep this year's four Grand Slam events.

On the men's side, there's a void at the top with the decline of Pete Sampras. Goran Ivanisevic beat Pat Rafter in a thrilling five–set final Monday, and eight men have reached the finals of the past four major tournaments.

Sampras, who hasn't won a tournament in a year, made his earliest Wimbledon exit since 1991 by losing to Roger Federer in the fourth round.

"There's no way to tell how he's going to react to this," said his friend and former rival, four–time Grand Slam champion Jim Courier. "He can still win. There's nobody out there dominating. It's totally up to him. It's a question of whether he's got the desire."

Sampras will try to bounce back when the hardcourt season begins late this month. He plans to play Los Angeles and at least two other events leading up to the U.S. Open starting in late August, shortly after he turns 30.

Sampras married last September, plays fewer tournaments these days and no longer chases the No. 1 ranking he held at the end of six consecutive years. But he's eager to add to his record 13 Grand Slam titles and said he wants to play several more years.

"He admits he hasn't had the same commitment he once had," Courier said. "He's trying to figure out how to play enough to still play great but not burn himself out."

Nine years younger than Sampras, Williams confronts a similar question: Is she willing to practice enough to play great?