It’s no Serena, no Olympics for Venus

“I don’t know,” she said. “I have to talk to Serena to see how she felt. Being in the Olympics is great. We’d have the opportunity to win two golds, or I would at least. But if Serena wasn’t happy, I don’t think I would go.

“But really, I want to.”

Success secret: Australian tennis greats John Newcombe and Tony Roche think they know the keys that got Pat Rafter to the final against Pete Sampras.

“He’s got this great fire down under,” said Newcombe, putting his hands over his stomach.

“When he gets into the battle, it’s like: `you’re going to have to kill me to beat me’.”

Roche, who has served as Rafter’s de facto coach, attributed his success to being an Australian. “They’re tough to beat,” said roche. “You want an Australian in the trenches with you.”

Royal box: The royal box was jammed for Saturday’s Davenport vs Williams final. Among the notables were former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her husband Denis; Virginia wade, the last British woman to win singles (1977); NBC sports chief Dick Ebersol; Ken Duberstein, a former White House chief of staff; former Wimbledon champion Rosie Casals; Betty Boothroyd, Speaker of Britain’s House of Commons; former Wimbledon champion Stan Smith.

New coach: David Felgate, criticised for his coaching of Briton Tim Henman, has come to his own defence.

“Tim’s happy with what he’s got, I’m happy with what I’m doing and if I didn’t think I was doing a good job I would walk away, Felgate said.

“The sad thing is, nobody ever walks up in the changing room and confronts me or Tim or asks the questions. They just go on air and get paid their money at this time of the year and then walk away.”

Japanese presence: There could be history made when Venus and Serena Williams take on Julie Halard-Decugis of France and Ai Sugiyama of Japan in the women’s doubles final on centre court. Sugiyama is trying to become only the second Japanese to win a Grand Slam title. The only other was in 1975 when Kazuko Sawamatsu of Japan and American Anne Kiyomura defeated Francoise Durr and Betty Stove in the Wimbledon doubles final.