Is it just me or is anyone else irritated by the usual derogatory commentary surrounding Serena and Venus this year at Wimbledon. I'm speaking with particular reference to the commentator John Inverdale who kept on describing Venus as physically 'intimidating'. I should have made a tally of the number of times he said it. I know she's tall but so are most of the top women players on the tour - Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova are around 6'1, Lindsey Davenport is also around 6'1/6'2..... I could go on. In fact Venus' oponent today was hardly a midget at 5'9. I remember a couple of years ago there was a black/mixed race American girl who reached the semi-final who they also lavished this particular adjective upon.

Why do white people seem to find anyone who is black and over 5 feet 'intimidating'?

Yeah when the williams sisters took over the game all you heard about was how womens tennis has turned into a power game with no skill....yet now everyone else has caught up (like the Russians) you would have thought it was every player other than the williams who brought womens tennis to this standard.

White racism, forgive them, most don't know they have it

I don't think it was [i]just[i][i]the height that was being referred too!!

Apparently that last opponent Venus played warmed up by playing a man to prepare for Venus's power.

What else do you propose they were alluding to? If it's about physique...there are more masculine/stocky/fatter/taller female players including some of those mentioned above, on the tour than either of the Williams sisters yet they are not described as 'intimidating'.

After last years blatant discrimination, this year I was looking forward to women playing best of 5 sets to justify their equal pay to men

Their Queeen and saviour Sharapova got beat...that rack stick for Nike going on about wearing shots whilst it was just to market new items for Nike..Hypocrite
As for Serena and Vanessa just hatas YT people can stand our success of course their are bigger girls and hitters out there but no ones saying nothing just salivating at all those girls coming through from Serbia and Russia like the Second coming..the proverbial...'feels like a breath of fresh air'..Hypocrites!!

anotha great YT hope bites the dust

Wimbledon: No 1 seed Ana Ivanovic victim of latest giant-killing - Mirror.co.uk

..oh dear! Looks like they'll have no choice but to focus more on Venus and Serena who have won 6 of the 8 titles so far between them this decade.

It would be good to have another all Williams final just to spite them. I have to admit, I don't really like watching Serena and Venus as opponents, as I don't think they enjoy playing each other and the matches tend to be a bit dull, but just to shut up those so-called experts, it would be two fingers to them!

the best female player in the game Henin's retired so the paths more or less clear for the Williams girls.Henin was on another planet technically to either one of them and layed down some beat downs over the last two years knocking both of them out of last years US open.It was great seeing Henins European all court game school their brutal one dimensional hitting game.Their game is ugly,and they win by de facto being stronger and clearly more masculine than the other girls,Henin exposed their technically poor base.She did to them what Federer does to Roddick.So it is frustrating seeing them triumph when taking all this into account.

Why frustrating? If they are winning, it means they are better than every one else on the day and more focused. Henin like Borg chose to retire at the height of their game. Good luck to her, but the game moves on. Her absense doesn't negate from the quality of the players who remain in the sport.

Henin#s technique was far better on clay than on grass, Venus is much more of an all rounder and is at ease on any surface therefore for my money a far more superior player because of her adaptability. Henin was by no means a weakling. She was every much as hard a hitter as Venus. But ultimately, anyone who knows anything about tennis knows that sheer strength alone doesn't win you games.

...hear, hear Nzinga.

Also, Henin has never won Wimbledon. At best she has been runner-up twice, first to Venus in 2001 then to Amelie Mauresmo in 2006 and last year she was defeated by an unseeded player. So by retiring d.ozo she is hardly leaving the 'paths more or less clear' for them. And yes, Venus and Serena use power in their game but there is more finesse to their games than you give them credit for otherwise they would have been beating everyone and dominating the women's circuit as soon as they started which they didn't.