Serena Williams enters 2014 Indian Wells tennis tournament

In 2001, Serena Williams and her sister, Venus Williams, were booed at Indian Wells, an incident their father said was racially motivated. Neither sister had returned to play at the competition.


Serena Williams might play in the Indian Wells tennis tournament this year.

The prestigious Indian Wells tennis tournament, the BNP Paribas Open, announced its list of entries Wednesday and one name jumped out.

Serena Williams.

While tournament officials were quick to point out that this did not mean definitively that she would play for the first time since her controversial final match in 2001, they also acknowledged that she had not entered at all since 2001.

 

"We'd love to have her back," said Steve Simon, tournament director. "We'd welcome her with open arms, as we would her sister, Venus. And the fans would, too."

Williams can withdraw any time before she plays, but Simon said that the usual withdrawal time would be at qualifying, which directly precedes the March 3-16 event in the Southern California desert.

Simon said he had heard, at the same time as everybody else, that Williams had talked about rethinking her Indian Wells stance after being inspired by the message of forgiveness preached by recently deceased South African legend Nelson Mandela.

The trouble in 2001 began when Serena was to play Venus in a featured match, and Venus announced, just minutes before taking the court, that she was defaulting with leg tendinitis. When Serena ended up in the final against Kim Clijsters, and Venus and her father, Richard Williams, walked to their seats to watch the match, there was prolonged booing.

A shaken Serena lost the first set, but won the match, one of her two titles in the tournament. A few days later, Richard Williams told a reporter from USA Today that he felt the booing had been racially motivated.

Since then, the Williams sisters have not returned to a tournament that has become one of the biggest on the tour, right after the Grand Slam events. Each has lost considerable amounts of money on post-season bonus awards because WTA Tour rules mandate that certain events be played.

The tournament officials announced that, six weeks out from the competition, the entries included 11 past winners and 15 past major champions.

It was also announced that, to give the new multimillion-dollar Stadium 2 court a proper greeting, a special event, the John McEnroe Challenge, would be held March 1. McEnroe, as well as past stars Peter Fleming, Jim Courier and Rick Leach, will compete for charity.

Tickets to that event will be free and on a first-come, first-serve basis.

from:http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-serena-williams-20140123,0,2907722.column#axzz2rBJvgShF

Meant for Sundays

At 32 years of age, Serena Williams is coming off one of the greatest years of her career, one during which she won 11 titles—including two Grand Slam tournaments—and 78 of 82 matches. (All four of those losses were in three sets.) And the ongoing success of over-30 players on the WTA tour suggests that she’s far from finished.

It was a glorious year for Williams, even if some pundits suggest that her failure to defend her title at Wimbledon is a stain on that resume. It seems a silly caveat when you also factor in what she did at the French Open, a tournament that has always been a tougher challenge for Serena.

In fact, clay itself has always posed the most obstacles for Serena and her shot-making, attacking style. As she said late this year: “I really wanted to win that (Roland Garros title) for a number of years now, so that was definitely something exciting. And also being undefeated on clay was pretty exciting too. So my results on clay this year definitely stand out.”

You have to wonder what Serena can do for an encore this time, and the answer is obvious: She can win at least one major in 2014 and thereby join Chris Evert andMartina Navratilova in the three-way tie for second place on the list of Open-era Grand Slam singles champions. Steffi Graf, the leader, has 22 majors.

A closer look at the Grand Slam records of these women is telling. While Serena trails her nearest historical rivals by just one major, she’s been far more productive than either on a quantitative basis. Serena has played just 21 Grand Slam singles finals; by contrast, Navratilova played 32, and Evert a whopping 34.

Granted, the extraordinary and much celebrated rivalry between Evert and Navratilova worked to suppress each woman’s individual numbers. Thanks to the other, each of them barely won more Grand Slam finals than they lost. Evert was 18-16 in Grand Slam finals; Navratilova was 18-14. Those numbers make Serena’s 17-4 record appear that much more dazzling, and it underscores her standing as a champion in search of a rival.

Evert lost major finals to six different women: Margaret Court, Billie Jean King, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Tracy Austin, Graf and—of course—Navratilova. Navratilova lost Grand Slam finals to seven different women: her frequent nemesis Evert, Goolagong Cawley, Austin, Graf, Hana Mandlikova, Conchita Martinez, and Monica Seles.

Serena has lost finals to just three players: Venus Williams (twice), Maria Sharapova, and Samantha Stosur.

Graf, incidentally, looks better than Evert and Navratilova. She was 22-9 in 31 singles finals, and lost to just five players: Seles, Navratilova, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Gabriela Sabatini, and Lindsay Davenport.

But Serena shines in another area as well. Surface proficiency cuts both ways in tennis: It can really boost your record, but make you appear less of an all-around player—a valid criticism when you begin splitting hairs. The player most aided by surface proficiency among these women is Navratilova, who won half of her 18 Slams at Wimbledon.

Evert appears twice on the list; her seven titles sat Roland Garros and six at the U.S. Open are the most by any Open-era female at those venues. Williams tops the charts at the Australian Open, but her five wins Down Under are a more modest show of surface proficiency.

It’s good to keep in mind that quirks of history, like participation in the Australian Open (top players often shunned it in the 1970s and 80s) or the French Open (because of World Team Tennis), help shape these numbers. But the war of attrition fought for so long by Evert and Navratilova certainly had an enormous impact on their totals. Eliminate one of them from history and the other surely would rank right up there beside Graf, all other things being equal.

Also, this discussion is taking place while Serena appears to be near or at the very peak of her career, while many of her rivals at a comparable stage (age-wise) were already struggling. Serena’s numbers are likely to lose a bit of their luster if she plays on, simply because she’ll be more apt to lose to younger, hungrier, or fitter players. On the other hand, it’s unlikely that her game is going to go off a cliff in 2014.

Serena is at a stage of her career when she needs to pick her spots wisely, playing a schedule meant to keep her at her best at the majors. If she were a car, you wouldn’t want to use her commuting, or taking the kids and the dog to the park. You’d keep her in a clean, warm garage and take her out during a nice, long, traffic-free spin early on Sunday mornings.

Given the way Serena seems to be taking new pride in her career, we can expect her to have another big year. Besides, the women most capable of troubling her did little to threaten her supremacy last year. Serena remains that most unusual of players, a champion in search of a worthy rival—as well as the most proficient Grand Slam singles champion, by far, among the top players.

Djokovic And Nadal Compete In Patagonia

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadalhave met 39 times on the ATP World Tour, across 10 countries and in multiple venues.

A floating court on a barge in icy Patagonia would be a first.

Djokovic and Nadal took part in an exhibition on Friday, hitting on a barge in front of the Perito Moreno Glacier, near the southern extremity of Argentina. The event promoted the region as a tourist destination in the tennis-rich country. 

The No. 1 and No. 2 in the Emirates ATP Rankings arrived at El Calafate to visit the pride of Patagonia, a four mile thick mass of ice and one of the most visited destinations in Argentina.

“My parents suggested I visit the glacier,” said Nadal, who also posted on his Twitter account, “I've just been in one of the most spectacular places that I’ve ever seen before, the PeritoMoreno! Really amazing!” 

After visiting the Perito Moreno National Park, located 1,500 miles south of Buenos Aires, Nadal and Djokovic played on a floating court with the glacier in the background, an event dubbed “Tennis on Ancient Ice.”

“I never thought I would find a place this wonderful,” Djokovic said.

Argentine Tourism Minister Enrique Meyer added, “We are proud to have the presence of the two best tennis players in one of the most stunning scenery in the country.”

The Serb and the Spaniard, who are in the midst of a South American exhibition tour, signed autographs and took photos with fans. Both players are slated to compete in Buenos Aires this weekend with David Nalbandian, honouring the career of the Argentine great.

Nadal will return to South America in February next year when he headlines the inaugural ATP World Tour 500 event in Rio de Janeiro.