Defending champion Jelena Jankovic, seeded fourth, dismantled Venus Williams' power game and advanced to the semifinals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. Jankovic defeated Williams 5-7 6-3 6-2.

"I was fighting for every point," said the world No.4. "Venus is really strong, and to win you have to really play your best."

I didn’t get to see the match, but as I can read in the news, Williams was let down by her forehand.

In the semis Jelena Jankovic will meet either ninth-seeded Patty Schnyder or second-seeded Maria Sharapova, who are now playing their quarterfinal. The other semifinal will feature French qualifier Alize Cornet, who advanced as injured Serena Williams withdrew, and sixth seed Russian Anna Chakvetadze.

Today I woke up with the news that Venus Williams will be sidelined for an indefinite period of time. What? How did this come about?

"I've just been having some issues that I need to resolve, so I'm working on that at the moment and I'm hoping to be back playing as soon as possible," Williams said Tuesday at the Bausch & Lomb Championships, from which she had withdrawn earlier because of an undisclosed medical problem. "I'm not going to get any further into it, but of course I love the sport." What does this "but of course I love the sport" mean? It makes her statement sound serious. Read more »

Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Venus Williams 6-4 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.

Kuznetsova’s victory spoiled the prospect of an all-Williams semifinal. So, instead of her older sister, Serena Williams, who beat Justine Henin in the Sony Ericsson Open quarters, will next face the Russian world No.4.

"I just felt a little bit off," said Venus, who has won the tournament in 1998, 1999 and 2001. "I didn't have the answers today, and she played well.

"I'm always happy for Serena to win. It would have been obviously very exciting for me to win too, but it just didn't happen." (via xinhuanet)

United States will be without Venus and Serena Williams for the Fed Cup semifinal against Russia in Moscow.

A few days ago the news went out that Lindsay Davenport tried to persuade Venus to play Fed Cup, but Venus smiled and simply said "Nope". Serena’s answer was similar.

In an interview after the match against Marina Erakovic at the Sony Ericsson Open, Venus explained the story behind her decision to miss the Fed Cup.

"You know, I've tried to support Fed Cup as much as I could these few years, but sometimes I just get tired. Moscow's a long way, and I've had quite a few long trips already this year," said world No.7 Venus Williams.

"I'm going to be playing Amelia and Charleston, so I just couldn't play five weeks in a row. Obviously, my commitment to the tour is very important to me also, so I just can't do everything." (image via SI.com)

The Williams sisters played each other for the first time after almost three years and the younger one, Serena Williams, won the thrilling Bangalore semifinal 6-3 3-6 7-6 to ensure a meeting with world No.12 Patty Schnyder in the final of the Indian tournament.

Beating sister Venus, world No.11 Serena now has a 8-7 lead in their head-to-head record.

With the buzz surrounding the battle of siblings, the Swiss Schnyder quietly cruised into the final with a 6-3 6-4 victory over 54th-ranked Chinese Yan Zi, who yesterday upset world No.4 and top seed Jelena Jankovic.

Tomorrow's championship match will be tenth career meeting between Serena Williams and Patty Schnyder, and the stats are on the side of the American as she leads 6-3. However, their last two encounters, and the only ones in 2007, Schnyder won.

Both the players are debutants at the Bangalore Open. The one who wins it will earn $95,500. (photos: Getty Images)

The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, will face each other in the Bangalore Open semifinals, their first meeting in almost three years.

Second seed Venus advanced with a 6-4 6-3 win over Russian Vera Zvonareva, while her sister Serena, seeded third, demolished Russian Anastasia Rodionova 6-1 6-4.

World No.7 Venus and No.11 Serena, who have 14 Grand Slam titles between them, are tied at 7-7 in career meetings.

Talking about playing against her sister, Serena joked: "She is a tough player and the only chance of beating her is when she is injured. I want her leg to be broken.

"Venus is nice to me all the time except when she is on court.

"I am also very competitive and I always want to win. We will have fun tomorrow."

BTW: Venus and Serena, knowing there will be no possibility of an all-Williams final at the Bangalore Open, aimed at reaching the doubles final. However, their plan crashed as they lost in the second round already. (source: BBC)

Top seed and defending champion Venus Williams was upset in the opening round of the Cellular South Cup on Tuesday by Czech qualifier Petra Kvitova. Earlier in the day, the tournament's No. 2 seed, Tatiana Golovin, was beaten by American Bethanie Mattek.

Defeating the six-time singles Grand Slam champion 2-6 6-4 6-3, Kvitova won only the second WTA Tour match of her career. Additionally, the 17-year-old, ranked 143rd, played in only her 14 career WTA match.

"She had a good serve and she was left-handed," world No.8 Williams said. "She mixed it up really well. I'm not happy about the result of the match, but she played well."

In the other upset, Mattek, a 22-year-old ranked 131st, played one of the best matches of her career defeating France’s world No.13 Tatiana Golovin 6-4 6-4.

"Honestly, I was really seeing the ball really well and I was there to every shot she hit," Mattek said. "I just stuck to my game plan. My goal was to get on top and get as many points right away as I could. I just came out firing." (source: ESPN, photos: Getty Images)

Slovakia’s world No.45 Dominika Cibulkova scored a victory of her career today in windy Doha with a straight set win over great champion and world No.7 Venus Williams. Final score was 6-3 6-3.

I expected an interesting match, but for Cibulkova to break hard-serving Williams four times, and hold all except for one of her service games, that was beyond my imagination.

The 18-year-old Cibulkova, the second best Slovakia’s WTA player, was confident, strong, well-adapted to the windy weather, and made few unforced errors. Williams, on the other hand, made too many unforced errors, and quite surprisingly, served no aces. Also, Cibulkova used almost all of her chances, and wasted only two out of six break points, which was not the case with Williams.

At the Qatar Total Open, Cibulkova also made other two significant victories, over world No.39 Lucie Safarova in the first round and over ninth seed and world No.12 Patty Schnyder in the second.

In the quarterfinals, Cibulkova will face Agnieszka Radwanska who advanced without playing her third round match as top seed Ana Ivanovic withdrew from the tournament due to ankle injury she suffered yesterday. (photo via Getty Images)