Tennis’ No. 1 seed in the world, Serena Williams, won the 2009 WTA Tour Player of the Year award and also took the Doubles Team of the Year honors with sister Venus at a ceremony held at the Sony Ericsson Open on March 24.
Serena won the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2009, was a semifinalist at the U.S. Open and a quarterfinalist at the French Open, earning her the award. The Williams sisters snagged the Doubles Team honor by winning the 2009 Australian Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open doubles titles as well as the doubles crown at Stanford.
“It’s exciting because I don’t think we’ve won the Doubles Team of the Year award before,” Serena Williams told The Associated Press. “I won the daily double today and that was cool.”
Meanwhile, big sister, Venus, was holding court in Key Biscayne, Fla., at the Sony Ericsson Open tournament. A three-time champion at the tournament and former world No.1, she advanced past the second round — wearing a sexy red burlesque corset-inspired outfit, beating Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-3 on March 25. She received a bye in the first round. She recently made waves in Australia for wearing racy skin-colored tennis shorts that made it appear as if she weren’t wearing any undies.
The No. 3 seed plays unseeded Roberta Vinci next. With Serena sidelined by a knee injury, Venus may be the woman to beat in a tournament she considers her hometown event.
“I haven’t had a win here in a while, and I’ll try to make that happen this year,” Venus said.
After the Grand Slams, the Sony Ericsson Open is widely considered to be the biggest tournament on the calendar, boasting a $4.5 million pot. –gerald radford
