Miami: Cringe.

Perhaps the only valuable observation after the debacle that was this final came from Serena on her twitter feed.

serenajwilliams @venuseswilliams is such a champ if I were playing I would have cracked 5 rackets by now!!Wow she's to be admired and I can learn from her!!

She had been following Venus’s matches courtside all week long – I almost wish she did crack something from the sidelines.

Venus was taped up quite heavily – though how much that had to do with what transpired on court remains up for debate – my own feeling is it was simply one of those days.

It’s not as if this just crept up on us either: I barely managed to suppress the urge to cringe when I kept hearing of how her match against Bartoli was amongst her best performances of the week. Really?

Set two certainly, but it seems to me there were very many apparent holes in Venus’s game during the opener and that Bartoli played it with such a telling lack of conviction, it somehow seemed apt when she served four double faults in a single game.

Clijsters d. Williams 6-2 6-1

Kimmie deserves full credit for seeing things through against a struggling opponent, a win that will see her enter the top ten on Monday. Congratulations – it was only a matter of time.

Though I hope you’ll understand why I can’t claim to have seen her either “crush” or “thrash” Venus – it seems to me V already did that to herself.

Oh there'll be cringing alright.

(Photo: Reuters)