Defending champion Serena Williams reached the semi-finals of the Western & Southern tournament in Cincinnati but not before having her mettle tested in a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over sixth-seeded Serb Ana Ivanovic on Friday.
I have to be two feet in tennis or two feet out.'
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.
Top seed Rafa Nadal overwhelmed Russia's Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-0 to win his fifth Rogers Cup on Sunday in Montreal -- the first time he has retained a title outside of clay.
In a professional career lasting more than two decades, Venus Williams is closing in on a 50th WTA title and credits her longevity to a love of the game and a desire to constantly improve.
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.
Serena Williams crashed out of the US Open after losing in the semi-final to Karolina Pliskova costing her a shot at a 23rd Grand Slam title and resulted in her losing her record 187th straight week at number one.
Petra Kvitova is not the type to talk herself up even if she does arrive at Wimbledon as the defending champion.
The Williams sisters will in the United States' Fed Cup match against Belgium in April.
Serena Williams has never been one to approach the net until it is time to exchange post-match pleasantries with an opponent but on Thursday she broke from tradition and it paid off with a trip to the U.S. Open final.
Serena Williams beat crowd favourite Kim Clijsters in one of the greatest comebacks in tennis history.
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.
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.
Serena was drawn on Friday to play doubles in a potentially decisive fifth rubber in this week's Fed Cup first round tie against the Netherlands in what will be her first competitive match in over a year. The doubles rubber, which is scheduled for Sunday on an indoor hard court in Asheville, North Carolina, will be played even if one side clinches the best-of-five match series through the opening four singles matches.
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.
Images from Day 8 of the 2024 French Open at Roland Garros on Sunday.
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...
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.
" 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.
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.
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.
Aryna Sabalenka beat China's Zheng Qinwen 6-3 6-2 to retain the Australian Open women's singles title on Saturday.
Australian newspaper defies criticism, reprints Serena Williams cartoon
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.
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.
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.
Along with film stars and fashion icons, sports stars and their better halves also showed off their whacky creations on the pink carpet.
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.
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.
The women's seedings at Wimbledon usually follow the WTA rankings list but can be tweaked by the All England Club in special circumstances.
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.
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.
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.
Serena Williams wasted no time in sweeping aside big-serving Hungarian Timea Babos.
Despite Venus' misguided advice, Serena Williams beat Lucie Safarova 6-3, 3-6, 7-6.
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.
Holder Venus Williams completed her circuitous route to the WTA Championships final, beating Serbia's Jelena Jankovic 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday to set up yet another showdown with sister Serena. Serena, who will end the year as world number one for the first time since 2002, got past Caroline Wozniacki after the Dane pulled out with a stomach injury when trailing 6-4, 0-1.
Regaining the world's top ranking in women's tennis is less important to Maria Sharapova.
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.
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