When Ana Ivanovic won the French Open for the third time in a row, breaking Henin’s record, tennis fans hailed the young Serbian as the next champion to control the sport, a picture of beauty and grace not seen since Martina Hingis reigned the women’s side. Under strain, Ivanovic began to wilt. With a shoulder injury, Maria Sharapova is out for the rest of the year, while Jelena Jankovic has to win a major before she can confidently secure the top spot. It caused the Williams sisters to compete for the title of No. 1 female tennis player.
In the Wimbledon final, Serena was defeated by Venus.
However, the sisters returned to the court moments later to win the double championship. Serena went on to win the US Open, but only after she avenged her sister’s humiliation by defeating her in the quarter-finals. The sisters then began a tug-of-war over the right to be called No.1.
The sisters have had varied starts to their live Grand Slam tennis season, but both have had pleasant outcomes. Venus didn’t make it past round four, but she and Serena won the women’s doubles title with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Daniela Hantuchova and Ai Sugiyama. Serena Williams then returned to Rod Laver Arena to face Dinara Safina the next day. She defeated 6-0, 6-3 to win the 2009 Women’s Australian Open and reclaim the No. 1 ranking from the previous owner Jelena Jankovic.
History of the Australian Open Tennis Tournament
Serena’s bad performance against Safina has ushered in the younger Williams’ ascension as her generation’s most powerful female tennis player. From 2002-to 2003, she dominated the women’s circuit and proved a formidable opponent. He has now won back-to-back Grand Slams, including the US Open last year. It also cemented her status in the annals of women’s tennis. He has surpassed Monica Seles for seventh place in the Grand Slam rankings with his single victory. Their eighth Grand Slam victory as a team came with their double win. He is the last male or female player to win all four Grand Slam championships, and with his victory at the Australian Open this year, he now has a chance to win all four majors in a single season. She will not only go undefeated in singles, but her triumphs in women’s doubles with Venus will cement her place as the player who will dominate women’s tennis for many years.
Safina’s demeanor after losing the match was admirable. Serena had just beaten him, and he couldn’t argue with that. Williams made it clear that Safina would not be able to compete, and she continued to press hard. Safina is gracious enough to confess that the finest players defeated her and that she should even refer to herself as a “ballgirl.” And, as Safina points out, Serena is now in charge of everything.
The Conditions
The word “love” has been used to indicate “nothing” since the 1700s and is also used in a range of different activities ranging from racquet sports to cards (including bridge and whist). But it’s also unclear how it evolved to signify this.
One popular explanation connects the derivation to the French word l’oeuf, which means egg, and refers to an entity with the same form as 0. However, according to American tennis player Malcolm D. Whitman in his 1932 book Tennis: Origins and Mysteries, there is no evidence that the French ever used l’oeuf about tennis scoring. They didn’t write scores down so that the visual relationship wouldn’t inspire the egg comparison. If that hypothesis had held, l’oeuf would have become something sounding more like a leaf, according to Gillmeister. Latin’s above became the French boeuf and evolved into beef in English; therefore, it would have become something sounding more like a leaf if that argument had held. Gillmeister has a different suggestion for a borrowed term. It might be derived from the Dutch or Flemish lof, which means honor, making sense if participants viewed a tennis match as combat.