Rubin's form is warning for Williams

American's first grass-court title seals remarkable comeback

When voting takes place in the women's tennis awards of 2002, it will be a major shock if Chanda Rubin is not the Comeback Player of the Year.

Rubin's immensely popular first grass-court title at the Britannic Asset Management Championships on Saturday is a personal triumph for the 26-year-old from Louisiana, who six months ago was wondering if she would ever play professional tennis again. After surgery on a troublesome left knee in January 2001, Rubin was told last Christmas that she would need a second operation.

She never actually asked her doctor if this meant the end of her career – "that wouldn't have been his decision, it would be mine," she said politely but firmly when recalling the low point of her fortunes – but began to fear the worst. She certainly did not imagine holding up a trophy just seven weeks after making her tour comeback.

Yet her confident, workmanlike 6-1 6-3 demolition of Anastasia Myskina brought her a fourth career title, and means she goes into Wimbledon brimming with confidence despite never getting beyond the third round in nine previous visits.

That record is remarkable for one who has always shone on the grass of Eastbourne. She was runner-up, aged 19, seven years ago, and has twice been a semi-finalist since, but somehow when she goes to Wimbledon the form deserts her. "I don't know why," she said, "there's no real reason, so I guess I'm due a good Wimbledon." Though Eastbourne had a poor field this year, the confidence with which Rubin scythed through her opposition spells potential danger for Serena Williams, who is seeded to meet Rubin in the fourth round at Wimbledon.

Rubin is the fourth match on Court 13 today against Asa Svensson, and though unseeded after so few tournaments she should be untroubled until her likely meeting with the No 2 seed. If Rubin could then produce the confident form she showed against Myskina on Saturday, Williams would need to be at her best to win.

Rubin was assisted by Myskina's level of play plummeting from the heights it reached on Friday when she crushed the rising Slovak Daniela Hantuchova. The Russian, who stands by her prediction that she will reach the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, never got into the final, and blew her one real chance of making a fight of it. Having ended a run of seven straight games for the American, Myskina raced to 0-40 on the Rubin serve, only to produce five successive errors.

But the American looked by far the more accomplished. She founded her game around the baseline, but always seemed to pick the right moment to go to the net, and the backhand volley into the open court on which she finished the match was one of many examples of being in the right place at the right time.