2014 Williams Watch-Serena's Hot!

Literally and figuratively. 



Serena took to the court at Rod Laver Arena for her second round match in the Australian Open women's singles tournament at a time when Melbourne is going through a summer heat wave. 

Yes peeps, it's summer south of the Equator.. It's a major reason why the Australian Open is the first Grand Slam tournament of the year and held in January.     

Temps hit 40 C (104 degrees) during her match and peaked at 42 C (108 degrees).   But Serena had second round business with Serbia's Vesna Dolonc, and handled it with the efficiency of Scandal's Olivia Pope.  She took just 63 minutes to blast 10 aces past her, hit 24 winners and send Dolonc to a 6-1 6-2 straight set defeat,

The win against Dolonc was her 60th match win in Aussie Open tourney play.  It ties Little Sis with Margaret Court for the most matches won at the Australian Open and helped punch her ticket to a third round match with Daniela Hantuchova.

As for the doubles, she and Big Sis have yet to play their first round match against the duo of Kristina Mladenovic of France and Flavia Pennetta of Italy but when they do, will post that result for you. 
    

2014 Williams Watch-Good News, Bad News Tennis Day Down Under

The 2014 edition of the Australian Open has started, and both my fave tennis playing siblings had their opening round matches with different results.  

Serena only took 57 minutes to blitz Australian Ashleigh Barty 6-2, 6-1 at Rod Laver Arena and punch her ticket to a second round match with Serbia's Vesna Dolonc.

Unfortunately Venus will not be joining her number one seeded little sister in the second round of the Australian Open singles tournament.

She had a tough opening round assignment at Margaret Court Arena facing 22nd seeded Ekaterina Makarova.  After splitting the first two sets, Venus was up 3-0 in the third until Makarova won five straight games to get control of the set and eventually the match.  

Venus fell 6-2, 4-6, 4-6 to end her attempt to win her first ever Australian Open singles crown. 

That's not the end of her tennis at Melbourne Park.  She and Serena are entered in the women's doubles tourney, and they start first round doubles play against the duo of Kristina Mladenovic of France and Flavia Pennetta of Italy
   

2013 Williams Watch-Serena To The Aussie Open Quarters

Little Sis' quest for her sixth Australian open singles title is still on track thanks to her fourth round straight set blitzing of 14th seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko.

It took number three seeded Serena less than an hour (57 minutes to be precise) to post her 6-2, 6-0 win and set up an intriguing quarterfinal match up with the woman who is touted in international and US tennis circles as possibly being 'the next Serena'.

She is 19 year old and 29th seeded American Sloane Stephens, and yep, she's a sistah playing in her first Grand Slam tournament.  

Stephens outlasted Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 to set up the match with the woman Stephens described as her childhood idol.   They have already faced each other in Brisbane, a match that Serena won 6-3, 6-4.

But this time it's in the Australian Open quarters, and her idol has not dropped a set in her methodical march to the quarterfinals.

Winner of this match will take on the survivor of the Victoria Azarenka-Svetlana Kuznetsova match.    Azarenka is the defending Aussie Open champion and tournament number one seed while Kuznetsova sent 10th seeded Caroline Wozniacki packing 6-2, 2-6, 7-5.  

Naw, I still haven't forgotten that foul shyt Wozniacki pulled in Brazil.

Ahem, focus Moni.

As I mentioned in a previous Williams Watch report, the sisters are still kicking butt and very much on track in their quest for their fifth Australian Open doubles crown. 

They have yet to drop a set in theis tournament, and the 12th seeded Williams sisters now face in the doubles quarterfinal round the Italian duo of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci for a spot in the semifinals against the 4th seeded Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.  

2013 Williams Watch-Rolling To The Doubles Quarters

My fave tennis playing siblings are still in the mix for their fifth Australian Open doubles title.

Little Sis and Big Sis are seeded number 12 in the doubles bracket and opened their title pursuit with a 6-3, 6-1 straight set win over Camila Giorgi of Italy and Stefanie Voegle of Switzerland that took only 70 minutes to complete..

They faced in the second round Vera Dushevina of Russia and Olga Gorvortsova of Bulgaria and they were dismissed in straight sets as well 6-1, 6-2 in 76 minutes.

In the doubles third round they faced fifth seeds Nadia Petrova of Russia and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia who took only 74 minutes to fall 6-2, 6-3.  

The Williams sisters now face in the doubles quarterfinal round the Italian duo of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci for a spot in the semis against the winner of the match between 4th seeded Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina vs Spain's Silvia Soler-Espinosa and Carla Suarez Navarro. 

The Spanish duo punched their quarterfinal ticket by upsetting the 5th seeded team Liezel Huber of the USA and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 6-4.

The Williams sisters are in position to get their first Australian Open doubles title since 2010, but still have a lot of tennis left to play to get there.

2013 Williams Watch-Mixed Results Day

Both of my tennis playing sisters went into the third round on a roll with neither having dropped a set so far in this opening Grand Slam of the year in Melbourne..

But while third seeded Little Sis was facing unheralded Ayumi Morita of Japan, 25th seeded Big Sis had a tough one in number two seeded Maria Sharapova of Russia.    Venus' pursuit of her first Australian Open singles title ended with a 1-6, 3-6 straight set loss.

Meanwhile Little Sis kept on kicking butt, but had to work for it a little bit.  .She breezed through the first set with Morita, but found herself down 0-3 early in the second set.  She won the next six games with a little help from Morita to take the match in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 to move to the fourth round and her next match with 14th seeded Maria Kirilenko.of Russia.

And for those of you wondering if Caroline Wozniacki is on Serena's side of the bracket, she sure is..  Assuming Wozniacki holds up her end, they would meet in the Australian open semifinals.  But tournament number one seed Victoria Azarenka is on Wozniacki's side of the bracket and will definitely have a say in whether that semifinal match happens.

But Venus' business trip to Melbourne isn't over.  She and Little Sis are seeded number 12 in the doubles bracket  side and still chasing their fifth Australian Open doubles title.  

2013 Williams Watch-On To The Third Round

The first week of the 2013 Australian Open continues with my fave tennis playing siblings still kicking butt and taking names in women's singles.

Both won their second round matches in straight sets with Venus taking 77 minutes to complete her straight set 6-3, 6-3 victory over France's Alize Cornet and Serena taking 75 minutes in her straight set 6-2, 6-0 demolition of Garbine Muguruza of Spain to move on to the third round.

While Serena will be taking on Ayumi Morita of Japan in her third round singles match, Venus will have her work cut out for her when she takes on number 2 seed Maria Sharapova of Russia.

The first round of the Australian Open women's doubles competition finally got cranked up with Little and Big Sis taking on the duo of Camila Giorgi of Italy and Stefanie Voegle of Switzerland.

As in the singles competition, the Williams sisters made quick work of their first round doubles opponents, taking only 70 minutes to handle their tennis business with a 6-3, 6-1 straight set win. . 

They move on to a second round doubles match with the duo of  Vera Dushevina of Russia and Olga Gorvortsova of Bulgaria

2013 Williams Watch-Handling Their Tennis Business

My favorite tennis playing siblings are in Melbourne handling their tennis business and playing in the first Grand Slam tournament of the 2013 tennis season in the Australian Open.   Venus and Serena both played their first round women's singles matches and easily breezed into the second round.  

They have yet to play their first round doubles match against the duo of Camila Giorgi of Italy and Stefanie Voegle of Switzerland.

In the women's singles tournament 25th seeded Venus needed only 60 minutes to dismiss Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan in a 6-1, 6-0 straight set victory to move on to the second round and her match with Alize Cornet of France   .

3rd seeded Serena however had a little more drama in her 54 minute 6-0, 6-0 blitzing of Edina Gallovits-Hall of Romania.  While leading 4-0 in the first set she slipped on the Hisense Arena surface and lay motionless for several minutes before receiving lengthy medical attention for a rolled ankle. 

After the medical timeout she was in noticeable pain, but not enough to resumed kicking butt and moving on to a second round match against Garbine Muguruza of Spain. 

She said in an interview after the match that she will be ready to play her next scheduled match on Thursday Melbourne time

Sure hope so because she has been on a roll lately.  If she goes on to claim the Australian Open singles title she would regain the world number one ranking.   But there's a lot of tennis that needs to be played before she gets to that point.

2012 Williams Watch- Serena's Surprisingly Out

Up until this match with Russia's Ekaterina Makarova, Serena had been on a roll.  She's won all three in straight sets and had been on the court no longer than 79 minutes.

And then she had what you can probably categorize as a bad day at the office in surprisingly losing 2-6, 3-6 to Makarova.  Seven double faults, four in one game and a first serve percentage of less than 50% will get you beat.   

Then again she only tends to win the Australian Open in odd numbered years, anyway.  

So chomp on those Hater Tots Serena detractors, do your happy dances and spout your bigoted rhetoric about the Williams sisters in online tennis websites, discussion boards and online newspaper comment threads. 

The French Open, Wimbledon, the Olympics and the US Open still have yet to be played.  

2012 Williams Watch- Serena To Fourth Round

Serena Williams may only be a 12th seed in this year's edition of the Australian Open, but as the other women in this draw know, when she's healthy and playing well she's a threat to win any tournament, especially if it's a Grand Slam one.

Serena didn't waste any time in her third round match with Greta Arn of Hungary.  It took her only 59 minutes to blitz through it in straight sets 6-1, 6-1 and move on to her fourth round matchup with Ekaterina Makarova of Russia. 

And Williams haters, she's the last American of either gender left in the singles draw of this tournament, so how you like her now?

2012 Williams Watch- Serena's Milestone Win Takes Her To Third Round

There was good news and bad news for Little Sis on her business trip Down Under.  First the bad news.

Serena's mixed doubles partner Andy Roddick pulled a hamstring muscle during his second round match with Australia's Lleyton Hewitt in which he was trailing 6-3,3-6,.4-6 and had to retire.    

Serena and Andy Roddick are considering entering the mixed doubles competition in the London Games and wanted to use this tournament to get some practice time together.   

Now the good news.  She breezed past Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-0, 6-4 to earn her 500th career match win to send her to the Australian Open's third round.

It was Little Sis' 16th consecutive match win at Melbourne Park and her career match record is 500-104.  In case you're wondering Venus' career match record is 589-147.

Next up is Hungary's Greta Arn

2012 Williams Watch- Serena Wins First Round Aussie Open Match

Two weeks into a new year and another professional tennis season gets started with the first Grand Slam  tournament of the year kicking off Down Under.

It's the 2012 edition of the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Big Sis is still trying to recover from the auto immune ailment she's suffering from.  She thought she'd be ready to play for the Open but was forced to withdraw. 

She plans to be ready to resume playing next month with an eye towards getting ready for the French Open, Wimbledon, and defending the doubles gold medal she and Little Sis won in Beijing in 2008. 

That leaves Little Sis to uphold Williams family honor and attempt to win her sixth Australian Open singles title after not being able to defend her 2010 singles title due to foot surgery that was problematic in healing. 

She's currently number 12 in the WTA rankings and is also entered in the mixed doubles with Andy Roddick as her partner.  They'll play number one seeds Kveta Peschke and Mike Bryan when that tournament starts.

12th seeded Serena started off Aussie Open singles play with a 6-3, 6-2 straight set victory over Austria's Tamira Paszek that took her 79 minutes to complete in large part to those 12 aces she served in this match to go along with the 34 winners she hit.

Her second round opponent is Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, who was a quarterfinalist in last year's US Open.

Serena had a pattern going in which starting in 2003, she'd won the Aussie Open in odd numbered years and back to back after her 2009 win.

I'm hoping she's back to her Grand Slam winning ways in 2012, and this would be a nice place to start.

Another Groundbreaking Win For Australian Trans People

The trans folks Down Under have been giving us a lot of good news on the international trans human rights front lately. 

First it was the Australian Defence Forces lifting their ban on trans soldiers last year.   Then came last month's ruling that stated trans Aussies can get passports issued in their new gender without surgical intervention.

Now the Australian High Court, the equivalent of the SCOTUS issued an October 6 ruling in the recent case of two transmen who had chest surgeries done, were on testosterone but when they attempted to get identity documents changed to reflect male status they were rebuffed.

The High Court ruled in their favor, stating that a person is identified as male or female by their external characteristics, not their sexual organs  
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The decision has been welcomed by Australian transgender support groups, and also brings Australia into line with South Africa, Great Britain and some other European countries.

Congrats to my Australian brothers and sisters, it was long overdue and I'm exceedingly happy, proud and pleased for you.  

I also have to remind everyone that the Australian success in advancing trans rights law is something we can build on since our trans human rights struggle is an international one.   

But the Australian success prompts me to ask as an American when are we, the 'so called leading democracy in the world, going to lead on trans human rights issues instead of lag behind?

Australia Makes It Easier For Gender Diverse Peeps To Get Passports

Identity document issues are a problem for transpeople all over the world, and there is great news coming from Down Under concerning theirs.. 

In line with an Australian government initiative to remove discrimination issues on the grounds of sex. sexual orientation and gender identity, the Australian Passport Office is no longer requiring genital surgery as a prerequisite for issuing a passport in a new gender..

Birth or citizenship certificates do not need to be amended in order to receive that passport in their preferred gender..

According to the Australian Passport Office website:
  A letter from a medical practitioner certifying that the person has had, or is receiving, appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition to a new gender, or that they are intersex and do not identify with the sex assigned to them at birth, is acceptable.

The letter will only be accepted from practitioners registered with the Medical Board of Australia (or equivalent overseas authority). ‘Appropriate clinical treatment’ does not have to be specified.


A full validity passport in a new sex may also be issued to applicants who have undergone sex reassignment surgery and have registered their change of sex with Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages (RBDM) or the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC).

A passport may be issued to sex and gender diverse applicants in M (male), F (female) or X (indeterminate/unspecified/intersex).

There had been a 20 year policy in place at the Department of Foreign Affairs allowing transsexuals to have their preferred gender listed on a 12 month passport if they were traveling overseas for sex-change surgery which was replaced with a 10 year one after SRS.   That policy was overturned in 2007 by the Howard government and was reinstated in 2009 after an incident involving Stefanie Imbruglia, the trans cousin of pop star Natalie Imbruglia.

Stefanie not only was disrespected and issued a passport with an "M'  in the gender code, when she arrived in Thailand for her surgery the passport control officer there embarrassingly asked Stefanie in front of other passengers to account for why there was a discrepancy between her passport and her appearance. 

After completing her surgery Imbruglia took the Department of Foreign Affairs before the Australian Human Rights Commission, arguing that it had not only discriminated against her, but put her life in danger by refusing to give her a passport that reflected her identity.   The department issued a written apology to Imbruglia in addition to reinstating the old policy..

“This measure will extend the same freedoms to sex and gender diverse Australians. While it’s expected this change will only affect a handful of Australians, it’s an important step in removing discrimination for sex and gender diverse people," said Attorney General Robert McClellan

The Australian groups who have been fighting for the policy changes on behalf of  the gender diverse community there hailed it and agreed with the AG's sentiments.

Congrats to my friends Down Under for their major victory in achieving this policy change.

2011 Williams Watch-Venus Out Of Aussie Open

While Big Sis manged to gut out a three set victory over Sandra Zahlavova despite the injury she suffered in the first set of that match, 48 hours wasn't enough for her to recover from it.

Seven points into the first set of her match with Germany's Andrea Petkovic and trailing 0-1 she was forced to default due to that injury to the muscle that flexes the hip and spinal column. 

.“The last 48 hours, I just did as much pain management as I could,” Venus said. “A lot of times when you play, you get that adrenaline and that blocks pain. I just didn’t get enough of that today. I was hoping for some magic that I could recover.” 

It ended a remarkable streak over her career in which she had never defaulted in a Grand Slam match in addition to ending another quest for her first Australian Open singles title.

Get well Big Sis and hope we see you and Little Sis playing some Grand Slam tennis before the year is out.

2011 Williams Watch-Venus Guts It Out To 3rd Round

Venus began her quest for her first Australian Open singles title with a straight set 6-4, 6-3 win over Sara Errani of Italy and faced 97th ranked Sandra Zahlavova in the second round at Rod Laver Arena.. 

But Zahlavova surprisingly pushed Venus around in that first set helped along by 23 unforced errors and some double faults by Venus to take the first set in a 8-6 tiebreaker.   On set point Big Sis suffered an upper calf injury and took a timeout to get it treated.

When Big Sis came back out of that locker room she opened up a can of Williams whoop azz and blitzed Zahlavova to take the second set 6-0.

The third set was fairly even until Venus broke her to take a 4-3 lead and eventually close out the final set with a 6-4 win and hobble into the third round.

6-7(6-8), 6-0, 6-4.  Big Sis can exhale and get the trainer working on that calf until she faces the winner of the Anne Keothavong- Andrea Petkovic match.