The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Serena

  • Federer, Serena in masterclass

    Roger Federer extended his flawless winning streak at Wimbledon to 26 consecutive sets as the defending champion crushed Lukas Lacko, while Serena Williams powered to her 16th successive win in Wednesday’s second round action.

    While Federer and Serena strolled, Caroline Wozniacki suffered fresh Wimbledon woe as the world number two suffered a shock 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 defeat against Ekaterina Makarova.

    Federer delivered a Centre Court masterclass lasting 89 minutes as the Swiss star hit 48 winners and 16 aces in his 6-4, 6-4, 6-1 victory.

    The 36-year-old is now on his joint second longest streak of sets won at Wimbledon — his best was 34 between the third round in 2005 to the 2006 final.

    Next up for Federer is a third round tie against German world number 64 Jan-Lennard Struff who came back from two sets down to defeat 39-year-old Ivo Karlovic 13-11 in the final set.

    In his 20th Wimbledon appearance, top seed Federer, a 20-time major winner, is bidding to become only the second player to claim nine singles titles at the All England Club after Martina Navratilova.

    On the evidence of his ruthless demolition of Slovakian world number 73 Lacko, it will take something special to stop Federer making more Wimbledon history.

    “I played very well. I felt good out there, less nerves than in the first round,” Federer said.

    “I’m happy how I am hitting the ball, good concentration on my service games and able to mix it up with some slices.

    “Of course, you sometimes play the percentages, but if you do that too much it becomes boring, so I like to mix it up.”

    Federer wasn’t the only former champion in peak form on Centre Court as seven-time winner Serena routed Bulgarian qualifier Viktoriya Tomova 6-1, 6-4.

    Williams brushed aside Tomova in just 66 minutes with 24 winners and four aces to extend her streak of consecutive match wins at the All England Club.

    “It was better than the first round. I’m happy I’m going in the right direction,” Serena said.

    “I’m getting there. I expect to get there, not only for Wimbledon but for the tournaments in the future.”

    The 36-year-old, whose winning run encompasses her Wimbledon titles in 2015 and 2016, missed the grass-court Grand Slam last year while she prepared to give birth to daughter Alexis Olympia in September.

    Wozniacki, plagued by an invasion of flying ants during the Court One clash, saved five match points but has now failed to get past the last 16 in 12 visits to the All England Club.

  • Wimbledon: Federer, Serena cruise into 3rd round

    Federer and Williams cruised into the third round with straight-sets victories on Wednesday, looking at home on the Centre Court where they have won 15 titles between them.

    However, Wozniacki still can’t seem to get comfortable at the All England Club — especially when there’s a swarm of bugs flying around her head.

    The Australian Open champion went out before the third round for the fourth time in seven years, losing 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 to Ekaterina Makarova of Russia after complaining to the chair umpire about the insects that invaded No. 1 court during the second set.

    No such problems for Federer, who won 35 straight points on his serve on route to beating Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 6-4, 6-4, 6-1.

    After serving out for the first set, Federer didn’t drop a single point on his serve in the second and kept that streak going until he was 30-0 up at 4-1 in the third — when Lacko finally sent a backhand winner down the line.

    It was another dominant display by the eight-time champion, who lost just nine of 61 points on his serve in total and broke Lacko five times, including with a forehand winner to close out the match.

    “On certain days it goes better than others,” Federer said. “Sometimes your serve matches up better against certain players.”

    Williams was nearly as good, losing just five of 32 points on her first serve in a 6-1, 6-4 win over Viktoriya Tomova. It was her 16th straight victory at Wimbledon, although she missed last year’s tournament while pregnant.

    Wozniacki is still waiting to get past the round of 16 for the first time, despite fighting back from 5-1 down in the third set and saving four match points at 5-3. But she was broken again in the final game, becoming the fifth of the top eight women’s seeds to lose before the third round.

    Five-time champion Venus Williams did better with her comeback attempt. The No. 9 seed, at 38 the oldest woman in the draw, came back to beat 141st-ranked qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 after dropping the first set for a second straight match.

    In the first round, she started by conceding a tiebreaker against 58th-ranked Johanna Larsson before taking 12 of the last 15 games.

    “Ideally it’s two sets,” Venus said. “If it’s not two sets, then go to Plan B.”

    In the men’s draw, 13th-seeded Milos Raonic and No. 11 Sam Querrey also advanced in straight sets.

  • Disappointment: Injured Serena withdraws from French Open

    Serena Williams announced her shock withdrawal from the French Open with injury on Monday just minutes before her scheduled fourth-round clash against long-time bitter rival and fellow Grand Slam icon Maria Sharapova.

    The 36-year-old said she had suffered a pectoral muscle injury in her third-round win over Julia Goerges and “can’t serve at all.”

    The 23-time Grand Slam champion added that she would stay in Paris for scans on the injury to find out how long she will be out of action.

    “I, unfortunately, have been having some issues with my pec, my pec muscle, and it has unfortunately been getting worse to the point where right now I can’t actually serve. It’s kind of hard to play when I can’t physically serve,” she explained.

    She was unable to say whether or not she would be fit for Wimbledon which gets underway in four weeks’ time.

    “I’m beyond disappointed,” added three-time Roland Garros champion Williams who was playing in her first Grand Slam since winning 2017 Australian Open while two months pregnant.

    She was also in just her third tournament of the year after giving birth to daughter Olympia in September.

    “I gave up so much time with my daughter and time with my family all for this moment. So it’s really difficult to be in this situation.”

    The shock withdrawal came just minutes before she was due on Court Philippe Chatrier to face fierce rival Sharapova.

  • Breaking: Serena Williams Returns four months after child birth

    Breaking: Serena Williams Returns four months after child birth

    Former world number one Serena Williams will make a surprise comeback at the Mubadala exhibition event in Abu Dhabi next Saturday, as she gears up for her Australian Open title defence in January.The 36-year-old has not played since clinching a 23rd Grand Slam singles title 11 months ago, after revealing she was pregnant during the tournament and taking time off to give birth to her first child, Alexis Olympia in September.Williams will return with a match against Latvia’s French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, making them the first women to compete in the previously male-only event.

    “I am delighted to be returning to the court in Abu Dhabi for the first time since the birth of my daughter,” she said in a statement released by the tournament organisers on Sunday.

    “The Mubadala World Tennis Championship has long marked the beginning of the men’s global tennis season and I am excited and honoured to be making my comeback as part of the first women to participate in the event.”

    The former world number one can equal Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 Grand Slam titles, although she will have to make do with a low seeding Down Under after slipping to 22nd in the rankings.

    It also provides a boost the Australian Open, after two-time champion Victoria Azarenka pulled out of the warm-up event in Auckland over the ongoing custody battle that has stopped the Belarusian from playing since Wimbledon in July.

    Serena claimed an Open-era record 23rd major title by beating older sister Venus 6-4, 6-4 in this year’s Australian Open final, a feat made all the more remarkable by the fact that she was two months pregnant.

    Ostapenko broke through with a stunning French Open title, and the 20-year-old will take on Serena for the first time.

    The Mubadala event had already seen men’s world number one Rafael Nadal and three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka withdraw.

    The six-strong men’s field in Abu Dhabi does feature Serb Novak Djokovic, who will also be making his comeback.

    The 12-time Grand Slam champion has not played competitively since his quarter-final loss to Tomas Berdych at Wimbledon because of an elbow injury.

  • Serena Williams: Baby Name, Picture Revealed

    Serena Williams: Baby Name, Picture Revealed

    Serena Williams on Wednesday shared first photos of her adorable baby girl to the public.

    The Tennis star released the first image of newborn baby girl on Instagram with a name.

    Serena and her fiancé Alexis Ohanian have named their daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr.

     

    “So we’re leaving the hospital after six, seven days,” Serena said on Instagram. “It’s been a long time, but we had a lot of complications, but look who we got — we got a baby girl!”

    Williams also shared some vital stats for Alexis in a video, including an impressive major count for someone who isn’t even two weeks old yet, referencing the fact Williams won the Australian Open in January when she was eight weeks pregnant. Yeah, Serena is that dominant.

    The 23-time grand slam singles champion believes her baby who will probably dominate women’s tennis in about 20 years.

  • Serena Williams Withholds Baby’s Picture for Big Money

    Serena Williams Withholds Baby’s Picture for Big Money

    It appears Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian are taking time off Instagram and Twitter to be with their new born baby child.

    The duo welcomed their first baby into the world on September 1, 2017. Like she predicted, it was a baby girl; but her picture is scarcely seen.

    Indications have however emerged that the Reddit founder and the Australian Open champion have big plans on making good money with the baby pics that they are currently withholding.

    Serena has been very active on her Instagram all through her pregnancy. She not only gave updates to her fans about how her baby bump is growing, but also weaved in some brand and product promotion to grow her net worth. She endorsed SurveyMonkey, for whom she serves on the board, Tempurpedic, her clothing line, HSN, and Chase.

    She also revealed right before she quietened down before the due date that she is now figuring out ways to use her baby to grow her business.

    Check out Serena promoting Tempurpedic with her baby bump.

    “I feel like having a child is opening new doors because I can understand parents and especially mothers,” she said according to USA Today. “I feel like I can understand even more companies. I honestly feel like it opens (a new category) of business opportunities. Even looking from child food — I’m really a health nut so I want to make sure my baby eats really healthy — so that’s just a whole new (category) of business opportunities that I would have never paid attention to.”

    While some celebrities do not like to mix their private and public lives, Serena Williams and her to-be husband, Alexis Ohanian, have no problem doing so. As the co-founder of Reddit, Alexis has been taking to the online forums with parenting and baby related topics. Even the former world number one polled her fans on Reddit on what she should put in her hospital bag to take when she goes into labor.

    [Featured Image by Serena Williams/Instagram]
    Even though nine days have passed since she went through labor, the 35-year-old mother did not post any updates on Instagram. Neither has Alexis. They may be concentrating on their new family member, but considering how connected they both are to social media, it may be that they are holding out the picture of their baby girl to make some business growing decisions.

    With Serena giving birth on September 1, it is possible that she conceived her daughter on New Year’s Eve. Looks like that was rather a memorable evening for the couple.

    The last picture the new mother posted was a rather ethereal selfie.

    She had to miss out on the 2017 U.S. Open, but there is no plan for retirement for the tennis player.

    “The goal is to be ready for the Australian Open and then we’ll see,” her coach said to ESPN. “If she’s ready, she’ll compete. If not, we’ll delay the comeback. I don’t think she should compete if she’s not really ready.”

  • Serena Williams Welcomes Baby Girl

    Serena Williams Welcomes Baby Girl

    • Congratulatory messages pouring in from family, friends, fans
    •  Plans to return to the court soonest. 

    23-time Grand Slam winner Lawn tennis star, Serena Williams has given birth to a baby girl. The six-time US Open champion gave birth on Friday at the St Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, prompting congratulatory messages to begin circulating on social media.

    The news was first broken by a TV news producer Chris Shepherd on Twitter.

    “Tennis star Serena Williams gives birth to a baby girl weighing 6 pounds, 13 ounces. Mom and baby doing well,” he wrote.

    News of the birth came as her sister Venus prepared to go out on court at the US Open.

    “Obviously I’m super-excited,” Venus said. “Words can’t describe it.”

    Serena had admitted to be pregnant to the world in April by accident, after mistakenly uploading a photograph on Snapchat.

    Serena Williams Welcomes Baby Girl
    Photo by David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock (8770824fp)

    She had won the Australian Open title this January while newly pregnant, “It’s the most outrageous plan,” she said. “I just want to put that out there. That’s, like, three months after I give birth.”

    Williams who has a slew of records to her name, including as the only tennis player to have won 10 Grand Slam singles titles in two separate decades. She is also the only player to have won two of the four Grand Slams – Wimbeldon and the Australian Open – seven times each.

    In an earlier Vogue interview, the 35-year-old had revealed that she “definitely” plans to return to the court.

    Williams, 35, whose partner is Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, said last month she was planning to return to tennis for the Australian Open in January.

    “It’s hard to figure out what the end of your tennis career should look like,” she says. “I used to think I’d want to retire when I have kids, but no. I’m definitely coming back. Walking out there and hearing the crowd, it may seem like nothing. But there’s no better feeling in the world.”

     

     

  • Like Serena, like Oshonaike

    Like Serena, like Oshonaike

    With or without the benefit of hindsight, Serena Williams’ victory at the Australian Open in January was sublime.  The ‘greatest female tennis player of the Open era’ won her 23rd Grand Slam without dropping a set. But when you learn she did it while in the early stages of pregnancy, the feat becomes exceptional.

    So how is it possible to win a Grand Slam while pregnant?

    Dr Markos Klonizakis, a senior research fellow at Sheffield Hallam University, says the triumph at that stage of pregnancy is “amazing”. It is not easy for any woman to adapt to changes in her body, let alone while playing sport at an elite level,” he said.

    “Physiologically, the main challenge women face within about five weeks of pregnancy is in adapting to changes to the cardiovascular system.

    “These are rapid and ensure blood and oxygen supply to the foetus.

    “Many women feel they cannot breathe as easily as their heart rate increases.

    Professor Janice Rymer, of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, added: “For elite athletes, a tailored training and nutrition plan would normally be developed with a specialist team. High levels of exercise at around eight weeks gestation should not affect pregnancy for these athletes and those used to high levels of exercise.

    “During the first few weeks of pregnancy these hormones may actually boost physical performance as a woman’s natural production of steroids will increase slightly.”

    However, Williams is not the first elite athlete to compete while pregnant.

    Before Serena, the sporting world has been awash with female athletes who have showed extraordinary courage while at advance stage of pregnancy.

    Nigeria’s table tennis queen, Olufunke Oshonaike who appeared at her sixth Olympic Games in Rio – only the second African women to do so – carried on playing when she was seven months pregnant, despite her “big belly”.

    A former Super Falcon goalkeeper Ann Chiejine has said that she was not aware of the four month pregnancy that was discovered by the test conducted by the Federation International Football Association (FIFA) before her participation in the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics, Chiejine represented Nigeria in three World Cups in 1991, 1995, 1999 and the 2000 Summer Olympics.

    “I didn’t know that I was pregnant, it was not good, it was FIFA that brought me out and I later discovered that I was four month pregnant,” she said.

    British Olympic cycling champion Laura Kenny told BBC Radio 5 live: “I was still competing when I first found out I was pregnant. I actually won the madison nationals with Elinor Barker when I was about five or six weeks pregnant, but any time after that I just feel like it is so intense that I wouldn’t have been able to [compete].”

    Only last week, American swimmer Dana Vollmer competed in an elite 50m freestyle race while six months pregnant.

    “As hard as people think this is, the race is only 30 seconds long as opposed to the entire day I spend holding and chasing around a 35-pound two-year-old,” she said.

    “This will feel like a break.”

    In June 2014, Alysia Montano competed in the 800m quarter-finals of the US track and field championships while eight months pregnant.

    The then 28-year-old runner, who received a standing ovation after completing the race in 2 minutes 32.13 seconds, told the Daily Mail: “I’ve been running throughout my pregnancy and I felt really, really good during the whole process.”

    Her finishing time was 35 seconds slower than her personal best of 1:57.34, but she added: “I just didn’t want to get lapped and be the first person to get lapped in the 800m.”

    And marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe said in 2015: “My priorities changed the minute I knew I was pregnant, and everything I did centred on the baby.

    “I lost that competitive instinct. It wasn’t about running certain times in training anymore.”

  • Pregnancy: Serena Williams to miss rest of season

    Pregnancy: Serena Williams to miss rest of season

    Developing story after World number two Serena William;s pregnancy news broke yesterday is that she will not be any competitive game for the rest of the season.

    The 35-year-old yesterday posted a picture of herself on Snapchat posing in a mirror with the message: “20 weeks” before deleting the post.

     Her representative has confirmed the news adding that she is due in the autumn.

    The American, who won an Open-era record 23rd Grand Slam in Australia in January, will miss the rest of the season. This includes three Grand Slams – the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open.

    Williams, who will return to world number one next week, would be eligible to retain her ranking under the WTA special ranking rule if she is ready to play her first tournament within 12 months of giving birth.

    US Open Tennis responded to Williams’ message by saying: “Serena Williams will have a new pride and joy to hug and call her own soon! Congratulations on the exciting baby announcement!”

    Would it be a 24th Grand Slam in France 2018?

    BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller:

    We are very unlikely to see Serena compete in another Grand Slam before the French Open of 2018. That event will take place four months before her 37th birthday – but do not write off a woman who will return to world number one on Monday.

    Victoria Azarenka is a useful guide. Even though she is eight years younger, Azarenka gave birth to her first child in December, returned to serious training in March and is targeting the WTA event in Stanford at the end of July for her return to the WTA Tour.

    Best female player of the Open era

    Williams, who is engaged to the co-founder of community news and chat site Reddit, Alexis Ohanian, is top of the all-time list of major winners since Grand Slams accepted professional players in 1968.

    She is second only to Australian Margaret Court on the list of women’s all-time Grand Slam singles titles leaders.

    She is also a five-time Tour finals winner, the last of which came in 2014, and was recently picked as the greatest female tennis player of the Open era by BBC Sport users.

  • Serena dazzles in Swimsuit shoot

    Serena dazzles in Swimsuit shoot

    First they win on court and now they are winning on the beach. Eugenie Bouchard, Caroline Wozniacki and Serena Williams are featured in the newly released Sports Illustrated 2017 Swimsuit issue.
    The pictures and videos, snapped in the picturesque Turks and Caicos Islands, are impressive.
    For Wozniacki and Williams, it’s almost par for the course since it’s Wozniacki’s third straight year and Williams has appeared in the pages in years past.
    “It’s always something that’s really fun and it always feel really good…,” Williams said in her behind-the-scenes video. “Every suit that I’ve worn has been better than the last, but I love the modern one piece that’s really high.”
    “First of all I’m not a size 2, and it’s OK to look good and to feel good,” Williams said. “And I’m strong and I feel like it’s OK to look strong, to be sexy and to be a woman, and to be unbreakable…”
    It was Bouchard’s first time gracing the sands in a bikini (or less) for SI, but she seemed to settle into the role quickly.
    “The first moment I heard I could be in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition I was very excited, but at the same time nervous,” Bouchard said. “My first thought was, oh my god, how am I going to do it?”
    “The one shot that stands out in my mind is when I had an umbrella and I was jumping…” Bouchard said. “It was the most athletic shot of the day for sure.”
    Wozniacki, a veteran swimsuit model by now, embraced the props on set wholeheartedly.
    “Today we had some fun props on set, we started off with the giant blow up lips…,” the Dane said. “I tried to balance the giant lips, but it was quite difficult because the wind kept taking the lips away from me.”
    It clearly all turned out very well though, with Wozniacki also venturing out onto dry land.
    “This is my third year shooting. I think the first year I came in I was a little bit shy,” Wozniacki said. “But last year doing the body paint was really completely outside of my comfort zone—I think it became a little bit more sexy and a little bit more flirty. I think I’m feeling more comfortable this year…”
    Meanwhile, Bouchard enjoyed her Super Bowl bet date with a Twitter follower so much that the tennis star says she’ll take him out again. The Canadian star and now swimsuit model sat courtside at a Brooklyn Nets game on Thursday with a fan, John Goehrke, who asked her for a date on Twitter if the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl. Stunned that the fan was a ‘normal’ guy, the 22-year-old hasn’t brushed him off.
    “He picked me up at my hotel like a gentleman and we came over here (to the NBA). He got me a nice little gift, we enjoyed the game courtside,” she told TMZ.
    The gift must have worked. Asked if there would be a second date, Bouchard didn’t hesitate in answering.
    “For sure,” Bouchard said, nodding her head; “Yeah,” added John.
    In a related development, America’s favourite bombshell, the incomparable Kate Upton has also graced the pages of SI Swimsuit once again!
    The blonde beauty we all know and love was shot by Yu Tsai in beautiful Fiji, marking the fifth time that Kate has landed a spread in the annual Swimsuit issue.
    As you may recall, Kate first started her career with SI Swimsuit back in 2011. Her impressive debut earned her the coveted Rookie of the Year honour. She went on to land the cover back-to-back years in 2012 and 2013. At just 22-years-old, she was also named as a member of 22-person SI Swimsuit legends class, which included icons like Heidi Klum, Christie Brinkley, Tyra Banks and Elle Macpherson, to name a few.