NOTEBOOK From Wimbledon

Short careers: Richard Williams figures his two famous daughters will be out of tennis in a few years. "If I had the chance to, I would get them out of tennis right away," he said. "I tried to get Venus to stop playing tennis when she was 9 years old." Serena, 21, is the defending Wimbledon champion and has won five Grand Slams events. Venus, 23, has four Grand Slams titles. "The children in my house must understand finance and investment, and they had to learn there's a life beyond the baseline," he said. "The kids who only do tennis and don't know that, I think it's very sad. It's time for someone else to come along and carry the torch, and it's time for them to move on and set more goals in business. I would think that at 25 or 26, no later than 27, it'll be time for them to move on."
Un-Spanish: Better check Rafael Nadal's passport. The 17-year-old claims to be Spanish, but he seems to enjoy playing on grass. "I like the grass a lot," said Nadal, who defeated Briton Lee Childs 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 to set up a third-round match with Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan. "It's different and the fact we only play on it four weeks a year makes it better. I like all the surfaces, I'm just better on clay." Nadal is the youngest man playing at Wimbledon this season. Widely regarded as a future Grand Slam champion, he missed the French Open with an elbow injury. This is not just any Spanish clay-court player. Although top Spanish players Alex Corretja, Albert Costa and Carlos Moya withdrew from Wimbledon because they dislike the slippery surface, Nadal relishes the challenge. "I think the attitude about playing on clay is changing among younger Spanish players. Younger players have started to play on grass and want to play on grass. It helps their overall game." About the only thing at Wimbledon he hasn't mastered is English, doing all his interviews in Spanish. He has athletic genes, a difficult-to-handle left-handed game and a famous uncle. Miguel Angel Nadal, a defender known as the "Beast of Barcelona," was the heart of the Barcelona team of the early 1990s that won the European Champions Cup. Interestingly, he's a fan of Barca's archrival Real Madrid.
-- Associated Press