US Open rout shines harsh light on Venus Williams despite admirable fire

The former world No 1's competitive drive and taste for the fight remain the stuff of legend. But this was a tough watch

Well, that wasn't pleasant. The grim theatre of an injured 43-year-old Venus Williams taking just two games off Belgium's Greet Minnen before mostly stunned silence inside a half-empty Arthur Ashe Stadium and a prime-time television audience probably wasn't what the USTA had in mind when they pencilled it in for Tuesday's night session at the US Open.

This was one of those lamentable spectacles that sports, for all their capacity to inspire joy and wonder, have a way of serving up from time to time. Like a shopworn Joe Louis getting pummelled through the ropes by Rocky Marciano across the river at Madison Square Garden, only if Marciano was a 99th-ranked qualifier with zero career WTA titles who had never made it past the third round at a major.