Tennis, Women's Tennis | featured news

Serena Williams’s inactivity over the past 12 months meant she entered the Open as the 28th seed, which produced an early meeting with the fourth-seeded Victoria Azarenka.

Venus Williams dropped out after revealing a diagnosis of Sjogren’s Syndrome, which causes fatigue and joint pain.

Petra Kvitova won her first Grand Slam title Saturday by beating Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-4 in the Wimbledon final. Kvitova was playing in her first major final, but it was three-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova that showed her nerves. The 2004 Wimbledon champion double-faulted six times, including twice to get broken to 4-2 in the first set. The 21-year-old Kvitova is the first left-handed woman to win the Wimbledon title since Martina Navratilova in 1990.

The women’s final at Wimbledon Saturday will lack the world’s No. 1 player, Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, reduced to a competitive footnote by her early ouster.

Maria Sharapova crushed Dominika Cibulkova, advancing to a Wimbledon semifinal for the first time in four years. It took Sharapova less than an hour to beat Cibulkova, who upset Caroline Wozniacki, 6-1, 6-1. Afterward, Cibulkova couldn’t exit Centre Court quickly enough.

Venus and Serena Williams were both eliminated in the fourth round of Wimbledon on Monday, the first time in five years that neither sister will play in the quarterfinals at the All England Club....

Venus Williams, the 23rd-seeded five-time Wimbledon champ, overcomes 40-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm, 6-7 (6), 6-3, 8-6, in her second-round match on Wimbledon's Centre Court.Reporting from Wimbledon, England — At first, Venus Williams was made to look as if she'd never played tennis.

Returning to Grand Slam tennis after a year away with health problems, Serena Williams opened her Wimbledon title defense Tuesday by beating Aravane Rezai in three sets - then burst into tears on Centre Court....

Serena Williams is returning to the tour after nearly a year off because of various health issues....