Black Tennis Pros

We went to this big electronics store downtown after the match, and it was fun, actually. I needed a new camera and I got one, which was nice. It's cute and I can put it in my purse. It's one of those small ones you can hold in your hand. It's not superoutrageous though. I heard the electronics stores had the latest and the greatest, but I couldn't find the latest and the greatest. Although we did see these 160 gigabyte iPods, which we thought was pretty awesome. I don't even need an iPod because I have two already, but I got it anyway - sold to the fool with the credit card! They were all asking me why I wasn't getting it, so I guess I caved. The iPod I am currently using is the one the French Open gave me last year and it has my name on it, which is nice. I got one for myself too, which says "Phoenix From the Flames, My Venus Rises" on it. I like that phrase, I think about it to help motivate me for my matches sometimes. So now I have a third iPod. We then came back to the hotel, as I'm first tomorrow and have to be ready to perform.

I did end up getting a hold of Serena - but I can't really say what she wanted to tell me. Well, basically someone said something pretty crazy to her and she just couldn't believe it. I was hoping she didn't say anything back and go crazy on them but she didn't, so that was good news. Although we're half the world away from each other, we still gossip and catch up. We always do. And even though I can't see her matches I do follow them, and I'll always give her advice on her next opponents. I tend to play a bigger variety of players for some reason.

Other than that we didn't do too much today. We're just at tennis all day, and by the time I finish press, soft tissue and stretching, we don't have time for anything else, really. I wasted a ton of time on the internet tonight; I don't even know what I was doing. I did get this group e-mail from my cousins though; they went to Serena's website and they were telling us to go to the Tour's site to see the picture of my mom and I, which was taken before my second match...

I finally started my swimsuit design tonight, too. I've done the front and I'm doing the back now. I'm struggling with these stupid computer line drawings... I'm just drawing the butt in now. It looks like a triangle right now. It looks pretty lazy. I'll just have to keep doing it over and over again. This is just the beginning of the work I've been meaning to do over the last few days, it's going to be tough to meet my deadline, I'll have to pull a lot of all-nighters. But hopefully I won't have to do that. I always find a way to meet a deadline.

I have to tell you this story about my mother. When you're on the road, if you ever want to send anything back home you can usually just give it to the hotel and they'll do it for you. Anyway, we got this stuff in Korea last week and so my mom wanted to send some of it back - a jewellery box, other stuff - and so she comes in with these empty Gatorade boxes to do it herself! We were teasing her so much, saying like she'll get boxes delivered to the room, or we'll put this old pair of tennis shoes in and send it back; we started singing "Gypsy Woman" by Crystal Waters, you know, "She's just like you and me, but she's homeless," stuff like that. We do tease her a lot. One time she was taking these passport photos and she tried to have the same serious expression in each one, but each one was slightly different - and we laughed so much that eventually she just threw the pictures out! Don't get me wrong, we love our mom... we're just teasing.

So tomorrow I'm playing Caroline Wozniacki, a really good young player who has been working very hard, just like everyone else. I played her in February this year in Memphis, and I just remember being very glad to have won that match. I try not to overanalyze what the next person is going to do, I'm just out there to play my game. I don't worry too hard. Hopefully I'll play my best tomorrow.

Until next time...

xxx

Venus

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