Black Tennis Pros

As unlikely as it seemed in the beginning, American sisters Venus and Serena Williams will appear in yet another final, this one being that of the year-end Sony Ericsson Championships.

As defending champion, older sister Venus had a hard time sinking her teeth into this tournament and it was the actual performance of others in the Maroon Group, Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva, that allowed Venus to ascend to the semifinals.

Against Serbian Jelena Jankovic in Saturday's final, Venus came out strong but was not able to hold on to the first set. More consistent play and some impressive serving propelled Venus to a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 win.

Serena has literally sailed through the tournament undefeated and had no problem making her way to the final. The semifinal against Caroline Wozniacki even provided a little more breathing time as the high-spirited Dane retired at 6-4, 0-1.

For big fans of the sisters, such as myself, the title will remain in the family for at least another year.

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In what was one of the strangest retirements from a match that I've ever witnessed, on Wednesday at the Sony Ericsson Championships during a second round match between Russian Dinara Safina and Serbian Jelena Jankovic, a sobbing and clearly overwhelmed Dinara Safina simply began crying, walked over to the official, retired, shook her opponents hand and made her way off court. It was heart wrenching to see.

We were later informed that she had been struggling with a back injury for three months and had been taking cortisone injections.

Safina said she will be sidelined for at least six weeks and is struggling to compete in the opening grand slam of 2010 in Australia.

"My body just gave up. I did everything possible to play. I went to have a cortisone injection, but I couldn't handle the pain anymore," Safina told reporters.

Hopefully she will have a speedy recovery.

On the flip side, the woman that caused all kind of ruckus earlier this year when she stated "we all know who the real number one is, will indeed be the real world number 1, again, come Monday, November 2.

After playing a very tight match against big sister Venus, and then being asked if she knew that she would regain the number one ranking Serena said," It's a great feeling to be world number one, but I feel really sorry for Dinara. She's a great player and never gives up."

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A picture is worth a thousand words, and the above photo says it all...

On Tuesday evening in Doha at the 2009 Sony Ericsson Championships, American sisters Venus and Serena Williams split the outcome of their round robin play down the middle... Venus lost and Serena won.

First up was Venus against Russian Elena Dementieva. During the first set Venus played beautifully and was in total control, it appeared that the outcome of Venus winning was a foregone conclusion. Wrong.

Somewhere mid second set, after being up a set and a break, Venus took her foot off of the gas, loaded up her game with errors and allowed Dementieva to breeze right on by her to set up a third and final set; the handwriting was already on the wall.

Dementieva came out even stronger in the third set and sealed the deal by defeating Venus 3-6, 7-6(6) 6-2 - very disheartening.

Serena Williams and Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova immediately followed that match and played in very different fashion. The two ladies were literally toe-to-toe until the very end. Serena was able to win critical points when necessary and came out the victor defeating Kuznetsova in straight sets 7-6, 6-5.

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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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Wow, talk about energy! What a zoned in week for American Venus Williams. Today she became the winner of the 2008 WTA's Sony Ericsson Championships for the first time. Venus took out Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-7(5), 6-0, 6-2.

As in her Thursday match with baby sis Serena, Venus couldn't hold on to the first set, but let it fly in the second two and just surged with power against Zvonareva. Venus became more determined and very precise as she ramped up a very aggressive game.

"I'm so excited," Williams said. "That was a hard-fought match, every point, right down to the end."

Venus took home a fat $1.34 million. This is the first year in which equal prize money was paid, as in the men's season-ending ATP Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai.

Both Venus and Zvonareva will bump up two places in the rankings.

Venus is keeping her eyes on the prize, of her ranking she said "I know I can go higher."

Zvonareva became so undone that, as in years gone by, she was reduced to tears as her efforts failed her. But this young woman played her butt off this week, and if she wants to cry at this loss, she earned it. Doesn't that just bring to mind, "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to, cry if I want to, cry if I want, you would cry too if it happened to you..." I couldn't resist.


The first lady of Qatar, Sheika Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned, presented the trophy to Williams.

"Thanks to your Royal Highness for coming. Wow," Williams said.

The trophy is named after tennis great Billie Jean King, a vocal proponent of equal prize money for male and female tennis players. She sat with Mozah and other dignitaries during the match and joined Williams on court for the award ceremony.

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Five-time Wimbledon champion American Venus Williams is looking to end 2008 on high note...a first-time win at the Sony Ericsson Year-End Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Today, after going undefeated this week and having to take out one of her most fierce opponents, baby sis World No. 3 Serena, Venus went toe-to-toe with World No. 1 Serbian Jelena Jankovic in a really grueling match that had many peaks and valleys for both players.

Venus came out strong and raced to a quick lead which led to her winning the first set. Unfortunately, the wheels became a bit whobbly in the second set and Jelena prevailed. Both players summoned as much energy as they could for the third set and put one another to the test, Venus was more up to the challenge. She defeated Jelena 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.

On being a bit fatigued during the match Venus said, "A couple of times I did feel distressed but you can't afford to lose these kind of matches,"

Sitting in the stands supporting Venus was mom Oracene Price and sister Serena who pulled out of the tournament on Friday morning with a stomach injury.

Venus will play a resurgent Vera Zvonareva in the final on Sunday.

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Bummer!

Just as the Jelena Jankovic vs. Vera Zvonareva match was wrapping up and I was all tuned in and ready for Serena Williams vs. Elena Dementieva, the commentator reports that Nadia Petrova will be playing Dementieva because of Serena withdrawing.

After being taken to the woodshed by big sis Venus on Thursday, I was aching to see Serena do what she does best, beat the odds. I expected to see her come out firing on all cylinders today, whizzing high powered serves by Dementieva's head.

In her press conference Serena said, "I felt I didn’t serve well, I had a lot of double faults. Looking back I think maybe that’s why I was doing it because I didn’t feel it at the time."

“I think I might have been over-compensating, but the moment I got home I did feel pain. When I woke up around 2pm I was still in pain just getting out of bed.”

"When I practiced I was in pain when I played the groundstrokes so I didn't want to risk it."

Oh well, hope she feels better soon.



On another note, from this day forward I shall no longer think of Vera "crying game" Zvonereva. After today's effort I shall think of Vera "got game" Zvonareva.

What a hustler!

Zvonareva hit the courts today and proved that she has serious metal. She wasn't dependent upon luck or mistakes from Jankovic to win the match and the White Group. Zvonareva blasted back from losing the first set and took it to the World No. 1 in very impressive style.

I had somewhat written Zvonareva off a couple of years ago, but she renewed my faith in her game today. Good to see her in such good form...work it out Zvonareva!

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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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Serena Williams arrives at the Sony Ericsson Championship Party at ME Hotel on November 10, 2007 in Madrid, Spain.

Technorati Tags: Sports Tennis Serena Williams
Sony Ericsson Champioinships

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