Australian newspaper defies criticism, reprints Serena Williams cartoon
Olympic champion Serena Williams suffered her first loss in nearly three months on Friday as she was knocked out of the Cincinnati Open quarter-finals, falling 6-4, 6-4 to Germany's Angelique Kerber.
Seven-time champion Serena Williams moved ominously into the last 16 at Wimbledon when she recovered from a sluggish start to beat France's Kristina Mladenovic 7-5, 7-6(1) on Friday.
Petra Kvitova is not the type to talk herself up even if she does arrive at Wimbledon as the defending champion.
World No.1 Serena Williams has refuted any hints of match-fixing in women's tennis. World tennis was rocked on Monday by allegations that 16 players who have been ranked in the top 50 had been repeatedly flagged to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) over suspicions they had 'fixed matches' in the past decade. The media reports created a stir at the Australian Open, with players expressing surprise at the allegations. "When I'm playing, I can only answer for me, I play very hard, and every player I play seems to play hard," women's world number one Serena Williams told reporters.
" As six-time Melbourne Park champion, Serena will be clear favourite, of course, more so because she has reached her 34th grand slam semi-final without losing a set. Lucic-Baroni's path to the last four has been more of a battle, as befits a woman who has overcome huge adversity to get back to the top of the game after years in the wilderness.
The United States survived a fright from little Latvia on Saturday before winning 3-2 in a Fed Cup qualifier as Serena Williams suffered her first career singles loss in the team event. Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Slovakia, Germany, Russia and Belarus also moved through to the inaugural 12-nation showdown in Budapest.
The glittering career of Russian former World No 1 Maria Sharapova was in tatters after she was given a two-year ban by the International Tennis Federation. Check out the high points in her career...
Venus and Serena Williams served their way into the U.S. Open quarter-finals with impressive straight-sets victories Sunday, setting up a possible clash between the American sisters in the final four.
The women's seedings at Wimbledon usually follow the WTA rankings list but can be tweaked by the All England Club in special circumstances.
Serena Williams' Australian Open ended with her ankle swollen to the size of a balloon, a spasming back and a quarter-final loss to a young pretender on Wednesday, a two week period that she described as the worst she had experienced at a Grand Slam.
A Champagne cork popped somewhere on Centre Court four games into Serena Williams's Wimbledon semi-final and while it was a tad premature, her 6-2 6-0 thrashing of Elena Vesnina suggested she could celebrating something special come Saturday. The top-seeded American will be taking nothing for granted, having seen her bid to match Steffi Graf's modern era record of grand slam titles stuck one short on 21 for a year, but it was a menacing show of strength, albeit against an overawed opponent.
Such has been Serena Williams's iron-fisted dominance of women's tennis that the American is one Wimbledon title away from achieving a 'Serena Slam' and halfway towards completing a rare calendar Grand Slam.
Serena Williams sounded an ominous warning to her rivals that she will be a genuine contender at the US Open after winning the Stanford Classic on Sunday in her third tournament back from injury.
The Williams sisters will in the United States' Fed Cup match against Belgium in April.
Seven-times champion Serena Williams and Germany's Angelique Kerber will clash in the Ladies singles final at Wimbledon after registering easy victories in the semi-finals on Thursday. While Serena had things her way in a 6-2, 6-4 demolition of Germany's Julia Georges, Kerber beat Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-3.
Most of India's oil supplies are expected to stay safe because of the country's good relations with both Russia and Iran. That would take care of over a third of India's supplies.
Serena Williams is third on the list of female Grand Slam title winners. She is one of only five women, after Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf, to hold all four Grand Slam titles at same time.
Nadal and Williams headline party for all ages at US Open
Serena Williams beat crowd favourite Kim Clijsters in one of the greatest comebacks in tennis history.
The US Open turned over Arthur Ashe Stadium to the Williams sisters on Thursday for a prime-time first round doubles match that could have been Serena's last after the pair fell 7-6(5), 6-4 to the Czech duo of Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova.
This will be her first appearance at the tournament since she was ousted in the second round in 2017.
Germany's Angelique Kerber said she felt confident about facing Serena Williams in Saturday's Wimbledon final after beating the world number one in Australia earlier this year, and warned: I'm even more dangerous on grass. The fourth seed gatecrashed the Williams sisters' Wimbledon party when she overpowered Venus 6-4 6-4 in the semi-finals on Thursday, setting up the clash with Serena.
The unseeded Bencic, who also beat former world number ones Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic in Toronto, wore a look of disbelief after the 18-year-old's forehand winner whizzed past Williams to seal the match.
Factbox on American Serena Williams, who won her 15th Grand Slam singles title at the US Open on Sunday with a 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 win over Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
Serena Williams, through sheer force of will as much as her skill with the racket, beat World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 in a dramatic US Open final on Sunday to capture her 15th singles Grand Slam title.
PHOTOS from the Wimbledon Championships matches played at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, on Saturday
Agnieszka Radwanska showed why she should be considered among the favourites for the Australian Open later this month by beating world number one Serena Williams in the final of the Hopman Cup in Perth on Saturday.
With an unrestrained jig at the most hallowed hallway in tennis, Serena Williams confirmed that 'Her Way' was just about the most formidable method the women's game has seen.
Sloane Stephens will be defending her title at the U.S. Open but all eyes will be on Serena Williams over the coming two weeks as the six-times champion attempts to win her first Grand Slam title since becoming a mother.
Serena Williams wasted no time in sweeping aside big-serving Hungarian Timea Babos.
Serena Williams was completely taken aback by her pregnancy, taking six home tests before believing she was expecting her first child, the tennis superstar told Vanity Fair magazine.
Four-time champion Serena Williams made an excellent start to Wimbledon on Tuesday, coming through an athletic first-round match against Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova that was tougher than the 6-2, 6-4 scoreline would suggest.
The Romanian broke Williams's serve in the first game but that was the only one she managed for the rest of the opening set as the American bulldozed her way through the set in 20 minutes, serving it out with an ace.
The 43-year-old American, contesting the Wimbledon singles for a record 24th time, still retains the easy power that once made her the queen of Centre Court but succumbed 6-4, 6-3 after a nasty early fall hindered her movement.
Regaining the world's top ranking in women's tennis is less important to Maria Sharapova.
World number one Serena Williams marched into the semi-finals of the WTA Championships on Thursday with a comfortable win over Elena Dementieva while sister Venus kept her title hopes alive long after midnight.
If players, pundits and bookmakers are to be believed, Serena Williams has already sewn up her sixth Australian Open title and the other 127 women in the draw may as well pick up their racquets and head home.
Following is a list of American Serena Williams' 22 grand slam singles titles as she equalled Steffi Graf's professional era record with victory at Wimbledon on Saturday
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