Serena Williams felt her third-round victory over fourth seed Victoria Azarenka at the US Open yesterday was worthy of a semi-final.

RAFAEL NADAL stayed up late to watch his friend Rory McIlroy win golf’s US Open but was still fresh enough to start the defence of his Wimbledon title with a straight-sets win over Michael Russell yesterday.

Venus Williams made a triumphant start to Wimbledon by sweeping aside Akgul Amanmuradova 6-3 6-1 in their first-round showdown on Court Two.

Wild card Sally Peers caused an upset in the first match of the 2011 season as the Australian defeated seventh seeded Russian Alisa Kleybanova 3-6 6-4 6-3 in the first round of the Brisbane International at the Queensland Tennis Centre.

Maria Sharapova recovered from a poor second set to dump fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova out of the Cincinnati Open in the first round on Tuesday night.

Former world number one Ana Ivanovic fought from a set down to dump ninth seed Victoria Azarenka out of the Cincinnati Open on Monday night.

SERENA WILLIAMS was delighted to meet some brief resistance as she made a confident start to her defence of the women’s singles title at Wimbledon yesterday.

Second seed Venus Williams survived a second-set scare to edge past Sania Mirza in the second round of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston.

Elena Dementieva stretched her winning run to 12 matches as she booked her place in the third round of the Australian Open with a 6-4 6-1 win against Iveta Benesova.

Top seed Maria Sharapova admitted she only had herself to blame as she came close to becoming the first high-profile casualty in this year’s French Open.

Top seed and defending champion Elena Dementieva cruised into the semi-finals of the Istanbul Cup with a straight-sets defeat of Jill Craybas on Thursday.

UNLIKE fellow American Robby Ginepri, Andy Roddick knew what to do with a two-set lead.