Black Tennis Pros

The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour announced the 2009 winners of the annual Player Awards during a special ceremony Wednesday at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida. Seven players were honored for their remarkable on and off court achievements during the 2009 season.

Serena Williams was voted the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s 2009 Player of the Year for the third time in her career, having previously earned the accolade for the 2002 and 2008 seasons. Serena had a stellar 2009 season, winning two Grand Slam singles titles (the Australian Open and Wimbledon), the prestigious year-end Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, and reaching the final of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.

Additionally, she was a semifinalist at five more Tour events and recorded 14 wins over Top 10 opponents during the season. Williams finished 2009 as the top ranked singles player in the world, marking the fifth time in her career that she ascended to the pinnacle of the rankings.

Serena and Venus Williams won the Doubles Team of the Year award for their collective achievements in 2009, highlighted by winning four titles which included three Grand Slams (the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open) and the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford. The pair ended the year with a 24-2 win-loss record.

“2009 was one of the best seasons of my career and winning the Player of the Year award for the third time is a great achievement for me,” said Sony Ericsson WTA Tour World No.1 Serena Williams. “2009 will always be memorable for me not just for my singles accomplishments, but because Venus and I won four titles together and I am thrilled to be sharing the Doubles Team of the Year award with my sister.”

“I love playing doubles with Serena as we have so much fun on the court together,” said Sony Ericsson WTA Tour World No.5 Venus Williams. “At the beginning of the 2009 season Serena and I decided to put a lot of emphasis on doubles and I am thrilled that we were able to achieve so much together.”

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The Washington Kastles's home schedule this season will feature uncommon star wattage, including a match between former world No. 1 players Venus Williams and Martina Hingis, who faced off for the 1997 U.S. Open title, clashing for the first time since 2006.

Venus was added to the roster of the defending World TeamTennis champion Kastles in the offseason, joining sister Serena, who has played for Washington's franchise its first two years.

As the Kastles' designated "marquee players," the Williams sisters make just one home appearance, each on different nights.

Venus will lead the Kastles against Hingis and the New York Buzz in a home match on July 7 and play for the squad the next night in Philadelphia.

Serena will join the Kastles at home for a July 14 match against the Kansas City Explorers and play three matches on the road.

Anchored by the strong doubles play of Leander Paes and Rennae Stubbs, the Kastles won the World TeamTennis championship in their second season last year.

Team owner Mark Ein re-signed Paes, ranked sixth in the world in doubles, and Stubbs, ranked 7th in doubles, along with current world No. 1 Serena Williams. To round out the roster, Ein traded for the No. 1 pick in Tuesday's draft. The Kastles used that pick to select Bobby Reynolds, who ranked as high as 63rd in the world in 2009, to shoulder the men's singles duties. Ein also acquired the rights to Angela Haynes from Sacramento.

All told, Kastles players have won 61 Grand Slam event titles among them.

The Kastles will play seven away matches and seven at home from July 5 through July 22, with John McEnroe and Anna Kournikova as the headliners scheduled to visit Washington.

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MIAMI (Reuters) - World number one Serena Williams has pulled out of next week's Sony Ericsson Open due to a knee injury, organizers said on Friday.

The American's withdrawal is another blow to the tournament after former Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova and world number two Dinara Safina had already pulled out.

Williams has won the Key Biscayne event five times.

Venus Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova headline the women's field while the men's top three -- Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal are joined by American Andy Roddick and defending champion Andy Murray.

The men's competition will be without fifth-ranked Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina due to a wrist injury.

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The WTA Tour has reached a contract extension with Sony Ericsson that continues their relationship through the end of 2012 but drops the mobile phone company as a title sponsor of the women's tennis tour.

In 2005, Sony Ericsson became the global title sponsor for the WTA Tour under a US $88-million, six-year deal due to expire at the end of 2010. Now the circuit's name will just be "WTA Tour."

Sony Ericsson also no longer will have the title rights for the tour's season-ending championships.

Financial terms of the extension were not announced, but the tour said the "net profitability" will be the same as under the prior deal.

The new agreement is to be announced formally Monday.

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Sloane Stephens, one of two 16-year-olds in the BNP Paribas Open field, celebrated her first match on the WTA Tour with a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (7) triumph over Lucie Hradecka.

Stephens led 5-2 in the second set and had match point on serve in the ninth game, then had to rally from 3-6 down in the second-set tiebreaker.

"I wasn't getting nervous," Stephens said. "She started playing a lot more. Before, she was hitting a lot of balls off the court and I was waiting for the error. She made me play at the end."

Stephens said she'll remember hitting an ace down the middle of the court to get to 6-all in the second-set tiebreaker. She couldn't recall the final shot of the match, though, but said "it was a good moment."

Fellow American Shenay Perry didn't fare as well as Stephens, losing to Karolina Sprem 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

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ROUND 1

Women's Singles

(Q)Sloane Stephens, USA defeated Lucie Hradecka, CZE
7-6(5), 7-6(7)

(Q)Shenay Perry, USA defeated by Karolina Sprem, CRO
2-6, 6-4, 3-6

Doubles

Raquel Kops-Jones and Sarah Borwell, GBR
defeated
Anabel Medina Garrigues, ESP and Caroline Wozniacki, DEN
7-6(4), 4-6 [10-2]

Shenay Perry, USA and Melanie Oudin, USA
defeated by
Alisa Kleybanova, RUS and Francesca Schiavone, ITA
4-6, 5-7


Men's Singles

Gael Monfils, FRA vs. BYE

James Blake, USA defeated Daniel Gimeno-Traver, ESP
6-3, 6-2

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA vs. BYE

Doubles

James Blake, USA and Andy Roddick, USA
defeated
Ross Hutchins, GBR and Andy Murray, GBR
7-5, 7-6(5)

Gael Monfils, FRA and Gilles Simon, FRA
defeated by
David Ferrer, ESP and Albert Montanes, ESP
4-6, 2-6

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA and Julien Benneteau, FRA
defeated
Robert Lindstedt, SWE and Robin Soderling, SWE
7-5, 7-5

Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

Donald Young, USA
Dustin Brown, JAM


ROUND 2

Women's Singles

(Q)Sloan Stephens, USA defeated by Vera Zvonareva, RUS
4-6, 5-7

Doubles

Raquel Kops-Jones and Sarah Borwell, GBR
defeated by
Yung-Jan Chan, TPE and Jie Zheng, CHN
1-6, 2-6


MEN'S SINGLES

Gael Monfils, FRA defeated by Simon Gruel, GER
6-1, 2-6, 3-6

James Blake, USA defeated David Ferrer, ESP
6-1, 6-4

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA defeated Marinko Matosevic, AUS
6-1, 6-3

Doubles

James Blake, USA and Andy Roddick, USA
defeated by
Daniel Nestor, CAN and Nenad Zimonjic, SRB
4-6, 6-3 [7-10]

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA and Julien Benneteau, FRA
defeated by
Simon Aspelin, SWE and Paul Hanley, AUS
6-7(4), 3-6


ROUND 3

MEN'S SINGLES

James Blake, USA vs. Nicolas Almagro, ESP
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA vs. Albert Montanes, ESP


ROUND 1

Singles

Asia Muhammed, USA defeated Ahsha Rolle, USA
6-4, 6-3

Angela Haynes, USA defeated by Jing-Jing Lu, CHN
4-6, 2-6

Doubles

Asia Muhammed, USA and Courtney B. Dolehide, USA
defeated by
Christina Fusano, USA and Courtney Nagle, USA
4-6, 6-3 [3-10]

Megan Moulton-Levy and Yulia Fedossova, FRA
defeated by
Xinyun Han, CHN and Chun-Mei Ji, CHN
6-1, 1-6 [5-10]

Angela Haynes, USA and Ahsha Rolle, USA
defeated
Corinna Dentoni, ITA and Anna Tatishvili, GEO
6-1, 6-4


Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

Alexandra Stevenson, USA


ROUND 2

Singles

Asia Muhammed, USA defeated by Jing-Jing Lu, CHN
2-6, 4-6


QUARTERFINAL ROUND

Doubles

Angela Haynes, USA and Ahsha Rolle, USA
defeated by
Yi-Fan Xu, CHN and Yi-Miao Zhou, CHN
5-7, 6-3 [15-17]

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