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Serena Williams

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/ 30 May 2008

Nadal, Sharapova survive scares while Serena slumps

French Open drawcards Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova survived French Open scares on Friday but 2002 women’s champion Serena Williams was knocked out in her worst performance in Paris since 1999. Nadal needed treatment on his blistered right foot before brushing aside Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 to make the last 16.

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/ 30 May 2008

Henin: The queen has abdicated

The queen has abdicated. The throne is bare and the pretenders are circling at the French Open, which began on Sunday, with expectations high for an unusually large number of women players who feel they have been handed the rarest of opportunities. For the first time in almost a decade, winning at Roland Garros will not mean having to beat Justine Henin.

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/ 29 May 2008

Sharapova struggles as Nadal and Djokovic cruise

Maria Sharapova almost became the first women’s top seed in French Open history to lose in the opening round on Wednesday as Rafael Nadal showed her the way to master a Roland Garros sandstorm. Russian golden girl Sharapova toiled for two-and-a-half hours before squeezing past teenage compatriot and world number 104 Evgeniya Rodina 6-1, 3-6, 8-6.

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/ 26 May 2008

Tearful Kuerten ends Paris love affair

Gustavo Kuerten briefly rekindled his Parisian love affair on Sunday before bidding a tearful farewell to the French Open. The Brazilian has enjoyed a special relationship with Roland Garros since he celebrated his third and final triumph in 2001 by drawing a giant love-heart in the red clay with his racket.

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/ 2 April 2008

Holder Serena crushes Henin in Miami quarters

Champion Serena Williams made world number one Justine Henin look like a mere novice as she pulled off a stunning 6-2 6-0 victory to reach the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open on Tuesday. Williams barely put a foot wrong and reeled off the last nine games to book a last-four date with either her sister Venus or third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.

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/ 11 February 2008

Grammys: Kanye West, Aretha Franklin hold court

Two years ago, Kanye West’s Grammy afterparty was a booze-filled, late-night affair with 3 000 screaming guests, bikini-clad women — and his mother, Donda, in the house. He was more subdued at this year’s party, celebrating four Grammy wins on Sunday night in tribute to Donda West, but it was still a boozy, celeb-filled event.

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/ 26 January 2008

Sharapova surges to third Grand Slam title

It was to be the Glam Slam, the squealer versus the squeaker. Instead, Saturday’s Australian Open women’s final was a battle of brinkmanship and jangling nerves. Ana Ivanovic blinked first and Maria Sharapova was the champion. Russia’s tennis Tsarina beat Ivanovic 7-5 6-3 to make amends for last year’s final defeat by Serena Williams.

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/ 24 January 2008

Red-hot Sharapova beats Jankovic

Russian fifth seed Maria Sharapova crushed injured Serbian third seed Jelena Jankovic 6-3, 6-1 in a one-sided semifinal on Thursday to reach her second successive Australian Open final. It means Sharapova, a losing finalist here last year, will meet either Serbian third seed Ana Ivanovic or Slovak ninth seed Daniela Hantuchova in Saturday’s title decider.

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/ 22 January 2008

Serena crashes out, Nadal motors on

A listless Serena Williams stumbled out of the Australian Open on Tuesday, the champion jettisoned by Serbia’s ”wounded animal” Jelena Jankovic. Rafael Nadal continued his assault on the first Grand Slam of the season with a muscular defeat of Finn Jarkko Nieminen and will next meet either Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Mikhail Youzhny, who clash later on day nine.

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/ 21 January 2008

Federer on track as Venus gathers steam

It was back to business as usual for Roger Federer on Monday as he clinically moved into an Australian Open quarterfinal against James Blake, with Venus Williams also working up a head of steam. The world number one rebounded from his uncharacteristic five-set scare in the third round to resume his sprint towards a 13th Grand Slam title.

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/ 20 January 2008

Off-court dramas unsettle Hewitt

Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt says behind-the-scenes scheduling dramas unsettled his build-up to his big Australian Open match with Marcos Baghdatis that led to the latest finish in grand-slam history. Meanwhile, fifth seed Maria Sharapova brushed aside fellow Russian Elena Dementieva and Justine Henin stormed into the quarterfinals.

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/ 18 January 2008

Roddick, Mauresmo crash out of Aussie Open

Sixth seed Andy Roddick was knocked out of the Australian Open after a bad-tempered five-setter early on Saturday, joining 2006 champion Amelie Mauresmo on the third-round scrapheap. The American fell on his sword after a marathon three hours and 53 minutes of intense tennis against German 29th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber.

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/ 16 January 2008

Back to normal at Aussie Open

Police defended their use of pepper spray on rowdy tennis fans and the sport’s big guns kept on blasting at Melbourne Park as the Australian Open got back on track on Wednesday. As the fall-out of Tuesday night’s crowd trouble settled, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova all blasted their way into the third round of the year’s opening Grand Slam.

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/ 16 January 2008

Venus gets bum rap, says Serena

Serena Williams thinks her sister Venus got a bum rap when a television station played slow motion clips as a male commentator admired her bottom on air. Switchboards around the nation lit up with complaints following the incident on Tuesday during Venus’s match against China’s Yan Zi, according to local television reports.

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/ 14 January 2008

Sharapova sets up Davenport clash

Defending champion Serena Williams and top seed Justin Henin survived gritty encounters on the first day of the Australian Open on Monday, while Maria Sharapova set up a tough clash with Lindsay Davenport. Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo also showed glimpses of the form that won her the 2006 championship.

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/ 9 January 2008

Henin hot favourite after inspired 2007

World number one Justine Henin goes into the Australian Open as the overwhelming favourite after an inspired 2007, but there is no shortage of challengers. Among them is superstar defending champion Serena Williams, who stunned the tennis world by winning the title last year in her comeback event following an injury-plagued 2006.

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/ 18 December 2007

Federer eyes Sampras’s grand-slam record

Roger Federer again came close to winning the Grand Slam in 2007, reaching the final at all four major tournaments and winning three of them. This year, however, the top-ranked Swiss also came close to losing his record 54-match winning streak on grass at Wimbledon, and then struggled a bit after winning the United States Open.

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/ 2 November 2007

Inglorious end to career of cocaine-tainted Hingis

The career of Martina Hingis ended in disgrace and tears on Thursday when she retired after testing positive for cocaine, an inglorious finale to a story that captivated world tennis for more than a decade. ”I have tested positive but I have never taken drugs and I feel 100% innocent,” the five-times Grand Slam champion told a news conference.

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/ 8 September 2007

Henin beats Venus to reach US Open final

Venus Williams left the US Open the same way Serena Williams did, undone by all those big shots off the racket of little Justine Henin. Henin became only the second woman to beat both Williams sisters at the same Grand Slam tournament, reaching the final at Flushing Meadows with a 7-6 (2), 6-4 victory over Venus on Friday.

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/ 8 September 2007

Kuznetsova beats Chakvetadze to reach Open final

Svetlana Kuznetsova got off to a horrible start in her US Open semifinal on Friday. How horrible? Her opponent, Anna Chakvetadze, won the first set despite hitting only one winner. And then, slowly but surely, 2004 champion Kuznetsova began keeping the ball between the lines, and Chakvetadze began missing shots short, long and wide.

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/ 5 September 2007

Serena lost for words after Henin defeat

A despondent Serena Williams grudgingly faced reporters after her 7-6, 6-1 defeat to top seed Justine Henin in Tuesday’s quarterfinals of the US Open, tears staining her cheeks after the bitter result. Williams was reluctant to give the Belgian any credit despite being mauled in a one-sided, 36-minute second set.

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/ 4 September 2007

Henin, Serena square up, Nadal faces Ferrer

Justine Henin and Serena Williams will square up in a battle of former champions at the US Open on Tuesday, while Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic headline the action in the men’s event. ”I’m going in feeling like I don’t have anything to lose,” said eighth seed Williams, who won her eighth grand slam title at the Australian Open in January.

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/ 3 September 2007

Venus belts out warning with Ivanovic win

Venus Williams underlined her title credentials at the US Open on Sunday after she reached the quarterfinals with an impressive 6-4 6-2 victory over fifth seed Ana Ivanovic. The Wimbledon champion, seeded 12th, was close to her dominant best as she made it four wins out of four against the Serb, clinching victory in 80 minutes.

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/ 31 August 2007

On a swing and a prayer

After a lavish ceremony to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Althea Gibson’s first United States title, Venus and Serena Williams, the two women who carry the hopes of the nation at this year’s US Open, played their first-round matches back-to-back in the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

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/ 30 August 2007

Sore Nadal struggles as Federer cruises on

Rafael Nadal struggled on a sore left knee past unheralded Australian Alun Jones on Wednesday to reach the second round of the US Open, but his bid for a third Grand Slam final in a row appears doomed. Severe tendinitis slowed the second-ranked Spaniard, who escaped with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory after two hours and 44 minutes over a 123rd-ranked wild card.

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