Black Tennis Pros

Moroccan tennis legend Younes El Aynaoui will announce his retirement in Doha after taking one last shot at the ExxonMobilQatarOpen, which he had won in 2002.

El Aynaoui, the most successful player of Arab descent in history, has been given a wildcard by the Qatar Tennis Federation so that he can bow out of the game at one of his favourite venues.

“Younes asked for a wildcard because he wants to retire in Doha. The Khalifa Tennis Complex is one of his favourite venues, and he thought it would be apt for him to call it quits at a place which is very close to his heart,” tournament director Karim Alami told the Gulf Times yesterday.

El Aynaoui, who has won singles titles on the ATP Tour, has had a chequered career. He had to endure long spells of inaction because of several injuries and has not played top-level tennis since September 2008.

“He has been unlucky to suffer many injuries, but he is very fit now and you never know what he is capable of,” Alami, a fellow Moroccan, added.

In March 2008, after a seven-month lay-off due to injuries, he won a Futures event in Castelldefels, Spain on clay, and in April he won a challenger event in Chiasso, Switzerland. In May that year, he reached the semi-finals of the BMW Open in Munich to become the oldest player to reach the semi-finals of an ATP Tour level event since Jimmy Connors in 1993.

He also reached the quarter-finals of the Casablanca Open in Morocco, but retired due to an injury in his left calf. Those were the last two ATP tournaments he ever played.

El Aynaoui is an extremely popular figure in Morocco where he received the country’s highest sporting honour from King Mohammed VI. In a 2003 poll by leading Moroccan newspaper L’Economiste, readers named El Aynaoui their favorite role model for society, ahead of the prime minister and athletics star Hicham El Guerrouj. The centre court of the Royal Tennis Club in Marrakech is named after El Aynaoui.

El Ayanoui’s matches in Doha always drew packed houses, which even players such as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal cannot boast of.

Meanwhile, the draw for the QatarExxonMobilOpen beginning tomorrow was held yesterday with World No.1 Roger Federer and World No.2 playing Belgian Christophe Rochus and Italian Simone Bolelli respectively in the first round.

World No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko and El Aynaoui will take on qualifiers.

Nadal and Federer are scheduled to arrive in Doha today after playing an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi.

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DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Serena Williams bested big sister Venus again Sunday, winning 6-2, 7-6 (4) in the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships final.


Serena broke twice in the first set and lost just seven points on serve in her last match of the year. She looked sharper than Venus in every facet of a match that featured few long rallies and little of the spectacular tennis the two have provided in some of their previous meetings.

Serena sealed the match with a crosscourt forehand winner, and celebrated calmly with a simple fist pump before hugging her sister at the net.

"It feels great," said Serena, who also won the WTA Tour's season-ending event in 2001. "I totally didn't expect to come here and win."

It was Serena's fourth straight win over her sister. She also beat Venus in the round-robin stage of the Doha tournament, the Wimbledon final and the semifinals in Miami this year. She leads their head-to-head record 13-10.

"Playing a final against Venus is really tough," Serena said. "Even though she wasn't really feeling great, she kept hitting every ball back."

Serena earned $1.55 million for the win after finishing the event undefeated. She also clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking earlier this week after Dinara Safina of Russia pulled out injured in her first match.

The tournament featured the eight top-ranked women in the world divided into two groups, with the semifinalsts decided by a round-robin stage.

Venus lost two of her three round-robin matches but still advanced. The defending champion looked tired after rallying for a three-set win over Jelena Jankovic on Saturday, and each of her other group matches went three sets.

She played with her left knee strapped while Serena had strapping on her left thigh.

"It was the end of the season, so I have no complaints," Venus said about her fitness level. "You have to show up and play no matter what. So that had nothing to do with it."

Serena, who advanced after U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki retired injured in the semifinals, held five of her last seven service games at love and lost just one point in each of the other two.

It was her third tournament win of the season after Wimbledon and the Australian Open.

"I haven't won a tournament that wasn't a Grand Slam in a while, so that was even more exciting," she said. "My losing streak in (other) tournaments in over."

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American Serena Williams shakes her groove thang at the Sony Ericsson end of year party at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel during the Sony Ericsson Championships at the Khalifa Tennis Complex.

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Yesterday as I was creating my post for Venus Williams' oh so fabulous win at the Sony Ericsson Championshps in Doha, Qatar, I couldn't help but notice the very regal and chic Sheikha Moza, wife of Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

Not only did Sheikha Moza attend the final but she also presented the trophies to the winners of the singles and doubles tournaments.

Her presence just goes to show all you fashionistas out there that a little goes a very long way. Sheikha Moza is covered in black literally from head to toe and yet she looks like a million bucks!

That's one hot Sheikha!

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Looks like American Venus Williams has accepted the fact that baby sister Serena is all grown up, and when they hit the courts, she's treating her as such. Venus didn't pull her younger sibling to her to give her a noogie, but she did give her a goose egg.



In the Khalifa Stadium in Doha, Qatar at the Sony Ericsson Championships, Venus took Serena to task to the tune of a 5-7, 6-1, 6-0 defeat. The Williams-Williams match was the 18th time that the sisters have met.

After being down one set, Venus turned her attention to the second set and improved her game. For a moment it appeared that Serena would continue to prevail, but not so.

Venus said, "I think I started playing well in the second set, serving a lot better, and then that first game in the third was really long. But after that, I think she started to get a little more impatient, a little more upset with her performance. She just started to play faster and faster; when the other person keeps bringing it back, it just starts a domino effect with her."

Ever the big sister, Venus said of Serena, "There's nothing I can do. I think she just has to go through it, and figure out in her head what went wrong in the match - just like all the other matches, even though it was against me. I think she'll take some time and come out even stronger tomorrow."

Suffering such a frustrating loss Serena said, "I wasn't playing my best in the first set, but at least I was able to get some serves in," she said. "After that it just kind of fell apart and I couldn't keep more than two balls over the net before I made an error. I've never been in a situation where I just feel like I can’t do anything - usually if I’m not serving well, I can hit a backhand.

"This is definitely the worst match I've played this year by far," I don't know why. I didn't even look like a Top 8 player today. Maybe Top 600 in the Juniors," she said with a smile.

This win puts Venus through to the semifinals.

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DOHA, Qatar (AP)—Venus and Serena Williams won contrasting round-robin matches at the Sony Ericsson Championships on Wednesday and next face a familiar opponent: each other.

Venus endured a struggle against Elena Dementieva 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to win her second match, and Serena romped past Dinara Safina 6-4, 6-1 in her first at the season-ending WTA Tour championships.

On Thursday, they meet for the 18th time in their professional careers, with Serena holding a 9-8 edge.

“Tomorrow I’ll definitely be going for the win, and just taking everything that I can,” said seventh-seeded Venus, who would qualify for the semifinals with a win.

“It’s going to be good and exciting,” third-seeded Serena said. “She’s pretty much already in the semis. And I’ve got to get there or I want to get there. So I know it’s not going to be easy.”


Serena barely got the better of her older sister in their last contest, the U.S. Open quarterfinals, and went on to win her ninth major. She lost to Venus in the Wimbledon final, and the pair teamed up for Olympic gold in the doubles at Beijing.



Venus rallied from 2-0 down in the last set against Dementieva. She had 10 double-faults to five for the Russian, but converted eight of 10 break points as the two engaged in powerful baseline rallies.

“It was just really competitive out there,” the older Williams said.

The points were much shorter between Serena Williams and second-seeded Safina, whose second loss eliminated her from semifinals contention.

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