Black Tennis Pros

 

Serena Williams clinched the 2011 Olympus US Open Series women’s title on Tuesday.  This is the first career Olympus US Open Series title for Williams, who earned 170 points by winning titles at Series events in Stanford and Toronto.

Williams will now compete for the largest payout in tennis history at the 2011 US Open -- $2.8 million ($1.8 million for winning the US Open and a $1 million bonus for winning the US Open and the Olympus US Open Series).  The women’s second and third place finishers in this year’s bonus challenge have yet to be determined, with Agnieszka Radwanksa, Maria Sharapova and Marion Bartoli still in contention.

Top-ranked American Mardy Fish clinched the 2011 Olympus US Open Series men’s title with a 7-5, 7-5, round of 16 win over Richard Gasquet at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati on Thursday (now that the field for the Winston-Salem Open, the final event of the Series – has been closed). This is the first Olympus US Open Series title for Fish, who finished third in the standings last year. The men’s second and third place finishers in this year’s bonus challenge have yet to be determined.

Fish will now compete for the largest payout in tennis history at the 2011 US Open -- $2.8 million ($1.8 million for winning the US Open and a $1 million bonus for winning the US Open and the Olympus US Open Series).

This year marks the first time in Olympus US Open Series history that Americans have won both the men’s and women’s titles, as Mardy Fish clinched the men’s title last week.  Novak Djokovic has clinched second place, and the third place finisher will be determined at the Winston-Salem Open.  

Fish will also compete for $1 million in bonus prize money at the 2011 US Open. The second and third place finishers on both the men’s and women’s sides will compete for $500,000 and $250,000, respectively.

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Wimbledon (AP) - "Definitely not our best day," Venus said. "I think we both envisioned seeing this day going a little bit different."

Also knocked out was top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, who fell 1-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5 to No. 24 Dominika Cibulkova in the Dane's latest failed attempt to win her first Grand Slam title.

Venus and Serena have won nine of the last 11 titles at Wimbledon, and have faced each other in four finals.

In 2006, Venus lost in the third round and Serena missed the tournament. This is the first year that, when both sisters were in the draw, both lost before the quarterfinals.

The last time the sisters lost on the same day at a Grand Slam was in 2008, when they fell in the third round at the French Open.

"Obviously it's not something planned," Venus said. "We rarely lose on the same day."

With 2004 champion Maria Sharapova of Russia among those advancing Monday, it marks the first time since 1913 that all eight women's Wimbledon quarterfinalists are from Europe — all from different countries.

After winning last year's Wimbledon, Serena missed nearly a year after foot surgery and subsequent blood clots in her lungs. She returned two weeks ago at Eastbourne for the first time since then. Venus also returned at Eastbourne after a five-month layoff with a hip injury

Venus was clearly off the top of her game Monday, committing 16 unforced errors and converting only one of four break points. She was broken four times.

"I didn't seem to get the ball in," Venus said. "She took her opportunities. I just didn't put the ball in the court, simple as that. Unfortunately, I seem not to have my good days against her. But she played well."

The 33rd-seeded Pironkova, who lost in the semifinals here last year to eventual runner-up Vera Zvonareva, played steady tennis against Venus and never cracked.

"I beat her two times, two consecutive years — it feels amazing to play such a champion on this legendary court," the Bulgarian said after holding serve and stroking a backhand winner down the line on her second match point. "When I come here I just feel so relaxed. I really like the atmosphere here."

Serena saved four match points before the ninth-seeded Bartoli closed out the contest by hitting a service winner into the corner. It was Serena's earliest exit at Wimbledon since a third-round loss in 2005.

"I never came here thinking I would lose," she said. "That's my attitude. You win some and you lose some. Today just happened to be the one that slipped under me."

But Serena said she was satisfied getting as far as she did after such a long time away from the game.

"I think I did really well just being able to come back and play and win some matches, and just really play tough," she said. "Even today I lost, but I was able to kind of hang in there and play tough. And I can only get better. That can potentially be really scary, because I can only go up from here and I can just do so much more."

Bartoli made the Wimbledon final in 2007, losing to Venus.

Serena had 20 unforced errors Monday to go with 29 winners, and managed to convert only one of five break points. Bartoli served 10 aces, two more than Williams, and kept down her errors to 17.

It was the first time Bartoli has beaten the American after straight-set defeats in their previous two matches.

"Beating Serena is almost like a dream come true," Bartoli said. "Even though she didn't play for almost one year, she's probably one of the greatest champions in women's tennis.

"For me to be able come back after having three match points and losing this game at 6-5, and still be able to bounce back, it's really huge."

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Ladies' Singles 4th Round

Venus Williams, USA (23) vs. Svetana Pironkova, BUL (32)

Serena Williams, USA (7) vs. Marion Bartoli, FRA (9)



Gentlemen's Singles - 4th Round

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA (12) vs. David Ferrer, ESP (7)



Ladies' Doubles - 2nd Round

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA and Abigail Spears, USA
vs.
Cara Black, ZIM (14) and Shahar Peer, ISR (14)

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WIMBLEDON, England -- Serena Williams has been known to say she isn't satisfied with this or that aspect of her game, even after easily winning a match, say, 6-3, 6-2.

So it was somehow refreshing to hear Williams actually praise herself after a victory by that very score over 26th-seeded Maria Kirilenko at Wimbledon on Saturday.

Yes, only five matches since returning to the tour after nearly a full year off because of a series of health scares, Williams produced a performance worthy of the 13-time Grand Slam champion that she is. And then Williams talked the talk of someone finally ready to concede that British bookmakers might very well have been right to make her the pre-tournament favorite.

Asked whether she was surprised by the odds, the seventh-seeded American smiled widely and said: "I wouldn't bet against me."

After hitting 10 aces and compiling a 32-9 edge in winners against Kirilenko, Williams termed the showing her "best I've played since I came back."

"I was a little more consistent, and I played mygame more," said Williams, trying to become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1991-93 to win three consecutive Wimbledon titles. "Wasn't as tight and nervous and uptight. I was able to relax more today."


She was part of a parade of past champions who breezed into the fourth round Saturday, joined by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova, who all were straight-set winners, too. Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, seeking her first Grand Slam title, and two-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, who is now 44-1 in 2011, also moved on.

Serena explained she'd been playing tentatively until Saturday.

"You're always thinking, 'I can get hurt again.' You just kind of have to let those thoughts go or anything could happen," Williams said. "And I wasn't thinking that at all today. It was just a big difference."

On Monday, she'll face 2007 runner-up Marion Bartoli. Other fourth-round women's matches include Williams' older sister Venus vs. No. 32 Tsvetana Pironkova, who upset the five-time Wimbledon champion a year ago; Wozniacki vs. No. 24 Dominika Cibulkova; and Sharapova vs. No. 20 Peng Shuai.

After beating Kirilenko -- her first straight-set victory in five matches since returning -- Williams revealed another, if less serious, mishap from her annus horribilis: She scraped her right shoulder and face when she fell off her pink bicycle during a ride near her home in Florida in October.


"I'm thinking, 'Oh, nooooooo,"' Williams recounted, as though replaying her words in slow motion. "All I thought was, 'Don't fall on my face. Don't fall on my face.' When I fell on my face, I was like, 'No!"'
Since then, she's been sticking to stationary bikes.

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Venus Williams continues to tear up the Sony Ericsson Open WTA Tour, eclipsing sixth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3, 6-1 Tuesday to race into the semi-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open. Williams improved to an 18-1 match record on the season, and is closing on her third consecutive title, following earlier victories in Dubai and Acapulco.

In the semi-finals Williams will play 13th seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli.

Despite coming into the Sony Ericsson Open after a month’s layoff, Williams showed that conditioning was not an issue, finding her best form one day after grinding out a tough three-set win over Daniela Hantuchova. In that match she lost eight of the first nine games before fighting back.

“[Today was] a little more straightforward. We had some kind of interesting times in the first set where we traded breaks. Getting through a match like yesterday makes me more confident because it wasn't exactly my best game.

“Today I was kind of eager to clean up my act. We had some really good rallies and really good points, but I just see me keep coming out on top, so of course I like that.”

Williams, at 29 the oldest remaining player in the draw, will next play the winner of former Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli and 12th-seeded Belgian Yanina Wickmayer.

Williams won three Sony Ericsson Open titles (1998, '99 and 2001) in a four-year period as part of a 22-match winning streak that was halted by sister Serena in 2002. Williams, who did not play the tournament in 2000, has not been to the final since her 2001 title run.

Eighth-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga needed just 59 minutes to overpower Spanish former World No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-2, 6-2, as he dropped just four points on his first serve en route to the quarter-finals for the second straight year.

The Frenchman, who fell to Novak Djokovic in the last eight of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis tournament last year, broke serve five times and surrendered just four points behind his first serve to record his second victory over the 12th-seeded Ferrero.

The 24-year-old Tsonga, who won his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in Paris two years ago, improved to a 14-5 mark on the season, highlighted by semi-final efforts at the Australian Open (l. to Federer) and the Open 13 (l. to Benneteau) in Marseille.

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No matter how American Venus Williams begged and pleaded with herself on Sunday at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, Calfornia, she was not able to bring the brilliance of her game that she had just displayed on the previous two consecutive nights against Russians Maria Sharapova and Elena Dementieva.

This is the second meeting between Venus and Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli. In the Wimbledon 2007 final Venus showed Bartoli a thing or two and defeated her. Bartoli has just evened the score by defeating Venus 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 and earning the Bank of the West Classic title.

“I’m more experienced since that Wimbledon final," said Bartoli. "I’ve grown a lot and know what to do on big points. I can run a lot and I wanted to make Venus play one extra shot on every point.”

Venus, the former 2000 and 2002 titleholder of this event said, “Marion played really well,” Williams said. “I couldn’t find my game. I was fighting myself a lot and I couldn’t find the court. I’m not used to that.”

“Venus is one of the greatest champions ever,” Bartoli said. “That’s what I practice for, to play her. To beat her is even better.”

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