NEW YORK. Sept 8

(AP/ Internet): Venus Williams hides nothing on the tennis court.

The peek-a-boo tennis outfits with daring midriff cutouts on each side are only the beginning for 18-year-old “Visible Venus" who advanced to the quarterfinals of the storm-tossed US Open on Monday with a 6-1. 7-6 (7-4) victory over Mary Pierce.

Sometimes she exults. Sometimes she sulks. Always she does it in public, her emotions out there for everyone to

Against Pierce, she dominated the first set. then waited out a storm that halted play for more than two hours. When play resumed, she had to hold off Pierce’s determined comeback.

When it was over. Williams allowed herself a little victory celebration, something short of an end zone dance but an obvious declaration of joy in a difficult win. Then there was a raisc-the-roof gesture to her entourage.

Her excitement was genuine, perhaps because it was a reversal of fortune.against Pierce.

they played.

IlMaihi forced tb retire in the third set because of an aching knee.

"I was pretty happy because in my last match. I couldn't go on against her." Williams said.

"It was terrible because I couldn't give my best. And I never really had that situation before where I couldn't move."

Revenge was not a motive, though.

"I wanted to win this match because I did well here last year and I should be able to do well again." said Williams, who lost to Martina Hingis in the finals last year, "it would have been terrible if I had an Injury again."

Not to worry. Williams played tough, tenacious tennis and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Every time she hit a big shot, especially in her comeback after trailing 4-1 in the tiebreaker, she grinned broadly. Once, she even helped the linesman on a close call with a palms down signal that the shot was good.

Every time she missed one. shegri maced.

There were no secrets.

"Sometimes, emotions are useless." Williams said. "But am

1 emotional? Sure. Not too often."

And what about the dance?

"I really shouldn't have done the dance." she decided. "I should have waited for later to dance. I don't know why I did it. I didn't plan to dance. 1 planned to win the second set really. easy."

Pierce torpedoed that plan, keeping Williams In trouble throughout the set. forcing her to play her best tennis.

Williams liked the challenge

You have to be a player to be here." she said. "I'm really going after it. I'm more focused. I'm trying not to make errors. I want to get away from that, making things tougher for myself than they should be."

In that respect there was a major contrast between the sets. Williams had 33 unforced errors for the match. 31 In that troublesome second set.

1 don’t think 1 played as well in the second set. Williams said. "I think that I made more errors. I don't think 1 played exactly the same.

"But still. I had to play my game, no matter what she was going to do. And It's not the easiest thing to play error-free. And sometimes you Jqst have to go for your shots. You just qan't let someone step up before you do."

And if you do all that, then maybe you get to dance when it's all over.