Tennis News

She reached finals in the first two tournaments of her Sony Ericsson WTA Tour comeback earlier this year and in the first match of her third tournament she picked up right where she left off. Justine Henin won her opener at the BNP Paribas Open in straight sets Wednesday.

Chile will play in the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas quarterfinals at home for the first time in its history, when Czech Republic is the visitor in July. Is it a chance to dream with higher altitudes, or will it be a bridge too far?

The last two decades have seen Chile rise from Americas Zone Group II to an interesting position in the World Group, being almost unanimously considered a tough opponent at home, but a weak force away. In fact, the Chileans have never won away while in the World Group, not even in the Play-offs.

Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters both received Laureus World Sports Awards in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, Williams for Sportswoman of the Year and Clijsters for Comeback of the Year.

Former World No. 1 Justine Henin made a welcome return to the BNP Paribas Open, defeating Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova 6-2, 6-2 on opening day of women’s main draw action.

Despite a four-year absence from the event, the 2004 champion proved to be comfortable on the Indian Wells court – building 4-0 leads in each of the sets and saving four break points faced on serve to close out the win in one hour and seven minutes. 

Having finally broken her French Open jinx last year, Svetlana Kuznetsova is banking on a similar breakthrough at Indian Wells where she has twice finished runner-up.

Russian Kuznetsova is the number one seed for the high-profile event in the California desert and she has targeted a 13th WTA Tour title to bury memories of a stuttering start to this season.

"I prepared pretty well for this year and I know I am playing well but I need some matches to get myself going," Kuznetsova said at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt is joining the growing list of tennis stars committed to play the first Atlanta Tennis Championships from 19-25 July. The Atlanta hard-court tournament, owned and operated by USTA Southern, will serve as the kick-off to the 2010 Olympus US Open Series.

It was a much happier Monica Seles that one saw during the Laureus World Sports Awards function here on Tuesday. The horrific past — a man stabbed her from behind in 1993 when she was the No. 1 ranked women's tennis player during a break between games in Hamburg — is well behind her.

Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder opened women’s main draw proceedings at the BNP Paribas Open with a confident 6-1, 6-2 win over Italian Tathiana Garbin on Wednesday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Rafael Nadal will return to Queen’s this year after he was unable to defend his title at the grass-court tournament in 2009.

In 2008, Nadal was the first man to win at the French Open, Queen’s Club and Wimbledon in the same year, but his persistent knee problems prevented him from defending his titles on grass at Queen’s and Wimbledon last year.

World number one Roger Federer faces a potentially difficult path to the final of the Indian Wells hardcourt tournament, the season's first prestigious ATP Masters 1000 event.

The top-seeded Swiss is seeded to meet seventh-seeded American Andy Roddick in the quarter-finals and last year's runner-up, Andy Murray of Britain, in the semi-finals.

Federer, who claimed his 16th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, will be playing his first tournament since beating Murray in the final at Melbourne.

He had been slated to play the Dubai Open last month but withdrew with a lung infection.