Black Tennis Pros

Madrid, Spain - Unseeded Aravane Rezai upset Venus Williams to claim a straight sets win the final of the Madrid Open.

Frenchwoman Rezai, 23, earned only her third career title after defeating fourth seed Williams 6-2, 7-5 in one hour and 41 minutes at La Caja Magica.

Despite the loss Williams is set to return to second place in the world rankings for the first time since 2003 following her run this week, while she also won the women's doubles title at the Madrid Open with sister Serena on Saturday night.

Rezai, who won in Bali and Strasbourg last year, swept aside Williams during a superb first set in which she broke her opponent in the third and seventh games before serving out to love to take the upper hand.

It was a convincing start by Rezai, but she needed to dig deep during the second set to stage a remarkable fightback.

Williams, who had a 12-1 record on clay coming into the match, looked to be cruising towards levelling at one set all as she built a 5-2 lead and then, after Rezai had got back to 5-4, earning five set points on the Frenchwoman's serve in the 10th game.

However, Rezai saved all of them and, with the momentum behind her again, she broke Williams in the next game before serving out to win the match and the title.

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MADRID, Spain - A dream clash between one of the greatest teams of all time and the hottest team of the year took Manolo Santana court for the doubles final of the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open on Saturday night - and it was the Williams sisters who managed to come out on top.

Having recently won their 11th Grand Slam title together at the Australian Open and seeded No.1 here, Venus and Serena came out on fire against No.8 seeds Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta, flying out to a 6-2, 3-0 lead. Dulko and Pennetta won five of the next six games to lead 5-4 with Pennetta getting a chance to serve for the set - but the Williamses regained control in a big way, taking 12 of the last 15 points of the match to dust off a 6-2, 7-5 victory.


"We're really excited to win. We've worked really hard. Today we played a team that is doing really well, too," Serena Williams commented. "We just try to be the best and have fun, whether No.1 comes with that or not. Our goal right now is to do well at the French - we didn't do well there last year.

"Venus is in the singles final here too - she's playing really well."

The Williams sisters now have 18 doubles titles as a team: 11 Grand Slam titles, two Olympic gold medals and five Sony Ericsson WTA Tour titles. They have an incredible 140-18 win-loss record together as a team (an 88.6 winning percentage). On Monday, they will rise from co-No.3s on the doubles rankings to co-No.2s - the highest they've ever been in the team discipline.

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MADRID (AFP) — Venus Williams will bid for a 44th career title on Sunday when she tackles unseeded Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai in the Madrid Masters final, the day before her elevation to the world number two spot is confirmed.

Williams swept the last nine games in a dominant semi-final display on Saturday as she crushed Israeli Shahar Peer 6-3, 6-0 and earn her fourth final from six events in 2010.

Rezai won an unseeded match-up when Czech Lucie Safarova quit after one set trailing 6-1.

Their 24-minute affair came to a quick conclusion a day after Rezai had earned her third career win over a Top-10 opponent when she beat seventh seed Jelena Jankovic in the quarter-finals.

The ailing Safarova won just six points out of 16.

American fourth seed Williams, who will move to second in the world behind her sister Serena on Monday, overcame a minor niggle through an opening break of serve by the 22nd-ranked Peer, who upset fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the opening round.

Williams improved to 12-1 this season on clay, requiring just 66 minutes to complete her rout.

"We exchanged a couple of breaks, she's (Peer) a really tenacious player," said Williams. "She's very talented, with a never-say-die spirit.

"I was ready for that, and after those (early) games I just seemed to be able to find the corners. I can't complain about being able to play that well against a player like her.

"To have come out on top so far feels good. I've been happy with my form and I'm going to try to keep it going tomorrow (Sunday)."

Williams, who turns 30 in June, now stands 5-0 against Peer, having never lost a set in their series.

The victory, marked by 17 winners and six breaks of serve, was also her third of the year over Peer after Dubai and Rome.

Williams got her powerful game together from the fourth game of the contest to ease to victory, winning three love games in the first set and another in the second.

On Sunday, she will be bidding for her tenth career claycourt title, but has claimed only two at the top WTA tournaments, in Rome 11 years ago and Charleston in 2004.

"I feel like I've had a good career on clay courts," said the American.

"The ultimate is to win the French Open, and I've come close (she reached the 2002 final).

"I think I've won every other tournament except the French on clay, so I'd like to take it one more step."

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At the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open on Friday, Frenchman Gael Monfils and Spaniard Rafael Nadal hit the court in matching Nike attire for their quarterfinal match, and Nadal busted out of the gate in the same 'take no prisoners' form that he has displayed in each of his previous matches.

It wasn't as if Monfils didn't make the effort, he managed to get four games off of the Raging Rafa, but there was just very little else he could do to counter Nadal's assault. The longer the match went on, the more rattled Monfils seemed to get, serving double faults and over hitting on Nadal's serve whenever he could get a racquet on it. Nadal cruised to a 6-1, 6-3 win.

It's good to see Monfils again, and this was not a bad warmup tournament for his first back since his hand/wrist injury after Indian Wells.

We'll see what happens at his home grand slam... here's hoping.

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In today's quarterfinal action at the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open, American Venus Williams, who won her third round match against Italy's Francesca Schiavone on Wednesday, will meet Australian Samantha Stosur against whom she currently stands 3-0. All of those matches came in straight sets, and none of the sets went past 6-4.

It would appear that Stosur has her work cut out for her.

On the men's side, Frenchman Gael Monfils, who has been on the injury list as of late, will meet Spain's one and only Rafa. Rafael Nadal, who is undefeated on clay this season (12-0), holds a 5-1 career mark against Monfils.

Monfils obviously has his work cut out for him too.



Lastly, No. 1 doubles seeds Venus and Serena Williams who are well on their way to becoming the world no. 1 doubles team, will go up against Iraeli Shahar Peer and her Italian teammate Francesca Schiavone.

The sisters defeated Russian Maria Kirilenko and Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

Should be good tennis on tap for today!!

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MADRID, Spain - Venus Williams cemented a return to the No.2 ranking at the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open on Wednesday, beating Francesca Schiavone in the third round of the $4.5-million Premier-level event. The last time the 29-year-old Williams was in the Top 2 was May 11, 2003, almost exactly seven years ago.

"In the rankings, you keep going until you get to that No.1 spot," Venus said. "Of course, Serena and I being No.1 and No.2 in the world is what we dreamed of growing up. But we each dreamed of being No.1 - neither of us dreamed of No.2. I congratulate Serena on that ranking but I'm aiming to get there myself."

Way to go Venus!!

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In just 61 minutes Switzerland's Roger Federer turned the beat around on American James Blake at the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open today.

During the last big meeting between these two at the Beijing Olympics, James Blake took a very big win off of Federer 6-4, 7-6(2). Unfortunately that single win out of their now ten meetings is going to have to last for awhile.

Blake didn't look quite as finely tuned as he has over the last week and a half. Alternatively Federer sailed through the match with ease as he defeated Blake 6-2, 6-4.

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At the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open today, all 6'10" of Croatian Ivo Karlovic descended upon American James Blake and bombed him with 26 - that's right - 26 aces. Although that's pretty much the norm for Karlovic, it has got to suck to be the recipient thereof.

Even with that much fire power coming his way, and Blake answering only four of those aces with an ace, he still managed to bring Karlovic down.

In three very tight sets Blake prevailed, winning the match 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(4).

Blake will now meet Roger Federer in the third round.

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I'm not quite sure what to think about this latest ousting of Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Croatian Ivan Ljubicic can be hell to pay - and play - as we have seen in the past. However, I watched this Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open match this morning and it wasn't all Ljubicic.

The Croatian had a little bit of help beating Tsonga - from Tsonga. Nothing overt, Tsonga just doesn't seem to have that zing in his game right now. He's making the effort, but that little something extra that he was previously bringing to the court seens to be missing.

Laying claim to the first big upset, Ljubicic defeated ninth-seed Tsonga 6-4, 7-5.

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MADRID, May 12 (Reuters) - World number three Venus Williams followed her sister Serena out of the Madrid Open on Tuesday when she was beaten 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 by unseeded Russian teenager Alisa Kleybanova in the second round.

The American was broken seven times by the 19-year-old world number 26 from Moscow, a day after Serena retired from her first round match against Francesca Schiavone with a knee injury.

Kleybanova, who knocked Ana Ivanovic out of this year’s Australian Open, served for the match at 5-4 in the final set before Williams broke back.




But the Russian grabbed another break of serve in the next game and made no mistake second time around, sealing victory on her first match point when Williams went long with a forehand.

“It was not a good first set, just really flat, and that gave her the confidence that she had a chance,” Williams said at a news conference.

With the French Open starting at the end of this month, one of two grand slams along with the Australian Open that she has never won, Williams said it was important for her not to take the defeat too much to heart.

“I think I’m playing really well and I’m moving well on the court and I feel good,” she said. “I have another tournament to play so I’m focusing on playing positive there.”

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