Black Tennis Pros

At the Bank Of The West Classic in Stanford, California on Thursday, American sisters Venus and Serena Williams set up their quarterfinal matches with wins over Russian Alla Kudryavtseva and Hungary's Melinda Czink respectively.

Serena started the day with a 6-3, 7-6 (7) win over Melinda Czink. After looking strong in the first set, Williams trailed the entire second set until prevailing in the tiebreaker.

Subsequently, Venus cruised to a 6-1 win in the first set and looked to be in complete control midway through the second frame with a 5-3 lead. But Alla Kudryavtseva won back-to-back games to tie the set at 5-5 before Williams swiped the next two games for a 6-1, 7-5 triumph.

In Friday's quarterfinal matches Venus will go up against Russian Maria Sharapova, and Serena against Australian Samantha Stosur. I think the Serena/Samantha match will be the one to watch.

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American sisters Venus and Serena Williams continued to be the ire of their doubles team opponents. On Wednesday they brought the hammer and nine aces down on Latvia's Lisa Dekmeijere and American Julie Ditty in a 6-1, 6-0 defeat.

"I can't get a better partner," Serena said. "I just don't think so. She gets everything; she has a great volley, an incredible serve. It honestly doesn't get better than that."

Venus said the pair has a covert mission already in the works when it comes to doubles play.

"About a year ago we started to play more, trying to get ready for the Olympics," she said. "After that we kind of kept playing. We have this secret goal that I can't really talk about, but we have this goal, and once we started playing we started winning. You have to be in a little bit better shape and really healthy and willing to be a little more tired for your singles but it's a sacrifice we're willing to make."

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LOS ANGELES — Marat Safin, playing for the fourth time in three days, summoned enough energy to beat Ernests Gulbis 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of the L.A. Tennis Open on Wednesday.

Safin, who played an exhibition match against Pete Sampras on Monday and beat Robby Ginepri the following night, also teamed with Igor Kunitsyn to win a first-round doubles match on Monday.

The win over Gulbis put the two-time Grand Slam champion into his first quarterfinal of the year and earned him at least a day off from singles play.

He will meet the winner of Wednesday night's match between Tommy Haas, the top seed and two-time event champion, and Jesse Levine on Friday.

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STANFORD, Calif. — "Shhhh," hushed Serena Williams when asked about the rankings system in women's tennis that seems askew with public perception. "They already think I'm No. 1."

The computer, however, says otherwise.

Despite winning three of the last four majors, No. 2 Williams sits behind Dinara Safina of Russia by a substantial 1,742 points. Safina supplanted Williams atop the rankings in April but has never won a Grand Slam title.

That rankings dissonance continued to spark debate at the Bank of the West Classic here as Williams geared up for her first event since winning a third Wimbledon title.

"The only thing that gets under my skin is that everyone keeps talking about it and so now people know that I'm not No. 1," laughed Williams, who opened her summer hardcourt campaign Tuesday night with a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) victory against Li Na of China.

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(AP) STANFORD, Calif. — Back from her post-Wimbledon down time, Venus Williams didn't need long to get warmed up at the Bank of the West Classic.

It wasn't always pretty.

While she looked far from sharp at times as she missed shots long and sent others into the net, the second-seeded Williams pulled out enough of her top shots to beat Stephanie Dubois of Canada 6-2, 6-3 in a first-round match at Stanford on Tuesday night.




Williams' sister, Serena, was set to take the court next at Stanford in the $700,000 event. They are also playing doubles together, which will be more of a focus for the duo in the coming months.

"We kind of have this secret goal I can't talk about," Venus Williams said.

After neither player held serve through the first three games of the opening set, Williams then cruised the rest of the way in the first meeting between the two.

"It was a great match to get my rhythm, hit a lot of balls and work on my shots," said Williams, who won titles here in 2000 and '02. "It's all about the mentality. I usually adjust pretty quickly. ... I do want to try new and different things."

Still a little spacey — she admitted to some "brain freeze" — after a few weeks of sleeping in and relaxation following her Wimbledon runner-up showing to Serena, Williams said: "We love playing in L.A. I'm sorry, not L.A., I mean California. It feels like home for us."

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In first round action at the Bank Of The West Classic, Stanford, California today, Serbian Jelena Jankovic brought the rain and five aces today as she defeated American Angela Haynes 6-3, 6-1.

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