TENNIS in DEPTH.

He withdrew from defending his Wimbledon title because of his bad knees. But Rafael Nadal has also been nursing a more personal hurt.

For many weeks there have been whispers that all was not well in the Nadal household, and yesterday it was confirmed that the world number-one’s parents Sebastian and Ana Maria have separated.

Nadal’s family is hugely important to him. The 23-year-old still lives in the family home in Majorca and is coached by his uncle Toni.

A source close to the Nadal camp said: ‘Rafa is devastated. All through the past couple of months he has been trying to get his tennis back on track, but his heart has been elsewhere.

‘In public he has put on a brave face, but in private he has been hoping for a reconciliation and fervently wishing this wasn’t happening. Now he has returned home and is catching up with his family.

‘He talked about resetting his body after withdrawing from the championships and yet he has a more difficult task – resetting his entire life.’

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Maria Sharapova says that she was happy merely to play at Wimbledon after her second round exit to Gisela Dulko.

The 2004 champion, playing in only her fourth tournament since returning from a 10-month lay-off because of shoulder surgery, slumped to defeat against the world number 45.

However, the Russian stated that she was simply satisfied with being able to play on Centre Court after her injury plagued year.

“You think of these injuries as basically preventing you from playing your sport. But if you look at the bigger picture, there are many things that can happen that can limit you to doing things in life or even having a life,” Sharapova said.

“But if you have a good head on your shoulders, you also know that there’s a life to live and if you stay positive, everything’s going to be all right, no matter what and no matter how bad the injury is.”

One year ago, Sharapova crashed out in the same round when defeated by compatriot Alla Kudryavtseva. She described her last two Wimbledon disappointments as “tough” but stressed she has a long time left to right the wrongs.

“I wasn’t kidding when I said just being here is a wonderful accomplishment,” she added. “I’m not lying about it. I had the pleasure of playing on Centre Court again.

“I didn’t play on it last year. The losses are tough but more here than at any other tournament. But it puts some perspective into your life. It’s all right. I have many more years ahead of me.

“It’s just unfortunate, the timing of my comeback and this only being the fourth tournament. I would have liked to have a longer season before coming here, but that’s just the way it is.”

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1. Venus and Serena began playing tennis at a young age after their father, Richard, decided to turn at least one of his daughters into a tennis superstar.

2. They have three other sisters, Isha, Lyndrea and Yetunde, who was an assistant to Venus and Serena but was shot dead in Los Angeles in 2003.

3. All five girls were raised by their mother as devout Jehovah’s witnesses.

4. Both were coached at the famous Nick Bollettieri tennis academy but their father withdrew them from the school and the junior tour when Venus was 12 and Serena 11, after he heard racist comments made by other parents on the tour.

5. Instead, he coached them himself on public tennis courts in Compton. Venus claims gunfire once broke out while she and Serena were practising, but they kept playing.

6. Venus turned professional at the age of 14 and beat Shaun Stafford, ranked 58 in the world, in her first match. Serena joined the tour a year later.

7. Venus was given her first eight-figure endorsement deal with Reebok when she was just 15. Soon after, Serena was offered a similar deal with Puma.

8. Venus and Serena won the tour “Most Impressive Newcomer” award in 1997 and 1998 respectively, and the pair were named “Doubles Team of the Year” in 2000.

9. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Venus won gold in the singles and the sisters together won the doubles competition, a feat they repeated in Beijing in 2008.

10. The pair set a record for facing each other in four consecutive grand slam tournament finals – the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open in 2002 and the Australian Open in 2003.

11. Serena won all four, meaning she held all the grand slam titles at once – a feat only ever achieved by four other women.

12. They have met each other in competition 20 times and the scores are tied with 10 victories apiece.

13. However, Serena has beaten her sister in more grand slam finals, winning five of their seven encounters.

14. In total, Serena has won 10 career grand slam titles while Venus has won seven.

15. Venus was a leading campaigner for women and men in tennis to be given equal pay. In 2006, she was made a global ambassador to UNESCO on women’s issues.

16. She then became the first woman to get equal tournament prize money at Wimbledon when she won in 2007, after the campaign proved successful.

17. Serena has won more career prize money – $24 million – than any other female athlete. Venus is second with $23 million.

18. The sisters were the subject of a reality TV show entitled “Venus and Serena for Real,” which followed them on and off the courts.

19. Serena has also tried her hand at acting, with guest roles on several shows including ER and The Simpsons.

20. Both have released their own clothing lines, Venus with “BeVen” and Serena designing “Aneres.”

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“I lost to everybody I think here who I could. I didn’t even get to play with the good players, except Federer and Djokovic, and that’s it.”

If Safin felt no sadness to see the back of the All England Club, he also was not bitter about a career that had promised more than the two Grand Slam titles it delivered.

“Unfortunately, I was a little bit unlucky with my injuries. That’s the only thing that I regret, but I cannot do anything about it,” Safin said.

“But also I make a couple of great comebacks. But eventually the knee injury was really tough to come back from. I managed only to get into the top 20. But it took quite a long time to play tennis without any pain.”

Others may not judge his record so kindly, which is perhaps unfair for a player who won two majors in his 15 career singles titles. But anyone who saw him play would say that he deserved more and the adjective “underachiever” will feature in biographies.

“In the history of tennis, everybody’s an underachiever,” Safin said. “Everybody. Every single person. Every single player is an underachiever. Agassi should have been winning, I don’t know, 15 Grand Slams. Sampras should have been winning 20 Grand Slams. Federer should be winning, already should have 25. Rios at least five. So you know what I’m saying. It’s like everybody’s an underachiever. Everybody could do better.”

So what would have been a far reflection of Safin’s talent? “I should probably have won a couple more, but I’m pretty satisfied with what I did.”

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Sharapova is still a long way from the player that was briefly ranked world No.1 just over a year ago (she’s currently 60th in the world), but if she can get through the early rounds at Wimbledon her confidence will grow and she will become a real contender for another Wimbledon title. After all, there are fewer tougher players on tour when she is put under pressure.

The early rounds can throw up some tricky tests for the big names though, and Sharapova will be on her guard against Argentina’s Gisela Dulko. The world No.45 is more comfortable on clay, but has made the third round at Wimbledon on three occasions so knows her way around a grass court too.

The 24-year-old from Buenos Aires reached the final in Bogota earlier in the year, but failed miserably in her only grass court event prior to Wimbledon when she lost easily to Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli in Eastbourne. Even so, her compact game from the back of the court could test Sharapova who will need to have her wits about her if is to move safely into round three.

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Ana Ivanovic narrowly avoided a first round defeat at Wimbledon for a second successive year as she tiptoed past Lucie Hradecka 5-7 6-2 8-6.

The Serbian entered last year’s championship as top seed following her French Open triumph, but nothing has gone her way in the intervening 12 months and is ranked 13th this time around.

And her fortunes looked set to take another turn for the worse when she lost the first set to the world number 58.

However, she found her game in the second set as she quickly levelled the match, and a crucial break of serve in the ninth game of the decider gave her the chance to serve out for the match.

But the Czech broke and then had a match point at 6-5, which she failed to convert, and with Hradecka appearing to be hampered by a thigh injury, Ivanovic finally clinched it in overtime. She continues to struggle with her ball toss, and repeatedly re-tossed on almost every point. Unless she comes up with a dramatic improvement by Friday we may have seen the last of her at the 2009 Wimbledon Championships.

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Defending champion Venus Williams eased into the second round at Wimbledon with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Swiss teenager Stefanie Voegele.

However, the American was given a harder workout than the scoreline suggests, with the five-time champion taking an hour and 18 minutes to dispose of her rival.

Williams was broken twice by Voegele, who was far from overawed by taking on a top-10 opponent for the first time in her career.

Andy Murray was forced to dig deep before advancing to the second round of Wimbledon with a 7-5 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-4 victory over American Robert Kendrick.

Top-ranked Dinara Safina opened another bid for her first Grand Slam title by beating Lourdes Dominguez Lino 7-5, 6-3. Safina said she was hampered by left knee tendinitis that has bothered her at times the past two months, although she reached the French Open final less than three weeks ago.

Former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic beat Julia Goerges 6-4, 7-6 (0). Kimiko Date Krumm, a 38-year-old wild card who came out of retirement last year, lost in her first Wimbledon match since 1996 to No. 9-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, 5-7, 6-3, 6-1.

No. 17 Amelie Mauresmo, the 2006 champion, defeated Melinda Czink 6-1, 4-6, 6-2.

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Jelena Dokic’s return to Wimbledon after five years away ended unhappily today. A solid start promised much for the former SW19 semi-finalist and one-time world number four, but she haemorrhaged confidence after winning the first set and somehow the match against qualifier Tatjana Malek slipped through her grasp. Malek won 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.

This was a curious tussle. In the first set Dokic seemed to be winning at a stroll, yet things were more complicated than the scoreline betrayed.

There were moments when Dokic clearly relished the mental chess match and the process of out-thinking her opponent. But Dokic has one of those fragile faces whose expression cannot help but betray her every thought, and there was always the danger that her nerves might unexpectedly trip her up.

Yet her strokeplay was vastly superior, and she emphasised it by emitting on every stroke the same exhalation sound that a boxer makes when he lands a punch – definitely not a grunt, more like a “whoosh”. She brought up the break point that counted by out-thinking the 21-year-old German at the net for 3-1, and that game sealed the set.

Yet in the second set Dokic’s nerves took over, with a double fault handing Malek an early break for 1-2. Her shot selection was going awry, with opportunities for clear winners missed. It was all she could do not to surrender another break.

She hung on, and forced enough errors from Malek that she levelled at 4-4. But two games later two more double faults helped Malek to a break to love, and she served out the set, whereupon Dokic requested the medical trainer. A doctor also came to the court. No physical treatment ensued, and after Dokic had received a tablet and some oral gel, the match resumed.

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