Tym Glaser Final Word

ALL THE talk later today will probably be about Venus Williams as she should comfortably dispose of Marion Bartoli in the Wimbledon women's final and claim her fourth All-England title.

While Venus, at No. 23, is seeded just behind the Frenchwoman (18), she is a raging hot favourite to scoop the crown and lift the championship Plate on Centre Court.

After some early-round wobbles, she has hit peak form and with Bartoli dispensing with number one seed Justine Henin in yesterday's semis, her path to a cool 750,000 pounds looks clear.

Shows tremendous grit

However, while the accolades are set to tumble down on Venus, my ladies' champion is her younger sis, Serena.

She showed tremendous grit at SW19 despite suffering a severe calf strain in her fourth-round match against Daniela Hantuchova and then adding a wrist injury to her list of woes before taking on Henin in the quarters.

Against the Slovakian, Serena was basically saved by the ubiquitous rain and some remarkably lame play from her opponent when it was painfully obvious she was playing on one leg and had virtually no mobility.

Instead of capitalising on a gimpy foe and speeding the match into a decisive third set, which Serena could not have survived, Hantuchova allowed the American to hang around long enough to reach a second-set tiebreak and summon the rain.

'Gutsed' it out

Even though the Slovak won the tiebreak, the following day, Serena had recovered sufficiently and went on to win the match 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-2.

Then, against the wispy Belgian, with one good wrist and one good leg, Serena pushed the world's best player to three sets.

Several times in that match she could have chucked it all in and nobody would have thought the less of her for it but she just 'gutsed' it out.

Serena was to breaks down in the third but still didn't give up and even pulled back a break, but by that time the match was too far gone. In this rain-marred tournament, her bravery has shone out.

No better woman player around

Courage is not a word that readily pops up when you talk about the women's game but Williams showed it in bunches and her never-say-die spirit is just further testament to the fact that when fit and motivated there's no better woman player around - mot even Venus or Justine.

I'm not a huge fan of women getting the same money as men at the Slams because they do less work. If they played best-of-five, like the guys, I wouldn't have a problem with it. However, Serena's efforts are making me come around - a little.

Still, all I'm really hoping for now is a fully fit Serena at the year's final Slam, the U.S. Open, in August because women's tennis needs Williams the Younger at her best.

tym.glaser@gleanerjm.com.