Pro Tour

Venus Williams was defeated by second-ranked Vera Zvonareva, 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday at the Hong Kong Classic exhibition tournament in her first match since the U.S. Open. Williams had been out with a knee injury since September and is using this tournament as her only warmup before playing the Australian Open. The two players traded…

Bethanie Mattek-Sands’ upset over Italian Francesca Schiavone, 6-4, 6-4, gave the United States a 2-0 lead over Italy at the Hyundai Hopman Cup, held at the Burswood Dome in Australia. John Isner won a close match against Potito Starace 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-4, getting the Americans one step closer to this weekend’s Hopman Cup Finals.  For…

Top-seeded Samamtha Stosur was upset by Australian Jarmila Groth, 6-2, 6-4 and second-seeded Shahar Peer lost to Lucie Safarova 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 in the women’s draw Tuesday at the Brisbane International. Groth broke Stosur’s serve four times and saved three of the four break points she faced. Stosur, the French Open finalist, took a 4-1 lead in…

American John Isner has beaten Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 7-6 (5) at the Hopman Cup in their first rematch since their 11-hour epic at Wimbledon last year. Isner beat Mahut in 90 min. on Monday to give the U.S. an insurmountable 2-0 lead over France. This match lasted 9½ hours and 161 games less than their…

German tennis player Nicolas Kiefer has announced his retirement from the sport of tennis, citing the fact that he wants to spend more time with his recently-born daughter, Mabelle Emilienne. Kiefer reached a career high world ranking of number four back in 2000, and in 2006, made it to the semifinals of the Australian Open.  Kiefer…

Andy Roddick has announced that he has overcome a bout of mononucleosis and looks to improve upon his number eight ranking as the ATP Tour begins its 2011 schedule.  “For me it’s just a matter of getting right, getting healthy,” Roddick said. “I battled sickness for a big part of last year and from there I…

Rafael Nadal has been chosen as the ‘Spanish Sportsman of the Decade’ by Marca.com readers and as ‘Best Spanish Athlete of the Year’ by elpais.es. Nadal won both polls by an overwhelming majority, beating other Spanish sporting icons such as Pau Gasol and Fernando Alonso. In the Marca.com survey, which involved more than 50,000 Internet users,…

Roger Federer beat Rafael Nadal, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, Tuesday in the first of a two-match charity exhibition series held for the charitable foundations of each of the sport’s top stars. "The Match for Africa," was presented by Credit Suisse, and proceeds from the event went to The Roger Federer Foundation, a foundation that assists projects in Ethiopia,…