updated: Thu May 31 2012 13:37:00
Virginie Razzano tells CNN about her nail-biting win over Serena Williams at the French Open.
Czech Petra Kvitova began the defense of her Madrid Masters crown with a comfortable victory over New Zealand's Marina Erakovic.
Serena Williams is looking forward to the new clay season after scoring her first win on the surface in almost two years.
Serena Williams bemoaned the amount of unforced errors she made after suffering a quarterfinal defeat to fellow former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki at the Miami Masters.
Serena Williams avenged her 2011 U.S. Open final defeat to Samantha Stosur with a straight-sets win over the Australian sixth seed to reach the last eight of the WTA tournament in Miami Monday.
Serena Williams made a winning return from a left ankle injury by defeating Zhang Shuai in the second round of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
MELBOURNE, Australia -- For all those adjectives that seem to genuflect before Roger Federer, you seldom hear him described as "sentimental." Sentient? Yes. Sensational? Sure. But not "sentimental."
Unseeded Russian Ekaterina Makarova upset five-time champion Serena Williams of the United States 6-2 6-3 on Monday to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.
For more than a year now, the tennis parlor game here has been trying to confirm the identity of the WTA's top player. The rankings give us little guidance. Nor does a list of the recent major singles title winners. The consensus: the Queen Bee is Serena Williams. Or at least she is when willing and able -- and fully committed. The combination of her physical gifts, ballstriking, fearlessness and self-confidence -- the ingredients that have enabled her to win 13 Grand Slam titles over a gilded career -- are still some of the most fearsome and feared weapons around.
Serena Williams breezed into the fourth round of the Australian Open on Saturday dispatching Hungary's Greta Arn convincingly 6-1 6-1.
American tennis star Serena Williams recorded a landmark 500th career victory on Thursday when she beat the Czech Republic's Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-0 6-4 in the second round of the Australian Open.
Sixth seed and home favorite Samantha Stosur became the first high-profile casualty at the Australian Open on Tuesday, but five-time champion Serena Williams eased to victory on her return from injury.
Former world number one Serena Williams has withdrawn from the Brisbane International tournament in Australia after suffering an ankle injury in Wednesday's third-round victory over Bojana Jovanovski.
Serena Williams has revealed she is not in love with playing tennis, despite an impressive straight sets victory on her return to action at the Brisbane International tournament.
1. The Djoker got away ... from the rest of the field. We're a spoiled bunch, us tennis fans. First we get the unsurpassed play of Roger Federer. Then comes Rafael Nadal. And in 2011, a Third King arrives. In a thoroughly dominating year, Novak Djokovic won three Grand Slams, 10 titles overall, 70 matches (against six losses) and a record $12.6 million in prize money. The Serb also prevailed in 10 of 11 matches against the other two members of the Big Three, maybe his most impressive accomplishment. And he did it all while comporting himself like a pro. Adje, indeed.
For those tired of discussing Serena Williams -- and you're well within your rights to be -- skip this section. There was so much residual email, I didn't want to ignore it entirely, but I feel like we could all stand to move on.
Serena Williams could have been banned from her home U.S. Open after Sunday's final outburst, but the three-time champion has escaped with a $2,000 fine from the United States Tennis Association.
Australia's Samantha Stosur produced one of the biggest shocks in U.S. Open final history, beating Serena Williams in straight sets at Flushing Meadows to secure her first Grand Slam success.
Unpredictability is one of the great virtues of sports. Want scripted endings? You go to the theater. Want choreography? Go to the ballet. Then there are sports, the best reality TV going, virtually limitless in their capacity for surprise.
Three-times champion Serena Williams proved too powerful for world number one Caroline Wozniacki -- crushing the Dane in straight sets to reach the final of the U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows on Saturday night.
Serena Williams will face world number one Caroline Wozniacki for a place in the U.S Open final after both women recorded last eight victories in New York.
Serena Williams tamed strong winds at the U.S. Open to book her place in the quarterfinals with a comprehensive defeat of Ana Ivanovic.
Simple question: Will the USTA ever build a roof? Along with 50,000 other people, I got rained out today and I'm not happy about it! -- Salil, Long Island, N.Y.
"Life is so precious," Serena says of her sister's Sjögren's syndrome diagnosis
Top seed Caroline Wozniacki and tournament favorite Serena Williams both came through third round matches in straight sets Saturday at the U.S .Open.
Serena Williams was detained on court for just 49 minutes in reaching the third round of the U.S. Open Thursday with a brutal demolition of Dutch qualifier Michaella Krajicek.
The US Open tennis tournament started Monday, a day after Hurricane Irene spared New York from its full fury as it rampaged across the region.
A 'Bag before the Big Show. Check back Thursday for the U.S. Open seed reports, and don't forget our guide to attending the tournament in New York:
Tournament favorite Serena Williams has been seeded 28th by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) for next week's final grand slam, the U.S. Open, at Flushing Meadows.
Former world number one Serena Williams has withdrawn from the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati with a toe injury.
Serena Williams secured her second straight title since coming back from long-term injury and illness as she beat Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-4 6-2 in the final of the Rogers Cup in Toronto Sunday.
Serena Williams is through to the semifinals of the Rogers Cup in Toronto after a gutsy performance against the Czech left-hander Lucie Safarova on Friday.
Serena Williams captured her first title in over a year as she breezed past Marion Bartoli in the Stanford Classic in California.
Serena Williams produced a dominating performance to beat Maria Sharapova 6-1 6-3 to reach the semifinals of the WTA tournament in Stanford.
Serena Williams swept aside Anastasia Rodionova in her first match on American soil since the 2009 U.S. Open, as she recorded an emphatic 6-0 6-0 victory at the Bank of West Classic in Stanford, California.
On a dramatic day at Wimbledon defending champion Serena Williams was dumped out of the tournament, along with her sister Venus and world number one Caroline Wozniacki.
WIMBLEDON, England -- We've had an early casualty on Centre Court this year, a longtime fixture put to pasture on the grass. The seeds have survived -- some more easily than others. But you'll note that as players walk onto the court, they no longer bow and curtsy before the Royal Box. This tradition has been dying slowly over the past few years. It's now officially dead. The Duke of Kent, patron of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, requested an end to the practice, claiming it no longer fits in with the modern game. (This comes months after Buckingham Palace explicitly asserted that those meeting royalty should only bow or curtsey if they want to.) The Club relented. Bowing before Royalty is now voluntary.
World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki is looking to win her first grand slam crown. Maria Sharapova, one of her predecessors as the top women's tennis player, is returning to the scene of her breakthrough title.
updated: Sat Jun 18 2011 16:35:00
CNN's Ayesha Durgahee speaks to Serena Williams about recovering from a blood clot in her lungs.
Jon Wertheim breaks down the men's and women's seeds at Wimbledon. Read on for the top first-round matchups, dark horses, and his predicted winners.
updated: Fri Jun 17 2011 06:57:00
Venus Williams tells the WTA she is back and aiming to win and what it's like to have her sister Serena back.
We'll be back Friday with our seed report ...
Serena Williams will return to competitive tennis after nearly a year on the sidelines in the WTA tournament at Eastbourne, which starts Saturday.
I've always thought that one of the best things about American sport is that we aren't dominated by one team game, as so much of the rest of the world is soccer-centric. That's why we can have our own American dream. The dream of most other countries is simply to have their national soccer team do well.
The tennis star talks about how her panic in the middle of her blood-clot nightmare
1. Cup coup. Last week was Davis Cup week. And, as badly as the event is in need of a format/marketing upgrade, it succeeded in spite of itself. Exceptional tennis, exceptional drama, heroic efforts, and that beguiling overlap of individual and team. Spanning the globe ... we go to Chile, where the Americans made Jim Courier's debut a success and prevailed on clay. As long as Andy Roddick and the Bryans are on the skipper's line-up card, the Americans have a good chance. Riding a big win by Joachim Johansson (remember him?) the Swedes scored a big win against Russia. Kazakhstan upset the Czech Republic. I liiike! Depsite Ivo Karlovic's record 156 miles per hour. serve, Germany was able to beat Croatia. Last year's winner, Serbia -- which prevailed over France just a few days ago, it seems -- was sensibly given a first-round bye. No, wait! This just in: the Serbs beat India in Novi Sad. Check all the results at the consistently excellent DavisCup.com. If the only ITF's ability to
Serena Williams says she hopes to return to tennis in May or June after undergoing surgery to remove a blood clot from her lungs.
The tennis ace suffered a pulmonary embolism and a hematoma but is "doing better"
The tennis star, 29, was hospitalized and underwent emergency treatment
Serena Williams is targeting a spring return to the tennis circuit after a lengthy injury layoff which culminated in the 13-time grand slam winner being unable to defend her Australian Open crown.
updated: Tue Feb 08 2011 10:28:00
Serena Williams talks about her foot injury and what she's been doing in her time off from the game.
Ten things I'd like to see as the 2011 tennis year unfolds:
1. The new sheriff. Was it really 2009 that the last holdout caved, and we reached a rare consensus that Roger Federer was the best player in the modern era? Suddenly it's a race again. After retiring from the Australian Open with a knee injury, Rafael Nadal stormed back to win three straight majors, completing the career Grand Slam and bringing his total to nine -- still seven fewer than Federer, but ahead of his trajectory. If Nadal completes the "Rafa Slam" in Australia, the debate will only intensify. Pick a side, but agree it makes for compelling theater.
Defending champion Serena Williams will miss the Australian Open in January to give herself more time to recover from foot surgery.
I'm not sure how many people asked for it -- at last count, I believe it was 18 -- but here we are in the middle of the tennis Silly Season. Just when you thought the U.S. Open was such a fabulous venue for closure, onward we go to Beijing, Shanghai, Venus and Oz.
1. The little match girl: Even before Caroline Wozniacki won the Beijing event, her WTA-leading fifth title of 2010, she had eclipsed Serena Williams and achieved the No. 1 ranking. Predictably, cheers were tempered with critique that the WTA computer rankings system is somehow flawed. (Wozniacki, of course, did not even reach a major final in 2010; Serena won two of the three she entered.) We know that gap in her resume. Why don't we consider what Wozniacki has done: She's won more titles and more matches than any other player this year. Given the points breakdown, to balance Serena's two Grand Slam titles, Wozniacki needed to reach the equivalent of eight major singles quarterfinals in one year. That's an awful lot of ground to cover. That's she done it suggests there's some heft to her record after all. If my life were resting on the outcome of a match, whom would I rather be playing: Serena or Wozniacki? No contest. But for now, let's acknowledge the Dane's successes, not her
Serena Williams says she is "devastated" after being ruled out for the rest of 2010 due to a recurrence of her foot injury.
"Call me! It's that easy," the tennis star tells PEOPLE
Top-ranked tennis superstar Serena Williams said a foot injury that forced her to pull out of the U.S. Open is "devastating."
Seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Venus Williams is our guest respondent for this week's Mailbag. Currently ranked No. 3 in singles and No. 1 in doubles, Venus has taken a break from preparing for the U.S. Open and promoting her bestselling book Come to Win in order to answer your questions.
The GOAT debate rages, with lots of you continuing to make compelling cases for and against Serena Williams, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. In the span of five minutes last week, I got one email from Paul in Long Beach reading, "Your piece on Serena Williams as the GOAT was the fairest and most unbiased assessment of Ms. Williams I have ever read ... no rational fan can deny that she is not the GOAT," and another from Samuel of Miami reading, "I've lost all respect for you with this championing of Serena as the GOAT ... I can no longer read your column." So there. As a wise man once said: "Opinions are like Facebook pages: Everyone has one."
1. Foot in mouth: Amid all this GOAT talk -- which we'll put to pasture for a while -- Serena Williams offered a vivid illustration of why she causes so much skepticism and unease among some fans. A week after a starring performance at Wimbledon, she takes a rumored $1 million fee to play in Belgium and then promptly bails on both World TeamTennis and every event before the U.S. Open because of a foot injury. You question the truthfulness or severity of an athlete's injury at your own peril. (And while details are still sketchy this injury does apparently involve surgery.) But -- as is too often the case -- something is a bit off. You read Serena's tweets about her active social life or watch this Kevin Frazier video and it rankles. Over FanHouse, Greg Couch made a fair point: If Serena wants to avail herself only for Slams, she's earned that right. But the unending withdrawals -- and the WTA's apparent complicity -- insults fans and promoters alike. Serena has a terrible track
Most of the mail this week both rebutted and supported my suggestion that Serena Williams is the GOAT of women's tennis. As usual, lop off 10 percent of the responses from both extremes, and we have a civil, engaging discussion. Some recurring themes:
Did you really says Serena is the GOAT in this week's Sports Illustrated? --Jeff H., New York
We were considering expanding our random ruminations to 68-70 items. But fatigue has set in, so herewith, 50 thoughts on a strange Wimbledon ...
I keep looking for the real story. Between Serena Williams's website, the WTA Tour site and wire service reports, there is nothing but mystery surrounding an injury that now requires surgery. Collectively, they've left everyone in the dark, which leads to a grim and familiar conclusion: Serena has the entire sport buffaloed.
Wimbledon champion Serena Williams is facing a spell on the sidelines after cutting her foot on some broken glass in a restaurant.
Two things came to mind last week when colleague Jon Wertheim deemed Serena Williams the greatest female player of all time. First, that I hadn't heard it mentioned before, at least among the sport's most respected observers, and certainly not with such conviction. Secondly -- and not surprisingly -- Jon's claim made a great deal of sense.
Serena Willams stories from the SI Vault
Plus, the tennis star explains why she and rapper Common called it quits
Three quick thoughts from the women's final at Wimbledon on Saturday:
Top seed and defending champion Serena Williams charged into her sixth Wimbledon final where she will play Russian Vera Zvonareva on Saturday.
Five-time champion Venus Williams sensationally crashed out in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon to unheralded Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova on Tuesday.
Venus and Serena Williams' bid for a fifth consecutive Grand Slam doubles title ended when they were beaten in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
Ten thoughts on Wimbledon's second Monday, for sheer quantity the sport's greatest show on earth:
WIMBLEDON, England -- Three thoughts from the women's quarterfinals at the All England Club on Tuesday:
Defending champion Serena Williams will face former winner Maria Sharapova in the fourth round at Wimbledon after both players progressed comfortably on Saturday.
Defending women's champion Serena Williams made light work of Russia's Anna Chakvetadze defeating her 6-0 6-1 in just 49 minutes out on Court two.
Serena Williams made a confident start to her Wimbledon title defense with a straight sets defeat of world number 148 Michelle Larcher De Brito of Portugal.
With a record winner's prize of almost $1.5 million, there's a lot at stake for the 128 women tennis players lining up at the hallowed lawns of Wimbledon in the coming fortnight.
SI.com caught up with Sports Illustrated senior writer S.L. Price after Samantha Stosur defeated Serena Williams in the French Open quarterfinals, 6-2, 6-7 (2), 8-6. Price is in Paris covering the tournament.
Samantha Stosur of Australia inflicted Justine Henin's first French Open defeat since 2004 to set up a quarterfinal against Serena Williams.
An ailing Serena Williams came through a topsy-turvy third round encounter with Russia's 29th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to reach the last 16 of the French Open in Paris.
Top seed Serena Williams is through to the second round of the French Open after a straight sets win over Switzerland's Stefanie Voegele on Monday.
How do you think Uncle "Fly coach, drive Kia" Toni feels about Rafa's $525,000 watch? --Christina Davis, Boston, Mass.
Top seed Serena Williams slumped to a third round defeat to Nadia Petrova in the Madrid but her sister Venus will move to number two in the world rankings after an earlier victory over Francesca Schiavone.
World No. 1 Serena Williams survived the longest match of her career to bounce back from her Rome disappointment and reach the third round of the Madrid Open on Monday.
I just cleared some space in my tennis video library for a Spanish woman named Maria Jose Martínez Sánchez. She has enough names for two people, and more imagination than anyone. She deserves a worldwide toast for winning the Italian Open on the storied clay courts of Foro Italico, and not merely because it's the first significant singles title of her career. Her performance sent a message to every young girl trying to learn the game.
Lleyton Hewitt ended the Australian Open with surgery and was on crutches afterward, but he is back in action this week at Houston. Serena Williams won the Australian Open, but hasn't played a match since then, claiming she is injured. Maybe it is just me, but something does not seem right about this. --Aaron, Illinois
I can't imagine Serena Williams merely strolling onto the grounds of the Italian Open, where she is making her return to the game this week. More likely, she sashayed in. This is a woman who knows how to make an entrance, and she'd better make an impression after taking nearly four months off.
I enjoyed watching Mary Joe Fernandez as a player, I enjoy listening to her as a commentator, and I've enjoyed the success she's had as Fed Cup captain. What I would enjoy even more, however, is for her to say to the Williams sisters, "It's obvious you don't care enough about this competition to play, and that's your prerogative. But I, at least, am going to stop this silly and transparent charade about you wanting to and saying that you will, so you can appear patriotic, and then pulling out at the last minute. From this point on, Fed Cup is a Williams-free Zone." The team has done very well without the Williamses, and they are a joy to watch, because they all want to be there and enjoy being on the team together. --Chris F., Otsego, Minn.
Mentally tough? Try Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting from the cricket world. Or try, still active, track legend Haile Gebreselassie (more than 25 world records in middle- and long-distance races and current men's marathon world-record holder). It sure takes mental toughness to beat out your tough rivals while dominating middle- and long-distance running over the span of a decade. -- Jim Bates, Cairns, Australia
Australian Open champion Serena Williams has pulled out of next week's Paris Indoor Open due to a leg injury.
What will it take to get Nadal back into game shape ... for the long run? Take time off? Retire then unretire? Knee surgery? Change his game? Please tell that a six-time Grand Slam champion isn't done at 23. --Yves, Montreal
So it has come to this in the world of big-time tennis: You're 28 years old, absolutely in your prime, cherishing the game -- and you're some kind of mythical superhero, a miracle of longevity and commitment.
Five things we've learned from the Australian Open women's final:
Serena Williams successfully defended her Australian Open title with a 6-4 3-6 6-2 victory over Belgium's Justine Henin in a thrilling final in Melbourne on Saturday night.
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