Magnificent Dinara Safina beat magnificent Venus Williams 6-7(3) 6-3 6-4 in a powerful battle of two hard-hitters and one of the best matches of the season, to reach the final of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. The semifinal lasted three hours and nine minutes, and I believe that tells enough.

The fourth-seeded Williams won the first set after a one hour and 10 minutes long fight. Safina had come back from a break down to level at 5-5, but lost in the tiebreak (isn’t it horrible when a player recovers from a bad situation only to lose in a tiebreak?). Nevertheless, Safina took the match to the third set. The decider was full of breaks, with Williams always coming back from behind, but as I said, always coming back, Safina never kept the lead for long. Finally, at 5-4 Safina was serving for the match and after saving some break points, the Russian world No.1 finally converted her third match point to beat the American.

It’s a real joy to watch Safina play when she has consistency, and against a great opponent such as Venus Williams, there’s nothing more you can ask for.

In-form Svetlana Kuznetsova, who ended her title drought in Stuttgart last week, reached her second consecutive final by defeating sixth seed Victoria Azarenka 6-2 6-4 in the semifinals. The seventh-seeded Kuznetsova will be Safina’s opponent in an all-Russian final in Rome.

As for world No.5 Venus Williams, she will retake the No.3 ranking on May 11. She hasn't been ranked that high in six years. (photos: Tennis Channel)

Jelena Jankovic’s terrible 2009 season is rapidly going even more downwards. After losing her opening match at the previous tournament, the BNP Paribas Open, Jankovic succumbed to Gisela Dulko in her opening match at the Sony Ericsson Open. Venus and Serena Williams, on the other hand, continued to do well, and both advanced to the third round in straight sets.

We have to mention that Dulko didn’t defeat the third-seeded Jankovic easily. Jankovic led 4-2 before losing the first set, and then in the second led 5-2 with two set points in that game and another at 5-3, and also led 5-2 in the tiebreak. The last year’s runner-up eventually lost 6-4 7-6(5).

Five-time Sony Ericsson Open champion Serena Williams, the No.1 seed, defeated American wildcard Alexa Glatch 6-2 6-3, while fifth-seeded Venus Williams was down a break in both sets against Shahar Peer, but won 6-3 6-3. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Venus Williams and Andy Murray played a game of traffic tennis on Ocean Drive prior to the Sony Ericsson Open which starts this week in Miami, Florida.

So far we’ve seen tennis matches on a desert island, on water court, and in many other strange places (the two came to my mind first) and I was wondering what would be next. Read more »

You probably already know that Serena and Venus Williams don’t want to play at Indian Wells ever again, because they detest the tournament claiming they were booed and suffered racial abuse there in 2001.

The big problem has emerged this year, however: the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells is now a premier event and any player who declines to play one of the four premier events without a legitimate medical excuse – which the top 10 players are required to play – would be suspended for the next two premier events. So everyone was wondering how the problem with the Williams sisters would be resolved.

World No.1 Serena Williams and world No.5 Venus Williams will not play tennis at the event, but will perform promotional activities for the tournament, as new stipulations were put into place that any player declining to play an event for personal reasons would be allowed to do so under the conditions mentioned.

Therefore, the Williams sisters will avoid suspension by performing some activities, which will be determined by the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in due course. (source: Tennis Head, photos via Tennis Channel)

World No.1 Serena Williams defeated older sister Venus 6-4 6-3 to win the $1.2 million BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup, a one-night exhibition event held at Madison Square Garden.

The Williams sisters pleased the home crowd of 12,026 by reaching the final. Firstly, world No.5 Venus Williams advanced with a 6-4 victory over third-ranked Jelena Jankovic in the four-women show, and later Serena Williams shook off an early challenge from seventh-ranked Ana Ivanovic and won 6-3 in the second semifinal.

Winning the tournament, Serena took home $400,000, Venus settled for $300,000, while the Serbs got $250,000 each.