Talk about a shocker!  Both Venus Williams and her younger sister, Serena Williams, were eliminated from the third-round at the Cincinnati Open after playing miserably.  It was painful to watch, actually.
Venus took on Italy’s Flavia Pennetta and she made 38 unforced errors and just looked wild.  She kept dumping balls into the net and ended up losing 7-6 (2), 6-4.

If you thought that was bad, you’ll be shocked to learn that Serena actually fared worse.  On the very same court just hours later, a second Williams sister was eliminated after making 44 unforced errors and ended up losing to Austria’s …read more

French tennis player, Marion Bartoli, surprised American, Venus Williams, in the WTA Bank of West Classic final by winning 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.  I’m sure this was an amazing feeling for Bartoli who lost to Williams during the 2007 final at Wimbledon.  She also lost this event to Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak last year.

Bartoli didn’t gloat over the victory which has resulted in her being bumped up two spots in the rankings to 12th.  After the match she said: “it was great to play Venus again.  I have a lot of good memories from Wimbledon.”
This was the seventh time Williams played in …read more

Serena Williams won the women’s singles championship at Wimbledon and her sister, Venus Williams, was her runner up but the ladies were not content to let their winning streak end there.  Yesterday, the two paired up to take the top prize in the women’s doubles final.

The American tennis stars beat Rennae Stubbs and Samantha Stosur of Australia 7-6 (4), 6-4 to clinch their fourth Wimbledon title together.  “There’s nothing like winning a title with your sister,” said Serena. “It’s really a good feeling. I’m really excited to have doubles titles.  I rack ‘em up.”
“One out of two’s not bad,” Venus …read more

Second-seeded Serena Williams has advance to the fourth round at Wimbledon after posting a straight victory over Italy’s Roberta Vinci at the All England Club.  She easily won the match 6-3, 6-4 in 1 hour and 7 minutes.
Williams, who is a two-time Wimbledon champion, will go on to face Daniela Hantuchova (who beat Japan’s Ai Sugiyama 6-4, 6-3 in 1 hour, 36 minutes) in the fourth round.  Williams has won six of the seven matchups with Hantuchova including two battles at Wimbledon in 2002 and 2007 (Williams won both times).

Meanwhile, fourth-seeded Olympic gold medalist, Elena Dementieva also advanced to the …read more

Svetlana Kuznetsova was many things as she went into the 2009 French Open finals this morning but, most importantly, she was calm and determined.  Having only won a single Grand Slam title before, I’m sure she was nervous but she never let it show.
Instead, she beat a shaky-looking Dinara Safina 6-4, 6-2 Saturday and won the French Open.  You would have thought that Safina was the underdog by the way she played – she double-faulted seven times and seemed to struggle through the match.
While Safina faltered (and eventually slammed her racket down on the court), Kuznetsova soared and played …read more

The women’s semifinals are over and, on Saturday, top-ranked Dinara Safina will face off against seventh-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova in the 2009 French Open final which will take place on Saturday at Roland Garros.

Safina defeated 20th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova yesterday 6-3, 6-3.  This is the second consecutive time that she has made it to the French Open final but, if she is victorious on Saturday, it would be her first Grand Slam title since she lost last year to Ana Ivanovic in last year’s tournament.
Meanwhile, Kuznetsova had to really fight for her win, beating 30th-seeded Samantha Stosur 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 .  …read more

Aleksandra Wozniak, was living her dream as she defied odds and became the first Canadian woman to make it to the fourth round at Roland Garros in 17 years.  Unfortunately, she was eliminated today by second seeded American, Serena Williams, but at least she can say that she battled against one of the world’s best tennis players but, ultimately, lost 6-1, 6-2 in just 53 minutes.

“You really want to win badly and there’s so many things going on,” said Wozniak. “It was my first time on Philippe Chatrier court. Emotions get involved and you just get tight and you can’t …read more

The Italian Open finals is all Russian. Dinara Safina will play Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final after both players defeated their opponents on Friday. Safina rallied to beat Venus Williams 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-4, while Kuznetsova defeated Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 6-4.

Both Safina and Kuznetsova have been runners up in the finals at Rome, but have never taken the title.
The match between Safina and Williams lasted for 3 hours and 10 minutes! “She pushed me to play my best,” Safina said. “Sometimes you need this kind of match … It gives me a lot of confidence to beat such …read more

Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Jelena Jankovic 6-1, 7-6 (3) at the Italian Open Thursday (May 6). Kuznetsova is just coming off a win at the Porsche GP, which was her first title in almost 2 years. Kuznetsova was able to close the match against Jankovic and overpower Jankovic.

Next opponent for Kuznetsova is Victoria Azarenka, who defeated Kaia Kanepi 7-6 (5), 6-3. The match is being called sloppy and not a good one for either player.
"It was a pretty bad match from both of us. I’m just happy I managed to stay calm in the second set and pull it off," …read more

Here are the Women’s ATP tennis rankings as of May 3, 2009. Not much has changed, except for Svetlana Kuznetsova and Victoria Azarenka trading places. Dinara Safina stil holds the number one spot. Their previous ranking is in parenthesis.

1. (1) Dinara Safina, Russia, 9,071 points
2. (2) Serena Williams, United States, 8,272
3. (3) Elena Dementieva, Russia, 7,391
4. (4) Jelena Jankovic, Serbia, 7,350
5. (5) Venus Williams, United States, 7,102
6. (6) Vera Zvonareva, Russia, 6,040
7. (7) Ana Ivanovic, Serbia, 5,174
8. (9) Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russia, 4,776
9. (8) Victoria Azarenka, Belarus, 4,546
10. (10) Nadia Petrova, …read more