Starstruck Serena Williams double faults over Michael Jackson

Serena Williams pulverized the Italian Roberta Vinci and then went all sweetly dippy on the subject of Michael Jackson.

Serena drooled over Jacko's memory, didn't seem to have too firm a grasp on his back catalogue and then said: "I've done Farrah Fawcett hair before, what a great loss." Welcome to la-la land.

Serena did not even receive one query about her 6-3, 6-4 victory before she was asked about Jackson. She said: "You think of the Beatles, you think of Elvis Presley, you think of Michael Jackson. The things he did were beyond iconic.

"I've met him a few times. Any celebrity who met Michael Jackson was completely in awe. I know I was. I kept thinking, 'Oh my God, Oh my God. It's him, it's him.' For me he was the celebrity of all celebrities. I wouldn't even mention my name and his is the same sentence at all.

"Michael Jackson goes way beyond the black community. Everyone, of every colour, every nation, every race, are Michael Jackson fans. Even though I met him, knew him, if I would ever have saw him on the streets, I still would have been, like, 'Aaaah!! He is just iconic on all levels."

So what was Serena's favourite Jacko song. "I don't remember the name of it. It's a slower one. It's a duet with someone. I don't remember." Like she said - beyond iconic and possibly beyond recall.

It's hard to imagine Celebrity ever stalking Serena Williams and taking her out with a lethal dose. Serena doesn't do frail. If Fame's Reaper ever turned up on the other side of the net from Serena, she would biff down one of her 120mph serves and take it out between the eyes.

Not that the younger Williams is immune to celebrity's charms. On Friday she turned up six minutes late for her match on Court Two. Apparently she was waiting for an escort that never arrived. That's the trouble with being a star. No one else is ever on time.

When she did show up Serena strode onto court in her glam white mac without a glimmer of an apology. The umpire smiled subserviently and then laid down the ground rules to both players. Vinci listened while Serena took wild, venomous swings of her racket on the other side of the net.

That was the way of the match. Vinci listened while Serena swung away. The younger Williams didn't play particularly well. Her forehand was wayward, she dropped serve twice with double faults and she is a sucker for the drop shot or lob. Ask Williams to push off or turn and she is as agile as a high-heeled starlet on the red carpet.

Dad Richard was so interested that he started polishing the lens of his camera. Serena is a wonderful player, but she is not a wonderful entertainer. In some ways she is too good. She is, however, a celeb. As she once said: "I'm my biggest fan."

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Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova to be reunited for double act at Wimbledon

Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova will team up to play in the women's senior doubles at Wimbledon this year.

The duo, who were once ranked as the No 1 doubles team in the world, are likely to be strong favourites to win the invitiational event at SW19.

Hingis and Kournikova won the Australian Open women's doubles title in 1999 and three years later in 2002.

Hingis, 29, won five Grand Slam singles crowns before retiring in 2007, when she was suspended for two years for testing positive for cocaine at Wimbledon.

She denied taking the drug but did not appeal the ban, which ended last September but has not ruled out the possibility of playing some more doubles on the WTA tour.

Kournikova, 28, reached the Wimbledon singles semi-finals in 1997 but has not played regularly on the WTA Tour in seven years.

"I'm so excited to be returning to the UK to play doubles with Martina again," said Kournikova.

"This tournament has always held a special place in my heart, and it will be a great honor to play on the courts of Wimbledon again. I'm looking forward to having a lot of fun.

"Anna and I have had a lot of success together and I look forward to being reunited with her at Wimbledon," said Hingis.

"Having won singles in 1997 and doubles in 1996 and 1998, I am excited about returning to the place where I have had some of the best memories of my career."

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Williams sisters advance to final in doubles

WIMBLEDON, England Venus and Serena Williams won in contrasting fashion Thursday to set up their fourth all-sister Wimbledon final and eighth meeting in a Grand Slam title match.

Two-time champion Serena saved a match point and overcame Elena Dementieva 6-7 (4), 7-5, 8-6 in 2 hours, 49 minutes the longest women's semifinal at Wimbledon in at least 40 years. Five-time winner Venus, meanwhile, needed only 51 minutes to demolish Dinara Safina 6-1, 6-0 and reach her eighth Wimbledon final.

"Oh, my God, this is my eighth final, and it's a dream come to true to be here again and have the opportunity to hold the plate up," Venus said.

The sisters with 17 Grand Slam titles between them -- will face each other Saturday in a Fourth of July final.

"A fourth final -- it's so exciting. It was so hard before my match to watch all that drama," Venus said, referring to Serena's semifinal. "It was so difficult. But the hardest part is next to come, to play Serena Williams."

One Williams or the other has won seven of the past nine championships at the All England Club. Serena beat Venus in the 2002 and '03 finals, and Venus came out on top against her younger sister last year.

"All I know is a Williams is going to win," said the sisters' father, Richard.

Venus is bidding to become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1991-93 to win Wimbledon three years in a row.

There have been seven previous all-Williams championship matches at majors, with Serena holding a 5-2 lead. Overall, the sisters are 10-10.

"The more we play, the better it gets," Serena said. "When we play our match on Saturday, you know, it's for everything. This is what we dreamed of when we were growing up in Compton 20-something years ago. This is what we worked for, and this is what we want. Like I wanted her to win today and she wanted me to win today. It's all come down to this."

Venus said she was rooting for Serena to win Thursday but will now do all she can to stop her sister and win her eighth major title.

"I'm happy for her to be in the final, but I have to face her and defeat her," Venus said. "I don't necessarily want her to lose, but for sure I want me to win. I don't want to see myself disappointed. I need to get my titles, too. I'm still the big sister, but I'm still going to play great tennis."

The difference in the two semifinals couldn't have been more striking.

Dementieva said: "The only regret I have, maybe I should take a little bit more risk on match point, should go down the line."

It was Serena's eighth straight win in a Grand Slam semifinal going back to the 2003 French Open. She is 14-2 overall in Grand Slam semifinals.

It was almost too much to handle for father Richard, who watched with other family members and friends in the guest box.

"Serena nearly gave me a heart attack," he said. "Venus played as if she had someplace to go and she was in a major league hurry to get a great dinner."

Serena served 20 aces -- the most for a woman at Wimbledon since 2000 -- and had 45 winners and 28 unforced errors. Dementieva produced 27 winners, 26 errors and eight double-faults.

"That was the best match we ever played against each other," Dementieva said. "It was a real fight from the beginning until the end. I feel like I finally played some good tennis here. It was not easy to fight against her. She's a great champion. She was serving very well today. I wasn't sure if it's Serena or Andy Roddick on the other side."

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Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina in women's double wimbledon

Elena Viatcheslavovna Dementieva (born 15 October 1981) is a Russian professional tennis player. She has won two medals in singles, including the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She has also reached the finals of two Grand Slam events. Her career high ranking was World No. 3 which she achieved on April 6, 2009. As of 22 March 2010, her ranking is World No.6.

Dementieva was born in Moscow to Viatcheslav, an electrical engineer, and Vera, a teacher, both recreational tennis players. She was rejected by Dynamo Sports Club and the Central Red Army Tennis Club at the age of 7, before enrolling at Spartak Tennis Club, where she was coached for 3 years by Rauza Islanova, the mother of Marat Safin and Dinara Safina. She then moved to the Central Red Army Club with Sergei Pashkov, when she was 11. She is now coached by her mother Vera and her older brother Vsevolod. She has homes in Monaco, Moscow and Boca Raton, Florida, and enjoys snowboarding, baseball, reading and traveling. Dementieva played and won her first international tournament, Les Petit As, in France at the age of 13. In 1997, she entered the WTA top 500. She turned professional in 1998 and entered the top 100 in 1999.

Dementieva's breakthrough year was 2004. In Miami, she defeated Venus Williams in the quarterfinals and Nadia Petrova in the semifinals.
In 2005, Dementieva reached six semifinals, the most important being at the US Open. She also reached the final in Charleston, losing to Justine Henin, and Philadelphia, losing to Amélie Mauresmo despite serving for the match at 5–4 in the third set. In the quarterfinals of the US Open, Dementieva defeated top ranked Lindsay Davenport 6–1, 3–6, 7–6(6) for her second.

Dinara Mikhailovna Safina (born April 27, 1986 in Moscow) is a Russian professional tennis player. Currently Safina is ranked world number 3. She has been in three Grand Slam singles finals and won the women's doubles title at the 2007 US Open with Nathalie Dechy. She also won the Olympic silver medal in women's singles at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Her most recent achievement is runner-up in the 2009 French Open.

She is the younger sister of former World No. 1 men's player Marat Safin. She and her brother is the first brother-sister tandem in tennis history to both achieve #1 ranking. Safina made her debut in the main draw of a WTA Tour tournament in May 2002, on clay at Estoril, where she lost in the semifinals. She won her first title of her career in Sopot, defeating two seeds – including World No. 24 - en route to the final, which she won when opponent Henrieta Nagyová retired during the second set.

Safina continued to climb the rankings in 2005. At the Australian Open, she lost in the second round to Amélie Mauresmo. However, she defeated Mauresmo in the final in Paris three weeks later, in order to win the third title of her career. This marked her first win over a player ranked in the top 5. Following her win, Safina remarked: "You can't imagine how happy I am. I can't find words to explain how I feel right now. It's by far the best day of my career. I played well, took my chances and beat a Top 5 player. It's just too much in one day.


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Venus and Serena Williams, Dinara Safina and Elena Dementieva reach Wimbledon semi-finals

The third seed Venus Williams stayed on course for a third consecutive Wimbledon title with a 6–1, 6–2 victory over Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska in their quarter-final while Serena Williams kept the possibility of another all-Williams final alive with a straight sets win over Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.

Venus, seekinrg her sixth title at the All England Club, has not lost a set at Wimbledon since the third round two years ago, and Radwanska, the 11th seed, rarely threatened a shock on a sun-drenched Court One.

"That first set for me was almost perfect," said Venus. "Do I feel invincible? I'd like to say yes, but I really do work at it. Day in and day out. To clock these matches out takes a lot of work."

Williams took the first set in just 27 minutes and although the Pole broke early for a 2–0 lead in the second, the seven-times grand slam winner reeled off six straight games to advance to the semi-final, where she will play Dinara Safina..

Serena Williams produced an error-free opening set to draw first blood against Azarenko, who was the first woman from Belarus to reach the quarter-finals at Wimbledon since Natasha Zvereva in 1998. The American made light of the heat to produce a running forehand in the third game and then out-hit her young opponent to gain the first break to lead 4-2. She consolidated the break with a two-handed backhand and broke once more to take the set in just 26 minutes.

Azarenko briefly raised her game in the second set to suggest her straight-sets victory over Williams in Miami earlier this year was no fluke. She threatened to strike back in the opening game of the second set, successfully challenging a baseline call to force her first break points of the match, but Williams simply produced three booming serves to avert the danger.

There was a rare moment of alarm for the American when she went over on her ankle in a baseline tumble but quickly got back on her feet to force a break point. The 19-year-old Azarenko had to dig deep to hold serve in the fourth game after coming up with two double faults, and then pounced on a series of second serves from Williams to achieve the first break of the second set.

But Williams broke back immediately, held to love and then broke the teenager again before serving for the match. Her 6-2, 6-3 victory sets up a meeting with Elena Dementieva and ensures that both Thursday's semi-finals will be American-Russian affairs,

Dinara Safina recovered from going a set down to the unseeded German Sabine Lisicki to win 6–7, 6–4, 6–1. It was the second day running the Russian had lost the first set and she admitted she would have to serve better to stand a chance against Venus Williams. "My service today, I think I was Santa Claus serving so many double faults," she said. "On the practice court I don't serve a single double fault. The serve is there, I just have to put the brain there.

"I know what I have to do, I'm just not doing it. It's not going to be easy against Venus on grass but I have nothing to lose. I want to go out there and enjoy it and show my best tennis. I'm happy that I'm in the semis – I was tough mentally and I think that was the key today."

Safina's compatriot Elena Dementieva reached her second successive Wimbledon semi-final with a straighforward victory over Italian Francesca Schiavone on Court One. The Olympic champion and fourth seed won 6–2, 6–2 to set-up a semi-final against Serena Williams.

"I'm just very happy to be in the semi-final again," said Dementieva. "It was a tough match despite the score. The weather conditions were tough today so I'm glad to go through. I was trying to play very aggressive and make it as quick as possible because it is very hot out there. I am sure it will be a tough challenge for me against Serena, as she likes to play on grass. But I just want to give myself another try."

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Zimonjic makes light of wrist woe

Nenad Zimonjic overcame a broken bone in his wrist to partner Daniel Nestor to victory in the men's doubles final. The big-serving Serb, who injured himself after clattering into a line-judge in the semi-final against Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy, was undoubtedly the player of the match as the No. 2 seeds beat veterans Jonas Bjorkman and Kevin Ullyett 7-6 (14-12), 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 6-3 in 2 hours and 39 minutes.

The Wimbledon title, the first for both players, hands Yugoslavian-born Canadian Nestor a place in history as the eighth man in the Open era to win a career Grand Slam of doubles - the others being Bjorkman, Bob and Mike Bryan, Mark Woodforde, Todd Woodbridge, Paul Haarhuis and Jacco Eltingh..

The Canadian won the Australian Open in 2002, Roland Garros in 2007 and the US Open in 2004, all with former long-time partner Mark Knowles. It also tops a great year for the partnership, who reformed as a pair in October 2007 after a six-year hiatus. They have been on a roll in recent months winning 21 of 23 matches, including the Wimbledon warm-up title at Queen's and reaching the final at Roland Garros.

The pair were deserving champions, producing an almost faultless display of serving with 19 aces in total and just one double fault and superb reaction skills on blustery conditions on Centre Court.

The first two sets could have gone either way. There were no breaks of serve and it came down to two tight tie-breaks and a test of nerves. The first went to the Serb/Canadian partnership, after the longest tie-break in Wimbledon men's doubles history, 14-12 when Bjorkman netted a forehand volley after a frantic rally.

Zimonjic, 32, and Nestor, 35, slapped hands in delight, but their one-set advantage was soon cancelled out after Bjorkman and Ullyett, in their swansong at Wimbledon, took the second set tie-break in much easier fashion, 7-3 after the Swede punched a volley winner home.

With so few points separating the pairs it seemed impossible to pick a winner as the match went into a third set. However after fifteen consecutive games had gone with serve, Zimonjic fizzed a forehand return to bring up a break point for the No.2 pairing.

They quickly seized the opportunity and moved 3-1 ahead after the Swede pushed a volley long. Bjorkman and Ullyett, who joined forces this year, had a chance to break Nestor back as he served for the set at 5-3, however the Canadian wiped out the opportunity with a fantastic serve out wide and held his nerve to seal the set.

The No.2 seeds then went on to carve out a 3-2 lead in the fourth set after breaking the Ullyett serve when a volley error by his 36-year-old Swedish partner was followed by a brilliant forehand into the tramlines by Nestor.

"We focused really hard. It's one of those matches where you don't want to give an inch. Every game and point is tough. You feel like you have to focus really hard because you're playing against one of the best competitors over the years, singles and doubles, Bjorkman. Ullyett is playing great doubles, too. They beat the Bryans and they're confident."

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Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić in doubles

Daniel Mark Nestor born on September 4, 1972, in Belgraden tennis player from the Toronto area.

In his career so far he has won 68 men's doubles titles, including a gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics, the Tennis Masters Cup, and 5 Grand Slam men's doubles titles. In addition, Nestor won the 2007 Australian Open mixed doubles title with Elena Likhovtseva. This pairing also reached the finals of the 2006 Australian Open and the 2006 French Open. Nestor reclaimed the Men's doubles world #1 ranking, after winning doubles at Wimbledon. On July 4, 2009, Nestor and his partner, Nenad Zimonjić, repeated as doubles champions at Wimbledon. His 68 doubles titles makes him the most decorated champion active and he is the only player in tennis history to have won all the Grand Slams and Masters Series events at least once.

He won three Grand Slam doubles titles together with longterm partner Mark Knowles of the Bahamas. The tandem won the 2002 Australian Open, the 2004 U.S. Open and the 2007 French Open. He and Knowles also reached the final of the 1995 Australian Open, the 1998 French Open and U.S. Open, the 2002 French Open and Wimbledon, the 2003 Australian Open and the 2005 Wimbledon He became the number one ranked doubles player in the world in August, 2002. Nestor's career high singles ranking is World No. 58, which he reached in August, 1999. In mixed doubles, he reached the 2003 U.S. Open final and the 2006 Australian Open final, as well as winning the mixed doubles event at the 2007 Australian Open with partner Elena Likhovtseva.

Nenad Zimonjić born June 4, 1976 in Belgrade, Serbia is a professional Serbian tennis player who is currently ranked World No. 1 in men's doubles. He is the second tennis player from Serbia to hold the highest doubles ranking, after Slobodan Živojinović.

Zimonjić turned pro in 1995 and remained relatively unknown outside his native country until a surprise victory in the Mixed Doubles at the 2004 Australian Open. Paired for the first time with Russian Elena Bovina, he beat defending champions Martina Navratilova and Leander Paes in straight sets in an hour and nine minutes, 6–1, 7–6 (3). Alongside Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia, he won the 2006 French Open crown with a straight-sets victory over Daniel Nestor and Elena Likhovrtseva, 6–3, 6–4. At the 2006 Wimbledon Championships, Zimonjić reached the final of the Men's Doubles (alongside France's Fabrice Santoro) and the quarter-finals of the Mixed Doubles.

In 2007, Zimonjić reached the 2007 French Open mixed doubles final as the defending champions with Katarina Srebotnik and lost to Nathalie Dechy and Andy Ram. He left Fabrice Santoro after Wimbledon and teamed with Mahesh Bhupathi until after the 2007 U.S. Open. After the U.S. Open, Nenad left Bhupathi and partnered with Daniel Nestor who won the French Open earlier in the year alongside Mark Knowles. The team won the 2007 St. Petersburg Open without losing a set.

While Zimonjić is known as a doubles specialist, he has recorded two big wins in his singles career. In 2004 he defeated Andre Agassi 6–2 7–6 in St Pölten and in 2005 on the grass of Halle he defeated Nicolas Kiefer 6–7(1) 6–3 6–4, both of these were first round victories. At the 2008 Wimbledon tennis tournament, Zimonjić won his first Doubles Grand Slam triumph with Daniel Nestor of Canada.

In 2009, Zimonjić won the World Team Cup as a part of the Serbian team. His partner Victor Troicki and him won two decisive games against Italian and Argentinian teams; as a result, Serbia has finished first in its group and then proceeded to beat Germany in the final encounter.

In 2008 he married former model Mina Knežević. On December 4, 2008, his wife gave birth to twins, Leon and Luna.

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