Black Tennis Pros

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.

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.

Venus in the midst of her match with Jelena.

Venus' mom Oracene Price flashes a happy smile upon Venus winning the match.

Venus after defeating Jelena.

Serena smiling after Venus' win.

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.”

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.