Venus Williams came perilously close yesterday to adding her name to the long list of seeds who have fallen out of the Australian Open. Her 3-6 6-0 6-4 third-round win over the Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova (18), was less a statement of intent than a re-enactment of The Great Escape.
Williams has been hampered by tendinitis in her left knee and, though she seems to think it is getting better, the combination of hobbling and sprinting she had to do against Hantuchova did little to allay fears her days here are numbered.
She began the match moving at about a quarter of her usual speed, clearly unable or unwilling to bend the suspect knee and limping from one ball to the next. Hantuchova may lack Williams' experience but she is a rising talent and a quick learner.
For the first set she strung Williams along, moving her this way and that, and for a while that looked more than enough for Williams to cope with. Then the suspect knee staged a miraculous recovery in the second and third sets. Suddenly drop shots were chased down, groundstrokes were pummelled and Hantuchova was beaten into submission from the baseline.
The third set was nonetheless a struggle, with Williams dropping her serve twice, and even she had to concede it was a close shave. "I kept telling myself that I'm just sitting there and not doing anything about the situation; chances are I'll be on the flight home, too."
She now has a day off to recover and try to keep the swelling down before her next match against the experienced Bulgarian Magdalena Maleeva.
Monica Seles and Martina Hingis both cruised through to the fourth round comfortably enough. Seles stuttered slightly in beating Italy's Francesca Schiavone 6-4 6-4 but Hingis wasted little time in dispatching the German Barbara Rittner 6-1 6-0.
Hingis, with Serena Williams removed from her path before the tournament began and Venus looking less than convincing, will fancy her chances of taking her first grand slam title since winning here in 1999.
Meanwhile, Lleyton Hewitt announced he would not be fit for Australia's Davis Cup tie against Argentina next month. He is still suffering from chickenpox.
