RICHARD WILLIAMS cradled his camera like a newborn lamb as he ran through the drizzle towards No 2 Court. He had just watched his youngest daughter, Serena, dispatch Elena Dementieva in 51 minutes. Now it was time for Venus, the elder of his star daughters, to make her mark on the tournament.

“I can’t miss this,” he said, leaping into position with all the grace and control that his gangly legs and cumber- some photographic equipment would allow and positioning himself to watch through the eye of his camera. He cheered, slapped his hands on his thighs and stroked his beard appreciatively as his daughter completed a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Vera Zvonareva to take her through to a quarter-final clash with Lindsay Davenport.

“When Venus decides to play, I don’t think anyone can touch her,” Williams said, with a mixture of fatherly pride and basic truth. “Trouble is, the girl’s gotta decide to play. Then, I’m telling ya all, there ain’t anyone can touch her.”

Not even Serena? “Not even Serena — not when Venus decides to play.”

Venus, it would appear, has had more trouble than her sister at really “wanting” victory, and this has been translated into the results of the two girls. She is powerful, with a devastating serve and speed around court. She looks the part and acts it, but that all-consuming desire to win at all costs and shut everything out bar the moment, the racket, the ball and the point on offer, sometimes has been missing.

Certainly, Venus has interests outside the sport that her sibling does not. Yesterday, when Serena was asked about the death of Katharine Hepburn, she said that she had no idea the actress had died because she never reads papers — before offering comment nonetheless. Venus, on the other hand, has, according to her father, “been trying to educate herself and learn new things. She likes to know what’s going on in the world.”

Away from the courts, she has set up an interior design business and spoken of her interest in wanting more from life than tennis. The words, though, are possibly harsh on Serena, who, after all, will be missing from the early stages of the Fed Cup in three weeks’ time because of an acting assignation.

Williams Sr has been trying to keep his young charges focused on the sport that they have been playing since almost before they could walk. He proposed taking them to the Wimbledon Museum so that they could “look into the eyes of champions”. Such is the intense desire for success in this extraordinary family that Williams Sr refuses to allow his stars to settle back and revel in their successes when there are fresh targets.

Yesterday, the added impetus of playing Zvonareva, a talented baseliner who beat Williams in the French Open just three weeks ago, gave her all the desire she needed.

She strolled through the match in an hour, hurling down serves of almost 120mph at her increasingly harassed opponent. In the first set, Williams was ruthless in her dismissal of the talented young Russian. She led 5-0 before Zvonareva won a game and made a rampaging start to the second. Indeed, so rampaging was it, that Zvonareva won just one game in the first nine.

There was a momentary slip in Williams’s domination, when Zvonareva managed to tie the former champion up in rallies that the Russian won. Zvonareva’s comeback consisted of winning three games in the set but, in reality, Williams was never anything other than in control. Her use of the fast grass courts to exploit her physical prowess worked to the maximum and Zvonareva was reduced to banging her racket and talking loudly to herself to gee herself up as the match slipped away.

Williams celebrated her victory by spinning around in front of the crowd with her swishy ballerina-style skirt flying around her — like a doll from the top of a musical box. She looked delighted, like the Venus of old, as she grinned and clutched her racket to her in joy.

Richard Williams captured it all on film and patted his camera as he stood up, clapped loudly and darted away from the court as quickly as he had arrived.