As our faithful reader P!nky suggested, I'm making a poll for Wimbledon, a bit reluctantly, though, as Roland Garros winner Li Na was not even included in my Roland Garros poll which featured twelve names. This time I've narrowed down my list a bit, but if the player you favor is not included, feel free to add her in the comments section.

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Li Na is here because grass is her good surface and she won the French Open recently, although she did lose early to Daniela Hantuchova at the AEGON International. Talking about Hantuchova, I think her current form gives her big credentials for this year's Wimbledon, although her retirement in the semifinal against Petra Kvitova at Eastbourne is worrying. Kvitova played the Wimbledon semifinals last year and this weekend she played the final of Eastbourne which she lost to Marion Bartoli. I wanted to give justice to Bartoli and include her as well, because she won on the grass of the Wimbledon tune-up, has had a great win-loss record recently and played the final of Wimbledon in 2007. Caroline Wozniacki is world No.1, so she has to make the list. Serena Williams is defending champion, although she didn't impress in the lead-up to Wimbledon, while her sister Venus won the tournament five times. And last but not least, the 2004 champion Maria Sharapova, who played impressively this clay-court season, and grass is her much better surface.

What do you say? Who do you think has the greatest chance to win Wimbledon 2011? (photo: Fimb)

The current Big Three of women's tennis, if I may call them that way – Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters – had very much different Wednesday. Serena lost in Eastbourne, Venus won, while Kim faced the fact that she would have to withdraw from Wimbledon because of her injury sustained yesterday in 's-Hertogenbosch.

Serena Williams survived a scrappy first-round encounter with Tsvetana Pironkova, but top seed Vera Zvonareva was a sterner opponent and even though Serena led 6-4 5-4 Zvonareva prolonged the match and won it 3-6 7-6(5) 7-5 after three hours and 12 minutes of play. Positive news for Serena today is her Wimbledon seeding. The defending champion will be seed No.7, which is 19 places higher than her ranking, and will avoid the highest-ranked opponents until at least the quarterfinals. Read more »

If Serena Williams is known for something it's that she never gives up and when you watch her matches you have to know that no matter how desperate her situation is, she can always pull out a win. Today at the AEGON International Serena was in exactly that type of situation, trailing Bulgarian world No.34 Tsvetana Pironkova, who by the way took out Serena's sister Venus from last year's Wimbledon, 5-0 in the first set. However, Serena used her experience and Pironkova's lost opportunities to her advantage and bit by bit won the match 1-6 6-3 6-4. Interestingly, at the end of the match, Serena's total number of points was 80 and Pironkova's 79. Read more »

As a form of tribute to the Williams sisters' return to tennis, I decided to share this beautiful old story of the Williams family and update Women's Tennis Blog's section dedicated to players when they were kids.

The short film shows the beginnings of Venus' and Serena's careers, the LA ghetto neighborhood they grew up in, their father Richard's clear vision, and even a "respected author" who said "demographically tennis is still perceived as a white upper-class sport, I don't think there are people out there dying to give millions of dollars to a ten-year-old black girl". You also get to see a 13-year-old Venus and a year younger Serena talking, laughing and playing tennis.

More childhood photos of Serena and Venus are available here, while here you can see little Venus with her enthusiastic father on the tennis court. Read more »

Serena and Venus Williams are set to play the AEGON International in Eastbourne, and even though some fans are still finding it hard to believe the sisters will indeed show up, it is highly likely that their comeback is for real. To celebrate the return of the biggest names, the WTA Tour has even made a short video of the Williamses practicing ahead of their first competitive tournament in a long time – Serena hasn’t played since last year’s Wimbledon, which is practically a year, and Venus hasn’t played since January’s Australian Open (while even before that, after Roland Garros 2010 she played only Wimbledon and the US Open). Read more »

Men's tennis star Andy Roddick says that Serena Williams' return will bring a much-needed strength to the women's game and he's welcoming the comeback of his fellow American.

Roddick thinks that women’s tennis has not been in good situation without Serena:

I mean, I think, no disrespect to any of the women that are playing right now, but I think women's tennis needs that dominating figure.

Read more »

This grass-court season is expected to be marked by Serena Williams’ return to tennis, after her almost a year long absence. The American, who has slipped to No.25 in the rankings from the No.1 where she stood when she last played competitively, plans to participate in the next week's Aegon International and then Wimbledon, where she will be defending her title.

Serena's sister Venus, a five-time Wimbledon champion, is also expected to play the grass-court Grand Slam. The last tournament she played was the 2011 Australian Open in January. Her health problem was a hip injury. Read more »

Serena Williams has been away from the tennis courts since winning Wimbledon 2010 and she's using her free time to practice for her rap career in a relaxed atmosphere of a karaoke bar in South Beach. Listen to Serena's interpretation of Destiny Child's "Survivor". Serena is the one in the red dress.

If you love what you’re hearing , check out Serena singing Madonna’s "Like a Virgin".

As for the actual tennis, the latest news is that she is expected to come back to play World Team Tennis in July, along with her sister Venus.

Serena Williams will not play Roland Garros, but that doesn't mean Nike hasn't prepared a dress for the missing 13-time Grand Slam champion. Big stars have dedicated clothes even for events they are not attending.

At the 2011 French Open, Serena was supposed to wear a so called Nike Women's Summer Smash Knit Dress. The dress is pink with can-can ruffles and an underlayer providing a touch of gray. The shoes are Nike Mirabella. Read more »

The Premier-level tournament in Rome is warming up, with the strong field of seven of the Top 10 players present, including world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, but let’s remind ourselves of the dormant long-time champions Serena and Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters. What are they doing?

Serena Williams has slipped from No.10 to No.17 in the rankings released today and there is still no word on when she will come back from her two foot surgeries and the blood clot in her lungs. Serena's fall in the rankings is actually historical for American tennis history, as this week is the first week ever that the United States have no representative in the Top 10 in either WTA or ATP lists.

Soon it will be a year that Serena has been away from tennis courts. However, the younger Williams sister is far from bored. Recently she even had a stalker drama in her life. Read more »