Bud Collins

PARIS - Three rounds and out for Venus Williams at the French Open.

Her loss to fourth-seeded Jelena Jankovic might tempt some to bury her for the year, and raise questions over whether there remain any more crowning moments in her career. I'm not one to go down either of those paths.

Writing off Venus as a has-been was tried before if people remember. Some had her done in 2005 and all she did was storm back from a third-round loss in Paris to an unknown named Sesil Karatancheva and win Wimbledon. If there are those who want to run the risk of getting fooled again, let them. Not me.

Growing tired and sloppy
Venus came to Roland Garros and gave it a go, but she ended up going home after a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 loss to Jankovic. The American and the Serbian went into the match at 2-2 in their previous meetings, but the very talented Jankovic had won their last two outings -- in the third round at Wimbledon last year, and in the semifinals at Charleston earlier this year.

Both those matches were hard fought and down to the wire, but on the red clay Jankovic took advantage of Venus growing a bit weary and she sailed through the final set.

Venus admitted she got tired in the third set and Jankovic found a second wind at that point. When it came to crunch time in the match, Venus made way too many errors. And by the time the match was over, she had needlessly erred 49 times -- you can’t win a match if you’re making that many unforced errors.

Venus prepared for the Jankovic match and went out and put on a good show by rebounding in the second set. But after fighting so hard to even the score at one set apiece, it was just a few points in the third set that told the tale of her fatigue. If Venus just had a bit more to give on those points and could have come up with the goods, she could’ve gotten the job done.

A change that could be for the better
Where Venus comes up short is that with her build (6-foot-1, 160 pounds), her speed, and her reach, it’s a shame she gets locked into baseline rallies with opponents. She’s got to learn to take advantage of the short balls she gets and come in and intimidate opponents. She seems content to stick with what she’s doing and that’s too bad for someone so young (26), especially since I believe if she came in and took chances, she’d recapture some or her former luster.

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Venus is not credibly ranked at No. 27 in the world -- she is much better than that. As far as I’m concerned only the computer believes that Venus is no better than No. 27 in the world. But I also must say that the time when either Venus or her younger sister Serena could just throw their rackets out there and have opponents faint in fear is long gone.

In a certain way, it’s hard to see Venus reeling in another major title (she has won Wimbledon three times and the U.S. Open twice). But I am always very, very careful about selling either of the Williams sisters short -- they’re both still young, they’re still fast, and they’re still such marvelous athletic talents.

Venus may not be the intimidating player she was earlier in her career, but none of her opponents should make the mistake of not taking the threat she presents in any given match seriously. Make the decision that Venus can be had without having to take her on with all you've got, and you'll likely end up paying for it.