The Whole Delivery

As many American casual fans come out of the woodworks again to care about tennis long before Wimbledon is about to end, the 28th encounter for Venus and Serena is getting the last minute hype as it would warrant from a crowd that wouldn't have any desire for any other WTA matchup. But this dream Australian Open final for that crowd, who aren't the 24/7/365 fans of the sisters or reporters of the sport of tennis on a regular basis have missed out on the key reason for the magical duo giving us this ultimate female match for 2017 Melbourne. If Venus and Serena had been adamant about playing doubles at another Grand Slam, we wouldn't have their first Slam final in eight years. And it happened to be a little elbow injury that Venus decided to be precautionary with as the defining, unheralded decision of this entire women's Australian Open tournament. Although playing doubles did not hamper them in Serena's Wimbledon singles title last year, as Venus made the se...

Welp, Roberta Vinci really will officially become the prime enemy of Williams' fans for good after irrationally and angrily calling out Venus Williams moving on match point in the Wuhan Open semifinals today (Wuhan is 12 hours ahead of the ET zone). Here's the match end. Vinci would have already looked bad if she said it in English. But the fact that she said "what the f--k" and then asked Venus if she wanted tea or coffee in Italian makes her look more cowardly here. Roberta truly is a fun, fiery person, but this was really a lame move from her. Even more bizarre would be if she did not complain about Venus' time during the match. Either way, another huge win for Venus in a great week at a big tournament, where she will play Garbine Muguruza in a quality final to salvage a prestige event that has been hurt by absences and laughably bad attendance.

More on Venus Williams' return to the winner's circle in a bit. Stay tuned, but for now, here are the match highlights in Dubai: The Rankings for this week after last week's tournaments:

It was an affair that was always hanging in the balance until match point was converted. And the one who covered it was, again, the Belgian. For the third time at the US Open, and 5th time in a row, Kim Clijsters has defeated Venus Williams 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4 in a typical sea-saw encounter that these two players can certainly play with each other. For the elder Williams, this is a crushing defeat, especially considering how well she played in the first set. She conceded only three points on serve in that set, and even played decent defense in the long rallies against Clijsters. But her level dropped at the start of the 2nd set, letting Clijsters back in the match. Both players went on to struggle the rest of the set, especially the Belgian on the backhand side and the American on the same wing as well. Eventually, the middle set went to a tiebreak, and featured the first signs of the tension getting to Venus. After doing a fine job on her serve with one double fault up until t...

Watch live video from Movies and Basketball LIVE! on Justin.tv Wonderful win for Kim Clijsters. The key moment in this match was in the third set, at 1-1 on Venus's serve. Despite Clijsters stopping the seven game streak Venus was on by holding in the previous game, Venus still had the momentum in the match. She was up 30-0 in this crucial third game of the third set, only to give it away with a double fault costing her at 30-40. Venus could never come back from that break, and all credit to Clijsters holding strong on her serve, especially in that final game of the match. 15-40 was Venus in that game, only for Clijsters to really dictate play and get her biggest win coming back from her two and a half year layoff. Na Li of China is next in the quarterfinals. But boy, that sure felt like a Grand Slam final, even with those lopsided, contrasting like no other, first two sets. Updated : Tsonga and Del Potro are through. The bottom half of the men's draw is indeed a tough one.

But she is up 2-0 in the third set as of this post, as she was three points away from defeat. Watch live video from www.P2Pstation.net on Justin.tv Venus advances, let's hope she plays better, even with that knee problem coming back to harm her. Roddick to come.

For the 21st time, Venus and Serena Williams will battle it out for the 2009 Ladies Wimbledon title, and validate themselves as the true number one player heading to the crucial hard court season in North America. Of course though, only the Venus Rosewater Dish is on their minds at the moment right now, and the trophy title couldn't be more aptly named for the older Williams sister. Today, the five time champions is looking to become a historic six time winner at this storied tournament, which would leave her one behind Steffi Graf and two behind Martina Navratolova But her sister on the other side of the net today wants this title badly. She hasn't won it since 2003, and has been dispatched in her last two final attempts on Centre Court by Maria Sharapova in a shocker of a final in 2004 and last year in an exciting but straight sets encounter nevertheless defeat at the hands of her doubles partner. Serena displayed her desire, as she always does of course, to win this latest ...

Photo from Getty Images

Photo from Times Online First, French Open news, especially the headline one: Well, after giving her credit yesterday in gutting out a tough win against the dangerous Czech Lucie Safarova, it was the annual French Open horror show from Venus Williams today. The 2002 finalist crashed out in very disappointing fashion today to former world number 13 Agnes Szavay, getting bagled in the first set in a 6-4, 6-0 defeat today. From the commencement of the match, the elder of the two Williams sisters have nothing today. No energy, no precision, and no tactics. Funny enough, after losing to Szavay, Venus next opponent was still at Roland Garros? Huh? And that next opponent while you maybe scratching your head was..........Agnes Szavay. What you say, "What the hell" am I writing?" Well, Venus had to play doubles with her sister later in the day, and their opponents were Szavay and her first time partner Gisela Dulko of Argentina. And once again, Szavay got the jump on Venus, winni...

(Photo from Google)Is Derek Rose the player who cooked his SAT exam? You seriously get tired of this happening again and again and again. A school violating (or accused of) NCAA rules and on the brink of being hammered in massive proportions. That is the case with Memphis today , and it may involve Derek Rose fudging that famous three letter exam. The Memphis Commercial Appeal first reported the story on Wednesday after obtaining a letter detailing the allegations through the Freedom of Information Act. The allegations include "knowing fraudulence or misconduct" on an SAT exam by a player on the 2007-08 team. The wording of the letter to Memphis indicates that the player in question competed only during the 2007-08 season and the 2008 NCAA tournament. The player's name was redacted in the letter due to privacy laws. The power of a FOIA request strikes again. Everything could be gone from that Final Two runner up season, and questions (if they aren't already)on John C...

Photo by Marwan Naamani/AFP/Getty Images, via Tennis.com A little unlucky to win the first set, Venus Williams clicnhed her first season ending championships with a 6-7(5),6-0, 6-2 over Vera Zvonareva. “I’m so excited,” Williams said. “That was a hard-fought match, every point, right down to the end.” Photo from Getty Images

The two finalists in the Sony Ericsson Championships are now known .

(Photo from BBC.com)Andy Murray celebrates another massive Master Series title. First ever sports thread dedicated to tennis, so let's get right to it. Rafael Nadal will be number one at year's end thanks to Andy Murray knocking off Roger Federer at the Madrid Masters semifinals, the victory before the Brit won his second Masters-Series title of the year by handling the game Frenchman Giles Simon in the final in straights. While in Zurich, Venus Williams won that tournament's last ever title. The 5 time Wimbledon champion starved off a terrific performance from Ana Ivanovic in the semifinal (who finally played well for a change), and defeated Flavia Pennetta of Italy in straights. In one game, Venus hits four aces in a row, the first time she has ever done that, and she obviously was thrilled with that display of sheer brilliance. Here is the video: And here's the trophy celebration: Holla at ya tomorrow, peace.