The four tops play Wimbledon

Even if the theme of Venus in her grass paradise has congealed to familiarity the last two years, the 6-1, 6-2 demolition of the excellent No. 14 Radwanska accessed some tier above even the usual Venus. It had the 16 of 18 first-set service points, the 29 winners to her Polish opponent's six, the comment by the 20-year-old Radwanska that "if she will play like this, she will make it one more time this tournament."

Count it up: 19 consecutive wins, 32 consecutive sets won, longest streak here since Martina Navratilova won 40 from 1982 to 1985. "I do have strategy," Venus reminded after the show of power. "Maybe it doesn't look like it, but I do. I think that's my secret weapon, that it doesn't look like I'm thinking, but I am."

Then Serena took the court opposite the same wildly promising 19-year-old Azarenka who beat Serena in Miami in April, and Serena clearly had not liked that. Getting very royal on the Belorussian, she rammed in nine aces to zero for Azarenka and soared even with 46% first-serving, later saying, "We definitely upped our level of game today."

After winning, 6-2, 6-3, she seemed satisfied as seldom she does, and if her 29-2 record in the last five Grand Slams bolsters her assertion that she's better now than when she won the Serena Slam in 2002-03, it's also just another reason people sometimes need reminding that Safina technically holds down that No. 1 seeding.

Never beyond a Wimbledon third round before, Safina has fought through lost first sets in the last two rounds against Amelie Mauresmo and Sabine Lisicki, and reckons, "It's just my brain sometimes doesn't do the things that I have to do."

Her double faults against Lisicki on Tuesday reached such heights that she threw in one on a set point against her and estimated the total at "250," and she said, "Sometimes I don't even know what I'm doing with my serve."

Yet she clambered through the doubt to win, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-1, and has turned up as a semifinalist (or better) in all four Slams, and five of the last six, then gave herself a "50-50" shot against Venus. If listeners found that sort of loopy, well, it's the kind of thing No. 1 players say in such a formful sport.

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chuck.culpepper@yahoo.com