Girl Power gone mad at Wimbledon as women serve up snoring Saturday

Girl Power gone mad at Wimbledon as women serve up snoring Saturday

Beyoncé will not get away with a 45 minute set when she headlines Glastonbury tonight.

Kelly Smith will not be playing 30 minutes each way in England's opening game of the womens' football World Cup, against Mexico tomorrow.

Tennis is a little different.

Men and women have the same prize money, but different shift patterns.

Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and top seed Caroline Wosniacki, leading contenders for Wimbledon's £1.1million winners' cheque, each lost precisely five games yesterday.

It may be politically incorrect to support the august members of the All england Club's order of Play Committee, but they have a point.

In terms of entertainment, the womens' game lacks natural rivalries, compelling storylines, and recognisable names.

Complaints about lack of exposure on Wimbledon's show courts do not really stack up.

Ironically, those rallying behind the mildewed flags of past sex discrimination battles are doing Serena a disservice.

The diversion unintentionally belittles her spirit, the resolve required to win a third successive Wimbledon singles title after a 49-week absence.

The background to her attempt, which gathered momentum with a 6-3 6-2 win over maria Kirilenko, is no less compelling for its sudden familiarity.

Two scars, a blemish on the inside of her left foot, and an ugly weal across the top of her right, are the legacy from an accident in a munich restaurant, four days after Wimbledon last year.

Two operations followed, but were not as remotely traumatic as the "near death experience" of finding blood clots on both lungs.

Serena must still inject herself with anti-coagulant before any flight.

even operating at 60 per cent capacity, she has the athleticism, self-belief, and strength of serve to make her a legitimate contender.

She said: "I wouldn't bet against me. I'm here, I'm alive, and I don't take any moment for granted."

Her serve was, on average 20 mph faster than that of Kirilenko, an identikit russian making her eighth Wimbledon appearance at the ripe old age of 24. The ball sounds so much crisper when it leaves her racquet. once Serena acquires match sharpness, it will be all over for the ovas.

She has won 13 Grand Slam titles, only two fewer than the other 127 members of the original draw.

Apart from the Williams sisters, Sharapova is the only active member of the WTA tour to have won Wimbledon.

She's a mini corporation, with annual income of £20m.

Nice work if you can get it, when the likes of Klara Zakopalova, beaten 6-2 6-3 yesterday, do not detain her unduly.

Wozniacki was similarly untroubled against Jarmila Gajdosova. The Centre Court provided the statutory standing ovation - but this was in honour of servicemen, sitting in the royal box.

The search for other heroines is similarly dispiriting.

Victoria Azarenka, the fourth seed, is apparently big in Minsk. She has an inconsistent serve and sounds like Minnie Mouse succumbing to torture.

It doesn't take much imagination to envisage Serena and Venus facing each other in Saturday's final, for the third time in four years.

Serena's vulnerability - the tears and the tenderness with which she treated cancer victim Jack marshall earlier in the week - has not given her universal popularity.

But, as Marion Bartoli, her fourth-round opponent, admitted "she is the ultimate competitor." Almost too good, in fact for her sport.