PARIS -- The problem with Venus Williams is she is so tall, so fast, so terrifically menacing and mobile and merveilleux, that even when you're on the opposite side of the net going for broke at every opportunity; even if you're slugging for the corners in the only brave and aggressive way you know how; even as you remain one of the finest clay-court players in history and the crowd, appreciative of your French blue outfit and your sentimental history, is virtually willing you to success; even when your name is Monica Seles -- you can get your shrieking clock absolutely cleaned.

	A "wavering" Monica Seles could not grunt it out against Venus Williams.

That is approximately what happened on Court Suzanne Lenglen on Ladies Day at the French Open when venomous Venus, celebrating her second match since becoming No. 1 in the world again, kept not only pounding Seles into submission with oppressive serves but also frustrating her with persistent running. Not to mention, she out-grunted the game's heretofore leading grunter by several hundred decibels. The scores were 6-4, 6-3, although it might have been closer had Seles been able to stay more solid, fade more into a conservative game plan and paint only a few more lines with those characteristic angled drives.

But the veteran expatriot Yugo knows -- as we all have come to acknowledge -- that the eldest of the Sisters Sledge has too much range and too many weapons to toy around with. In the second week of a Slam, Williams also tends to become, in her words, a "different character, to lie low -- to hardly ever leave her hotel room, to not eat out but have her food brought to her, to not smile, to become 'Va-Noose' rather than Venus."

Va-noose has been playing at Roland Garros for six years now, and how many times has she won the Open? Would you believe never? Would you believe this is her first time winning even a quarterfinal match here? There've been stunning losses to the Austrian Barbie doll schwingers Barbara Schwartz (1999) and Barbara Schett (2001) and a last-set quarterfinal meltdown to Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in between (2000) when she was recovering from an injury. But ... "I've always been confident on clay," Williams said. "Always figured I had the speed and the groundstrokes to do well here. I practiced on clay a lot when I was younger. It was just a matter of time."

Time is what Seles doesn't have a lot of anymore, either in her career or on the court Tuesday when she recovered after an hour rain delay and a 1-4 deficit to square the match at 4-4. She was also matching Williams' cracking drives (just as she had at the Australian Open when she defeated Venus for the first time in seven matches), stretching the younger woman wide and wider, even dictating the play. But she was also piling up errors (35 unforced in the match) as self-doubt reared its ugly head.

"I was just struggling. Things were a bit off. I was wavering," Seles confessed. "'What should I do? Should I pressure or not?' That's not a good situation against somebody like Venus."

Suddenly, it all went away; Williams' talent and athleticism and sheer relentlessness will do that to an opponent. In her hardy efforts to keep the ball beyond Williams' wingspan, Seles' backhand basically broke down. Venus -- regal in a classic white cocktail number with lemon spaghetti straps; would that her sister inherit that fashion sense -- held easily and Monica double faulted for 15-30 in the 10th game. The winner moved in for the kill, broke serve to win the first set and started inevitably moving her slower opponent around in the second. The result of which also became merely a matter of time.

	Venus Williams says she becomes a different person the second week of the tournament.

"I know Monica didn't play her best. Maybe she felt a little rushed," said Venus who recalled -- as did the Parisian audiences who gave the vanquished player a grand ovation at the end -- the early Seles. "I do realize she's a crowd favorite. She's had great results here. I remember the matches she played, too, (when I was) 9 and 10. I remember those times. They did, too."

Venus was asked some more about her alter ego, Va-noose.

"I become her. But this happens only once (she) hits the semifinals," said Williams, laughing, before revealing it also happens to Serena, who becomes "Serene-Ahhhh. ... We're all jokers in our family. We just joke all day. Va-Noose just concentrates and studies and reads books."

"What are you studying?" asked NBC's Bud Collins.

"Interior design ... Correspondence courses ... I just love all the arts," said Williams.

"Have you seen the Venus de Milo?" asked Collins.

"Yes. At the Lou-Ver (sic)," said Williams.

Speaking of which, by the hardly serene scores of 6-1, 6-1, Serene-Ahhhh positively louvered the former champ and possible cruiser weight contender Mary Pierce -- the lowest ranked player (No. 132) ever to reach the quarterfinals here -- in a match in which Pierce unloaded a hefty forehand so far beyond the baseline, the ball rocketed into the photographers' pit at the far barrier on the fly. With a few more cheeseburgers, Pierce might be able to clear the stadium wall.

While the younger Williams sib will meet the defending French champion and Chandler's (Mathew Perry) apparent fresh squeeze (she says they're just Friends), Jennifer Capriati, in one semifinal -- a rival Serene-Ahhhh has beaten three times already this season -- the older sib will play the surprising young Argentinian Clarisa Fernandez.

The left-handed Fernandez, 20, only made it to the draw because of Martina Hingis' injury withdrawal. All of a sudden she's the first unseeded player to make the semifinals since Capriati in 1990 and the first Argentine to make it since Gabriela Sabatini two years later.

Too bad. When Va-Noose gets finished with her, Clarisa may wish she was back being hunted down by that Hannibal Lechter fellow.

Curry Kirkpatrick is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at curry.kirkpatrick@espnmag.com.