Venus, Rising (YC, 8.02)

Mornin', and happy Sunday everyone. This is one of those days when I envy any of you who can spend the day lounging, clicking, refreshing, eating orange food and cheering on Venus Williams, Carston Ball, Sam Querrey or Tommy Haas (the winner will be Ball's opponent in the finals in LA), Nikolay Davydenko, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Vera Dusheniva. . . most of whom will be chasing that elusive plum, an ATP or WTA tour title. To some, that plum is bigger and jucier than others.

I'll be traveling back to New York, and spending the afternoon and evening packing for our move. The next few days will be crazy, but I'll be posting.

Venus's beatdown of world no. 4 Elena Dementieva yesterday was an eyebrow-raiser - at Wimbledon, a few weeks ago, she crushed no. 1 Dinara Safin 1-and-oh-my-gosh. Yesterday, she hammered Dementiva with an equally awesome display of power and athleticism yielding one game (this time it was in the second set). Last year at about this time, Dementieva was busy winning Olympic games gold in singles, and her level has remained high over the ensuing 12 months.So in these last two matches against the no. 1 and no. 4 players in the world, Venus has surrendered all of two games. It's just another chapter in the remarkable saga of Venus and Serena Williams, the most amazing long-form sports story of our times.

Enjoy the various finals today, folks!

-- Pete