2012 Williams Watch-'Willliams'-don First Round Mixed Results

'The Championships' is what they call this tennis Grand Slam tournament on the other side of The Pond, and I call it 'Williams-don' for the way that my fave tennis playing siblings have dominated it.

Wimbledon started Monday with five time Wimbledon champion Big Sis playing a first round match against 79th ranked Russian Elena Vesnina.   Venus hadn't lost a match in the first round in any Grand Slam tournament in six and a half years or at the All-England Club since her debut season in 1997, but she fell to Vesnina 1-6, 2-6 as the 32 year old continues her recovery from Sjogren's Syndrome.

"I am a great player. Unfortunately, I had to deal with circumstances that people don't normally have to deal with in this sport. But I can't be discouraged by that. .. There's no way I'm just going to sit down and give up just because I have a hard time the first five or six freakin' tournaments back."

Venus did  make the Olympic team and plans to be back for the London Games tournament that will be played at the All England Club.  
Meanwhile sixth seeded Little Sis' first round got off to a better start after her shocking first round upset loss at the French Open last month. 

Serena kicked off her quest for her 4th 'Williams'don title and her first major title in two years by dispatching the Czech Republic's Barbora Zahlavova Strycova  6-2, 6-4 in a match that took her only 1 hour and 20 minutes to play with the first set taking only 29 minutes. 

Serena faces Hungary's Melinda Czink in the second round..

2012 Williams Watch-Short Stay In Paris

The French Open is being contested at Stade Roland Garros this week and next, but unfortunately my favorite tennis playing siblings are out of this tournament.

Out of all the Grand Slam tournaments, the French Open has been the one Venus and Serena have had the most problems with in terms of winning it.  Serena has 13 Grand Slam titles, but only has won on Roland Garros' clay courts once in her career in 2002, and she beat Big Sis to get it.  

Little Sis was looking for her second French Open title while Venus has never won it.

They won't win it this year either because their inexplicable Roland Garros troubles continued in 2012.

Serena took a 46-0 career record in opening round Grand Slam tournament matches into this tournament and was 17-0 on clay this season nut but fifth seeded Little Sis shockingly lost to French homegirl Virginie Razzano 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 3-6 Tuesday.

She was two points from victory several times in the second set, including leading 5-1 in the second set tiebreaker. But Razzano won six straight points to force a third set, and then took control of the match.

"I made so many errors today, which isn't the game I was playing in the past," Serena said. "That's life."

Venus had better luck, ousting her first round opponent but on Wednesday Big Sis was ousted by third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in straight sets 2-6, 3-6 in her first major tournament since the announcement she has Sjogren's Syndrome.

Despite the loss, Venus will qualify for the US women's Olympic tennis team is she is still one of the top four ranked US women by June 11, the end of this French Open and is sitting in the fourth spot now    Serena is comfortably ensconced as the highest ranked US woman in the tennis world rankings, so her London spot is secured.

The next major before the 2012 Games is their favorite tournament.which will also be the tennis venue for the upcoming games in 'Williams'-don         

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.

Happy 30th Birthday Serena!

Hmm...almost forgot I'm traveling on the milestone birthday of one of my favorite tennis playing siblings.

Today is the Big 3-0 birthday for Serena Jameka Williams, or as you TransGriot readers know who read my Williams sisters tennis updates I call 'Little Sis'.

While she had a disappointing and jacked up to say the least loss to Sam Stosur in the US Open final, considering the drama and health issues she's faced this year, she probably considers reaching this birthday a blessing.

It was wonderful to see her playing world class tennis and they'd better look out for Little Sis in 2012.  

2011 Williams Watch-Next....

Serena Williams is on a roll right now and has yet to drop a set in this 2011 US Open tournament.  . 

Even when she got off to a slow start against number 17 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and gave away three games, she still took only 79 minutes to win in straight sets 7-5, 6-1 to power into the semifinals for the first time since 2009.

But awaiting her is the current world number one ranked player and tournament number one seeded  Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark   She won her quarterfinal match against tenth seeded Andrea Petkovic of Germany 6-1, 7-6 (7-5).

Wozniacki is about to find out if she's worthy of that ranking in a few hours.


The other semifinal will pit Number nine seed Samantha Stosur of Australia, who Serena recently beat in a tournament in Toronto and unseeded Angelique Kerber of Germany.

Go Serena Go!

2011 Williams Watch-Serena To The Quarters

Little Sis is on a mission to take her first US Open title since 2008.   The 28th seeded Serena moved on to the quarterfinals after a 6-3, 6-4 straight set victory over 16th seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia.in a windy Arthur Ashe Stadium with Spike Lee in attendance.    
The wind wreaked havoc on ball tosses for both players, but Serena eventually got control of the match and closed it out with four straight serves clocked between 99-111 mph.

It's the ninth time she's reached the US open quarterfinals.  Serena hasn't dropped a set in this tournament and is now 16-0 on hardcourts (including the titles at Stanford and Toronto) despite the limited mount of playing time she's had this year due to injuries and illness.

She'll face 17th seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in the quarters and should she continue her winning ways will face the Petkovic-Wozniacki winner in the semis. 

2011 Williams Watch-On To The Fourth Round

Serena's third round match yesterday against fourth seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus was a tale of two sets.  It took her 17 minutes to race to a 5-0 lead and 28 total minutes of work to comfortably breeze through the first set  

The second set was a different story as it took an hour and twenty-two minutes to play..

In the second set Azarenka fought her tooth and nail.  She survived three match points in the ninth game, broke Serena's serve in the next game and eventually forced a tiebreaker.  Little Sis eventually triumphed 6-1,7-6 (7-5) despite struggling with her serve for most of the day.  

Serena only got 49% of her first serves in for the match, but whacking 12 aces and hitting 39 winners will take you a long way in determining who wins and who loses in a closely fought match filled with high quality shots from both sides..  But Serena's task of surviving this match and moving on was accomplished and served notice that despite been seeded 28th, she is one of the favorites to win this edition of the US Open and capture her 14th title.

She moves on to the fourth round and a match with Serbia's Ana Ivanovic.

2011 Williams Watch-Good Tennis News, Bad Health News

First, the bad health news concerning my fave tennis playing siblings.   Venus withdrew from the 2011 edition of the US Open minutes before she was to play Germany's Sabine Lisicki after announcing she was diagnosed with Sjögren's Syndrome.

“I enjoyed playing my first match here,” Venus said, “and wish I could continue, but right now I am unable to. I am thankful I finally have a diagnosis and am now focused on getting better and returning to the court soon.”

The good tennis news is that Little Sis is still playing and still one of the favorites to win the 2011 US Open women's singles title.  She took only 49 minutes to blitz through her second round 6-0, 6-1 straight set win over Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands.  

Serena's third round opponent promises to be a little tougher today in fourth seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, but we'll see. 

Speaking of seeing things, I hope that wasn't the last time we will see Venus playing professional tennis or the last time I get to write a post about her tennis playing exploits.. 

2011 Williams Watch-Serena's Starting Fast

It was the first match that Serena has played in New York since that infamous 2009 semifinal, and it didn't last long for the crowd gathered at Arthur Ashe Stadium either.

She's had a tough year injury wise and spent more time recovering from them than playing, but 28th seeded Little Sis took only 56 minutes to execute her 6-1, 6-1 opening round victory over 19 year old Serbian Bojana Jovanowski.  

In the process  she served notice that despite her seeding, she is one of the favorites to win the 2011 US Open women's singles title.

She moves on to her second round match against Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands while Big Sis tackles Sabine Lisicki of Germany in hers.. 

2011 Williams Watch-US Open Starting

My favorite tennis playing siblings are playing in the last Grand Slam tournament of the 2011 tennis season at the  US Open in New York.   They are only playing women's singles in this one probably to the relief of the women's doubles competitors.

They are thankfully on opposite sides of the draw once again, with Serena on the side of the draw that contains current world number one player and number one seeded Caroline Wozniacki.     

Serena hasn't played her opening round match yet, bit the unseeded Venus has gotten her US Open play off to a successful start yesterday by winning in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 against Russia's Vesna Dolonts.  26th seeded Little Sis has an opening round match with Serbia's Bojana Jovanoswski.

The US Open continues through September 11, and it would be nice to see them be the last women standing on that day.

2011 Williams Watch-Big Sis And Little Sis Are Out

The Williams haters are rejoicing right now because neither Big Sis or Little Sis will be around for the quarterfinal round of Wimbledon.. 

For the first time at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club since 2006, someone with a last name other than Williams will take the Wimbledon Ladies singles title.

The back to back champ Serena was upset by France's Marion Bartoli earlier today 3-6, 6-7 (6-8) in straight sets.  Several hours later five time 'Williams'-don champ Venus was knocked out of the tournament by the same person who did so last year, Bulgaria's Tvetsana Pironkova in straight sets.   

Pironkova also beat Big Sis by the same 2-6 3-6 score she posted on her last year. 

I really wanted my girls to make it this year considering all the drama they've faced, and I wanted it badly for Little Sis, who faced life threatening surgery earlier this year.   Considering they made it to the fourth round and hadn't played a lot of tennis prior to this tournament is a scary thought and bodes well for the next major, the US Open in a September.    

You Williams haters in the tennis world can laugh, exhale and have a good time partying like it's 2006.  

But they'll be back.  And remember, the venue for the 2012 Olympic tennis tournament is the All England lawn tennis and Croquet Club.

2011 Williams Watch-Little Sis Wins In Straight Sets

Watching the Williams sisters at times during this 125th edition of 'Williams'-don reminds me of the 'anything you can do I can do better' song.

After Big Sis took 62 minutes to dispatch her opponent in straight sets, it took Serena 89 minutes to do the same to Russia's Maria Kirilenko, the tournament's 26th seed.   Little Sis won in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 to move on to the fourth round and even uncorked one serve that was clocked at 113 mph while doing so.

If there were any question that Serena was having any lingering issues over the health issues she experienced over the last year, any doubts are quickly being silenced for both her and her elder sibling.

Serena's fourth round opponent as she kicks off her second week of tournament play will be with France's Marion Bartoli, the 9th seed who had a three set battle with Italy's Flavia Pennetta. 
.
The drive for her third consecutive Wimbledon Ladies Singles title is still alive, and it's looking like once again with a few breaks, she might have to fight her big sister for it.