2010 French Open Williams Watch-Little Sis Survives To Fourth Round

Serena had to put on the hard hat for her Court Philippe Chatrier match against Russian teen Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

It didn't look that way at first as she only took 28 minutes to win the first set 6-1. But after Serena had to call the trainer out for some medical issues, Pavlyuchenkova took advantage of Serena's troubles. She flipped the script in the second set to win it by an identical 6-1 count in 34 minutes to even the match.

Serena regrouped, took a deep breath and subdued Pavlyuchenkova 6-2 in the decisive third set to punch her ticket to the fourth round and her match with Israel's Shahar Peer. The win ensured that Little Sis will keep the world No.1 ranking after Roland Garros.

“I just ran out of a little energy out there,” Williams said. “Just fighting a cold and fighting sickness. But, you know, I’m just feeling better and getting ready for doubles.”

Meanwhile, Big Sis is rested and gets to play Russia's Nadia Petrova in her fourth round match.

The good news for Serena was that she didn't have to expend any extra energy in that doubles match against Hantuchova and Wozniacki. It was won in a walkover, so the Number one ranked Williams sisters will take on the Czech Republic's duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in their next doubles match.

2010 French Open Williams Watch-On To Third Round!

Little Sis had to wait an additional day to punch her ticket into the third round of the 2010 French Open singles tournament, but was all business when she stepped onto the court for her second round match with Germany's Julia Georges.

The tournament Number One seed dispatched Georges in a 6-1, 6-1 straight set demolition that only took 55 minutes. Serena takes on Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in her third round singles match.

Meanwhile tournament Number Two seeded Big Sis took out Spain's Arantxa Perra Santonia 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday and beat Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-3, 6-4 in her third round match to advance to the fourth round of the French Open singles draw.

Their next doubles match has the number one doubles seeds taking on the Czech Republic's Daniela Hantchuova and Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.

2010 French Open

New year at Stade Roland Garros, same old question as to whether the Williams sisters will break their string of bad luck at this tournament and win it.

It's time for the 2010 French Open, the tennis world's second major tournament. It starts today and runs through June 8.

My favorite tennis playing siblings, unlike their dominance at 'Williams'-don, have combined to win this Grand Slam event only once, with Serena knocking off Venus to take the 2002 French Open title.

In doubles their title drought is even longer, with their only title on the red clay coming in 1999.

To make their singles quest a little tougher, unretired three time champ Justine Henin is back and holds a 21 match win streak here. She is also in Serena's half of the bracket.

Little Sis was seeded Number 1 for Friday's women's draw while Big Sis was seeded Number 2. If both of them manage to survive their fortnight in Paris, they would face each other in the finals.

So will Serena finally break through, win the French Open and position herself to capture a Grand Slam? Will Big Sis win her first French Open singles title?

Or will the Williams sisters buzzard's luck in Paris continue?

Good luck ladies!

Serena Repeats As Australian Open Champion

It took her three sets, twelve aces, 32 winners and two hours and seven minutes of high quality tennis, but Little Sis outlasted Justine Henin 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 to complete a very successful business trip to Melbourne to defend her Australian Open championship.

Serena captured her fifth Australian Open title to add to the 2010 doubles title she won with Big Sis. It is Serena's 12th Grand Slam title, tying her with Billie Jean King for sixth place on the all time women's Grand Slam champions list.

The fifth Australian open title is the most by any woman in the Open Tennis Era since 1968, surpassing the four held by Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles.

The next targets on the all time women's Grand Slam champions list are Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova with 18 majors each.

Margaret Court is the all time women's Grand Slam title holder with 24, and has won the Australian Open 11 times. She was in attendance along with Billie Jean King to be honored on the 40th anniversary year of her 1970 Grand Slam.

But Henin made Little Sis fight for it. At one point in the match she won 15 straight points to close out the second set, even the match and take a 1-0 lead in the deciding third set.

But Little Sis eventually stepped up her game to another level and took a 3-2 lead in the third set she never relinquished. She's also the first woman to repeat as champion since Jennifer Capriati won back to back Australian Opens in 2001-2002.

Now if Serena can figure out how to win some French Opens, everything will be copacetic.

One Down,Three to Go-Williams Sisters Win 2010 Aussie Doubles

My favorite tennis playing sisters took three our of the four Grand Slam doubles titles they entered in 2009, with only the French Open eluding their grasp.

They began their quest to get that elusive doubles Grand Slam by beating the world number one ranked doubles team in Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Liezel Huber of the US 6-4 6-3 to successfully defend their Australian Open championship.

The Williams sisters won their first Australian Open doubles crown in 2001 and did so again in 2003 and last year. They have won 11 Grand Slam doubles titles over their careers.

Serena is seeking her 12 individual Grand slam title when she meets the unretired Justine Henin in a bid to do something she's never done in her career: Win an Australian Open singles title in an even numbered year.

Next Grand Slam for the Williams sisters is the French Open

2010 Australian Open-Williams Sisters In Third Round

The professional tennis tour kicks off with the first Grand Slam of the season, the Australian Open. The 2010 edition began play in Melbourne on January 18, and my favorite tennis playing sisters are still in it to win it.

The Williams sisters are on the same side of the Women's singles draw and would meet in the semifinals if they keep kicking butt and taking names.

While the rest of the tennis world is buzzing over the return of Belgians Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin, with some peeps hoping they start slowing down the Williams sisters Grand Slam tournaments juggernaut, defending Australian Open singles champ Serena and big sis Venus served notice that they are still women to be reckoned with.

Serena won her opening match of the tournament over Poland's Urszula Radwanska 6-2, 6-1 and only took an hour and 13 minutes to do it.

In her second round match versus Czech Petra Kvitova she took an hour and seven minutes to advance to the third round in a 6-2, 6-1 straight set victory.

Little Sis faces the woman who eliminated Big Sis from last year's Australian open tournament, Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro.

Speaking of Big Sis, Venus began her singles tournament play by quickly overpowering Czech Lucie Safarova in a straight set 6-2, 6-2 win.

Her second round match against Austrian Sybille Bammer was more of a struggle, but she prevailed 6-2,7-5 to advance to the third round against Aussie homegirl Casey Dellacqua.

The sisters are playing doubles in this 2010 Australian Open and are the defending Women's doubles champs. They won three of the four Grand Slam doubles titles during the 2009 season with only the French Open eluding them.

They opened defense of their Women's doubles title with a 6-1, 6-1 straight set victory over Australia's Sophie Ferguson and Jessica Moore. They face Ioana Olaru of Romania and Ukraine's Olga Savchuk in their second round doubles match.

The tournament concludes on January 31, and here's hoping my fave tennis playing sisters add a few more Grand Slam titles to their trophy cases this season.

Big Sis Taken To Limit In 2009 US Open Match

The 2009 US Open started yesterday in Flushing Meadows, NY and will be running until September 13.

You know I'll be watching as my favorite tennis playing siblings battle the women's tennis world and their haters to capture another major tennis title.

While number 2 seed and defending US Open champ Little Sis opened play by cruising to a straight set 6-4, 6-1 win over Alexa Glatch, Number 3 seeded Big Sis had a rougher time.

She's probably humming Destiny's Child's Survivor after spending 2 hours and 44 minutes outlasting Russia's Vera Dushevina 6-7 (7-5), 7-5, 6-3 at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

In their careers, neither Venus or Serena has ever lost in the opening round of a Grand Slam tournament. But Dushevina came extremely close to knocking out Big Sis.

Venus dropped the first set in a 7-5 tiebreaker. She led 5-3 in that tiebreaker until being rattled by a foot fault call that wiped out a great serve that would have given her a 6-3 lead. She also called an 8 minute injury timeout early in the first set at 2-1 to deal with her left knee in addition to struggling with her second serve.

She found herself down 5-4 in the second set just serving to stay in the match and fell behind love-15. The number 47 world ranked Dushevina found herself just three tantalizing points away from pulling off a major upset.

But as Houston Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich once said, "Never underestimate the heart of a champion." Big Sis dug deep and won the next seven games to even the match and take control of the match by building a 4-0 third set lead enroute to winning the match.

If the Williams sisters continue their winning ways, they would unfortunately meet in the semifinals of this tournament. They are on the same side of the 2009 US Open women's singles draw.

The Williams sisters last won the US Open women's doubles championship in 1999, and are seeded fourth in this tournament.

Hopefully Big Sis gets the kinks out of her service game while playing some doubles. She had ten foot faults in that match, and there are concerns about whether her left knee will hold up from the pounding its going to take from the hard court surfaces at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center.

Stay tuned to find out if Little Sis makes it back to back US Open singles titles, if Big Sis finally wins a major and they capture their first US Open women's doubles championship in a decade.