Venus struggles to master the art of Morigami

Two years ago, it would hardly have seemed conceivable: the Williams girls, with five Wimbledon singles titles between them, both finishing a season outside the top 50 women in the world. But at the end of a 2006 ruined for both by injury, that fate was avoided only by Venus scraping in at No 48, almost 50 places above her even more disappointed sister.

Come 2007 and the girls are back in town, aiming at the very least to qualify for potentially thrilling ties: Serena seeking revenge in a quarter-final against Justine Henin, who destroyed her at the same stage of the French Open, and Venus against Maria Sharapova, whom she conquered most recently en route to winning here in 2005.

Before that there is work to do. Serena, safely through to the fourth round, must defeat the 10th seed, Daniela Hantuchova; Venus, a round behind, was 4-1 down in the second set to Japan's Akiko Morigami, after taking the first 6-2, when the rain came back yesterday.

Had the Saturday afternoon entertainment been wrestling on World of Sport, they would have billed it as a catchweight contest. Morigami conceded seven inches and an extraordinary two and a half stone, and looked every bit the lightweight in a first set wrapped up in under half an hour. Not afraid to come to the net or try a subtle chip, she nevertheless risked being overpowered once Williams found her range and cranked her serve up towards 120mph.

Netting a straightforward return cost Morigami the first break, in the sixth game. In the eighth she saved a set point with a delicious cross-court pass at the net, only to double fault for the set. After that, a player with a name that sounds like "origami" might have been expected to fold rather quickly.

Instead, urged on with shouts of "good aggression" by her coach, the Japanese showed plenty of it, especially against a faltering Williams serve. In the first game there was a break point that could not be converted, but a break came in the third when the American double-faulted and then again in the fifth, by which time Morigami, who knocked out the 13th seed Dinara Safina on Thursday, had developed an enviable knack of landing her doubled-handed returns right on the lines.

The type of break she did not want was then forced upon her by the weather, offering Williams much-needed time to rethink her strategy, if not her fashion sense - it was hardly the day for the shortest of shorts, unless the plan was to intimidate Morigami even more by emphasising the length of those legs.

If she does not recover quickly, the three-time champion will drop a set for only the second time in this year's competition and face the prospect of concentrating, as they say, on the doubles. Her wild-card partnership there with Serena should be entertaining, as the pair look the best unseeded bet anywhere in the tournament they won in 2000 and 2002.

"We both have that confidence in each other, we're always so positive with each other," Venus said. "It was just a matter of time and us getting more healthy," said Serena.

Just how seriously they are taking it all was demonstrated to Britain's Anne Keothavong and Claire Curran, who won only four games in the opening round. The eighth-seeded Spaniards, Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual, await; probably with some trepidation.

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