Black Tennis Pros

One of the biggest stars in tennis, Serena Williams has captured every major title. Her 2009 Australia Open championship earned her the #1 world ranking for the third time in her illustrious career - and marked only the latest exclamation point on a life well and purposefully lived.

As a young girl, Serena began training with an adult-sized racquet that was almost as big as her. Rather than dropping the racquet, Serena saw it as a challenge to overcome-and she has confronted every obstacle on her path to success with the same unflagging spirit.

From growing up in the tough, hardscrabble neighborhood of Compton, California, to being trained by her father on public tennis courts littered with broken glass and drug paraphernalia, to becoming the top women's player in the world, Serena has proven to be an inspiration to her legions of fans both young and old. Her accomplishments have not been without struggle: being derailed by injury, devastated by the tragic shooting of her older sister, and criticized for her unorthodox approach to tennis.

Yet somehow, Serena always manages to prevail. Both on the court and off, she's applied the strength and determination that helped her to become a champion to successful pursuits in philanthropy, fashion, television and film. In this compelling and poignant memoir, Serena takes an empowering look at her extraordinary life and what is still to come.

No. 9 seed James Blake pulled away from Colombian qualifier Alejandro Falla to win 7-6(5), 6-1, and improve his match record to 34-17 on the season. Blake converted three of six break points in the 68-minute match and he will face German Nicolas Kiefer on Wednesday.

Blake said concerns over a stomach injury had him in a tentative frame of mind early. "I pulled a stomach muscle last week and I was just kind of testing it. So just kind of trying to be careful and figure out what I wanted to do... it felt good by the end of the first set. "Second set I was able to swing a little bit more freely and go for my shots, especially with the confidence having won the first set without playing my best tennis.

Blake also took the time to sign copies of his best selling book "Breaking Back" at the Linder Family Tennis Center in Cincinnati.