Serena retires in Stanford with knee injury

STANFORD, Calif. (AP)—Serena Williams’ busy summer schedule caught up with her, making her the latest U.S. Olympian dealing with a knee injury as the Beijing Games approach.

Williams injured her left knee and pulled out of the Bank of the West Classic on Saturday, joining sister Venus and Lindsay Davenport on the injured list.

Williams retired from her match after losing the first set and falling behind in the second set of her semifinal against qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak.

“It was hurting in practice and I didn’t really practice too long because it was hurting,” Williams said. “After I got off, it was really swollen. I thought that I have to play really fast.”

Wozniak will play in Sunday’s final against sixth-seeded Marion Bartoli, who beat Ai Sugiyama 6-3, 6-3 in the other semifinal.

Williams lasted only 46 minutes before pulling out of the match trailing 2-6, 1-3. Williams said the injury is different than one that forced her to undergo surgery on her left knee in 2003 and miss eight months. But that knee has bothered her since, forcing her to drop out of the 2004 Athens Olympics and to miss significant time again in 2006.

But Williams had felt healthy most of this year, playing a busy schedule since winning in Miami in the beginning of April. She played 26 matches in a three-month span that went through her loss in the Wimbledon final to big sister, Venus.

Then she returned home and played for the Washington Kastles of the World Team Tennis league before arriving at Stanford for her debut in this tournament. Williams wouldn’t blame her decision to play team tennis on her latest setback.

“You know that risk going into it,” she said. “It is what it is. I can’t blame that. I just think in general I’ve been playing a lot of tennis since Miami—especially for me.”

Venus Williams and Davenport have already pulled out of next week’s East West Bank Classic in Carson, Calif., due to right knee injuries. Serena Williams said she still plans to go to Carson, but will likely have an MRI before then and could choose to rest up for the Olympics next month.

“I do plan on obviously being at the Olympics,” she said. “That’s my main goal.”

Williams struggled from the start against the 85th-ranked Wozniak and first called for the trainer when trailing 5-2 in the first set. She got the knee heavily taped and came out to finish the set, but appeared to struggle to plant on her injured leg.

“It’s unfortunate that she pulled out,” Wozniak said. “I think in the middle of the first set she started looking at her leg. I didn’t know if it was her ankle bothering her. But at the end it was her knee.”

Wozniak held serve to win the set and won 11 straight points to take a 3-1 lead early in the second. Williams then aggravated the knee while stretching for a backhand in the fifth game of the set and retired from the match. She walked off the court and embraced her father, Richard.

“I actually thought it felt better once I got it wrapped,” Williams said. “But Wozniak kept moving me. I was hoping she wouldn’t but I guess she knew better. That didn’t help at all.”

It’s been quite a week for Wozniak, who needed to win three matches in the qualifying tournament just to make it into the main draw. She then beat eighth-seeded Francesca Schiavone in three sets in the first round, before knocking off Sybille Bammer and Samantha Stosur to make it to the semifinals.

Wozniak is the first qualifier to make the final at this tournament since the inception of computer rankings in 1982.

This is just the second career final for Wozniak, who made it to a lower-tiered championship match in Morocco last year. Wozniak, who entered the week ranked 85th in the world, should be close to reaching her goal of being a top 50 player by next week.

“I’m really happy with the way I played this week, coming out of the qualifying is not easy,” Wozniak said. “It’s a lot of matches in one week.”

Bartoli has had a sporadic year after making it to the Wimbledon final a year ago. She lost in the first round at the Australian Open and French Open and had not made it to a final since losing to Venus Williams last year at Wimbledon.

Bartoli broke Sugiyama at love to take a 4-2 lead in the first set and then won a four-deuce game on Sugiyama’s serve to go up 2-1 in the second. Bartoli finished it off by breaking Sugiyama for the fourth time of the day, winning for the first time in six career meetings against Sugiyama. However, this was the first time the two had met since 2006.

“I was just not on the same level. It’s as simple as that,” Bartoli said. “Everything in my game has improved.”

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Sania Mirza Biography

Born in City of Mumbai in India, and coming from Hyderabad, Sania Mirza, the youth icon of India is creating history in Tennis worldwide. She is the first Indian to get into Top 50 WTA Ranking. Sania Mirza is the first Indian woman to win a WTA (Hyderabad Open trophy) in February 2005

Name
Sania Mirza
Date of Birth
15th November 1986
Place of Birth
Mumbai, India
Residence
Hydrabad, India
Nationality
Indian
Weight
54 Kgs.
Height
1.53 Meters
Sania Mirza Profile
Hobbies
Swimming & Music
Favorite Tournament
WTA Indian Open
Favorite Surface
Hard Courts
Favorite Music
Rap and Hindi Remix
Favorite Tennis Player
Steffi Graff
Coaching By
Narendranath, Vasudeva Reddy & C.G.K Bhupati
Tournament HistoryTournament History : Aug 2005 Women's Singles Finalist, Forest Hills Women's Tennis Classic, N.Y., USA, WTA Tier IVJul 2005 Women's Singles Quarterfinalist, Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open, Cincinnati, OH, USA, WTA Tier IIIFeb 2005 Women's Singles Quarterfinalist,Dubai Duty Free Women's Open, Dubai, UAE, WTA Tier IIFeb 2005 Women's Singles Winner, Hyderabad Open 2005, Hyderabad, WTA Tier IVAug 2003 G18 Dbles Finalist (with Anna Tchakvetadze RUS), Canadian Open, Repentigny, CAN, ITF G1Jun 2003 G18 Dbles Champion (with Alisa Kleybanova RUS), The Junior Championships, Wimbledon, London, GBR, ITF GAJun 2003 G18 Dbles Quarterfinalist (with Sanaa Bhambri IND), Gerry Weber Open, Halle, GER, ITF G4Jun 2003 G18 Dbles Winner (with Sanaa Bhambri IND), 11th Frankfurt Internation, GER, ITF G1Jun 2003 G18 Dbles Semifinalist (with Sanaa Bhambri IND), French Open, Roland Garros, FRA, ITF GAMay 2003 G18 Dbles Quarterfinalist (with Beier Ko CAN), 39th Astrid Bowl, BEL, ITF G1Apr 2003 G18 Dbles Winner (with Sanaa Bhambri IND), Shuzo Challenge Japan Open, Nagoya, JPN, ITF G1Apr 2003 G18 Singles Quarterfinalist, Shuzo Challenge Japan Open, Nagoya, JPN, ITF G1Apr 2003 G18 Singles Winner, 14th Mitsubishi Lancer, Manila, PHI, ITF G1Apr 2003 G18 Dbles Semifinalist (with Yung-Jan Chan TPE), 14th Mitsubishi Lancer, Manila, PHI, ITF G1Dec 2002 Singles Winner & Doubles Finalist (with Isha Lakhani IND), Asian Closed Junior Tennis Championships, ITF GB2Sep 2002 16U Team India (with Ankita Bhambri & Kartiki Bhat), Junior Fed CupSep 2002 Doubles Quarter-finalist (with Isha Lakhani IND) US Open, USA, ITF Grade A Aug 2002 Singles Winner & Doubles Winner (with Tarryn Terblanche RSA), South/Central Africa Circuit, Botswana, ITF G3Jul 2002 Doubles Finalist, Smash Tennis EGY, ITG G3Jul 2002 Singles Winner & Doubles Winner (with Isha Lakhani IND), Pretoria University, ITF G2Jul 2002 Doubles Winner (with Isha Lakhani IND), PIC Pretoria, ITF G2May 2002 Doubles Quarter-finalist (with Micaela Moran ARG), Villach Cup Austria, ITF G2Apr 2002 Doubles Finalist (with Lara Giltinana AUS) & Singles Quarter-finalist, Chinese Taipei Jo Jo Internation, ITF G3Apr 2002 Singles Quarter-finalist, Mitsubishi Lancer, PHI, ITF G2Jan 2002 Doubles Winner (with Linda Smolenakova SVK) & Singles Quarter-finalist, Victorian Champs., AUS, ITF G2Dec 2001 Doubles Semifinalist (with Sanaa Bhambri IND), Asian Closed, ITF G B2Oct 2001 Singles & Doubles Finalist, Hong Kong Open, ITF G2Oct 2001 Doubles Quarter-finalist (with Hanna Nooni SWE) & Singles rd of 16, Osaka Mayor's Cup, Japan, ITF Grade AAug 2001 Singles & Doubles Semifinalist (with Sasha Abraham IND) KawZulu Natal, ITF G1Aug 2001 Doubles Quarter-finalist (with Sasha Abraham IND), Dolphen Coast, ITF G2Jul 2001 Doubles Winner (with Wana Mrazovic YUG) & Singles Finalist, Smash Tennis Internation G4Jul 2001 Singles & Doubles Winner (with Sasha Abraham IND), Movenpick Internation G3 Apr 2001 Singles Semifinalist, Mitsubishi Lancer Internation G2 Mar 2001 Singles Quarter-finalist, Mali Milk Cup, 21st Thailand Open G2 Mar 2001 Singles Quarter-finalist, Malaysian Internation G3 Feb 2001 Singles Winner & Doubles Quarter-finalist (with Sasha Abraham IND), Bangladesh Internation G3Feb 2001 Singles & Doubles Semifinalist (with Maya Rosa INA), Rajshahi Internation G4 Feb 2001 Singles Winner & Doubles Finalist (with May Rosa INA), India ITF Junior Circuit III - Calcutta G4 Jan 2001 Singles & Doubles Winner (with Sasha Abraham IND), Indian ITF Junior 11 - Chandigarh G4 Jan 2001 Doubles Winner (with Sasha Abraham IND) & Singles Quarter-finalist, Indian ITF Junior I - New Delhi G4Nov 2000 Doubles Semifinalist (with Leila Cehajic CAN), T-Bar Internation, ITF G5Nov 2000 Doubles Semifinalist (with Sasha Abraham IND) & Singles Quarter-finalist, Malaysia Internation 2 G4 Oct 2000 Singles & Doubles Winner (with Zahra Omer Khan PAK), Pakistan Internation Junior Championships G5 Sep 2000 Singles Winner & Doubles Semifinalist (with Reddhina Parekh IND), Indian ITF - Mumbai G4 Sep 2000 Singles & Doubles Semifinalist (with Priyanka Parekh IND), Indian ITF Junior -Chennai G5 Aug 2000 Singles Semifinalist, Internation Youth Tennis G4 Feb 2000 Doubles Quarter-finalist (with Anete Rozkalne LAT), Bangladesh Internation , ITF G3 Jan 2000 Singles Quarter-finalist, Indian ITF I - New Delhi G4 Jan 2000 Singles Finalist & Doubles Quarter-finalist (with Nichala Reddy Boda IND), Internation, Sri Lanka G4 Nov 1999 Singles Quarter-finalist, India ITF Junior Circuit III Grade 5 Nov 1999 Doubles Winner (with Nida Waseem PAK) & Singles Finalist, Pakistan Internation G5