Australian Open:William sisters takes Doubles Crown

American sisters, Venus and Serena Williams, have won their 11th Grand Slam doubles title today with a 6-4, 6-3 victory in the Australian Open 2010 doubles final over Cara Black and Liezel Huber.

The pair, seeded second, overcame their top seeded opponents in just under one and a half hours.Venus, 29, admitted after the match that she had not realised their second break of serve in set two was a match winner: “I actually didn’t know the score and I thought that it was 5-2″ her sister, Serena, 28, however, was already celebrating what she hopes will be the first of two Australian Open 2010 titles – she faces Justine Henin in the Ladies Final on Saturday.Serena hinted that they will be taking part in more doubles tournaments in future, admitting that they “wished we had have played more [doubles] when we were younger” – if this is the case, then they just might become the most successful pair in history: Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver won 21 Grand Slam titles.

Whatever they do in future, the Williams’ proved yet again that, as a twosome, they are every bit as difficult to play as individually, perhaps even more so.

Results of Australian Open

Prefix denotes seeding

Men’s singles: Quarterfinals: 1-Roger Federer (Sui) bt 6-Nikolay Davydenko (Rus) 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, 7-5; 10-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra) bt 3-Novak Djokovic (Srb) 7-6(8), 6-7(5), 1-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Men’s doubles: Quarterfinals: 2-Daniel Nestor (Can) & Nenad Zimonjic (Srb) bt Arnaud Clement (Fra) & Jonathan Elrich (Isr) 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(6); Ivo Karlovic (Cro) & Dusan Vemic (Srb) bt 3-Lukas Dlouhy (Cze) & Leander Paes (Ind) 6-3, 6-4.

Women’s singles: Quarterfinals: 16-Li Na (Chn) bt 6-Venus Williams (USA) 2-6, 7-6(4), 7-5; 1-Serena Williams (USA) bt 7-Victoria Azarenka (Bel) 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2.

Women’s doubles: Quarterfinals: 1-Cara Black (Zim) & Liezel Hunber (USA) bt Alisa Kleybanova (Rus) & Francesca Schiavone (Ita) 6-3, 6-4.

Federer in SemiFinals

Roger Federer and Serena Williams showed championship form to battle back from a set down and storm into their semifinals at the Australian Open on Wednesday.Li Na also made the last four with an upset victory over Venus Williams, giving China two players in a Grand Slam semi for the first time. Her reward is a clash with top seed Serena.But the tournament ended for ailing third seed Novak Djokovic who was knocked out in a thrilling late night five-setter by 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the man he beat in the 2008 final.The Frenchman will now meet Federer, who was given a scare by sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko when the Russian ace led 6-2, 3-1 before the Swiss star clicked into gear.

Titanic struggle

He won 13 straight games to take the next two sets before a titantic struggle in the fourth with the 15-time Grand Slam champion eventually coming home 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, 7-5 to end Davydenko’s 13-match winning streak.

It puts Federer into his 23rd consecutive Grand Slam semifinal, having never missed out since his third round defeat to Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten at Roland Garros in 2004.

“I’ve played him many times and I know he goes through phases for half an hour, an hour,” Federer said of Davydenko.

“You’ve just got to stick with him and if you don’t he’s going to crush you.

Tsonga prevailed 7-6(8), 6-7(5), 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 in a near four-hour marathon against Djokovic, who was struggling with illness and at one point took a medical timeout for an upset stomach.

Like Federer, Serena was also on the ropes before staging a comeback to stay on track for her fifth Australian title.

She was down 4-6, 0-4 to seventh seed Victoria Azarenka before fighting back and winning a tense tie-breaker to level the match.

Azarenka was rattled and Serena rammed home her advantage to win 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 and set up a clash with Li, who came from behind to shock Venus 2-6, 7-6(4), 7-5.

Scrappy encounter

Venus should have made it a sister act in the semifinals, but she threw it away against Li in a scrappy match where they made a incredible combined 110 unforced errors.

She was a set and 4-2 up in the second when Li made her move, playing with greater freedom as Venus tightened up, with her forehand going to pieces.

Paes out of men’s doubles

Meanwhile, India’s Leander Paes had a bitter-sweet experience with the Indian ace sailing into the semifinals of mixed doubles but crashing out of men’s doubles event here today.

The Australian Open title continued to elude the men’s doubles specialist as he and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy, seeded third, went down 3-6 4-6 to unseeded Croat-Serb combination of Ivo Karlovic and Dusan Vemic.

The Indian derived some solace later in the day when he partnered Zimbabwean Cara Black to clear their semifinal passage in the mixed doubles event.

The top seeded pair, which defeated eighth seed Elena Vesnina of Russia and Israel’s Andy Ram 6-4 6-3, will next take on seventh seed pair of American Lisa Raymond and Wesley Moodie of South Africa.

Cilic retains Chennai Open crown

Defending champion Marin Cilic of Croatia bested Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3) on Sunday to win the 2010 Chennai Open for a second straight year.The second seed's victory made him only the second player -- after Spaniard Carlos Moya in 2004-05 -- to retain his title at Chennai while also ensuring him his fourth ATP Tour title, in his sixth final appearance.It was also the Croat's first victory over the Swiss third seed, Cilic having managed to win only a set in four previous meeting -- the last one of which was at the 2008 French Open .The 21-year-old Cilic is now 13-1 in three appearances in Chennai, having also been a semi-finalist in his maiden appearance in 2008."It was my toughest win and also my sweetest," admitted Cilic in the post-match conference."The conditions were really tough and he played very well at the start.

"But as the match progressed he couldn't handle my power game and that is why I managed to win," added the second seed.Wawrinka's poor record in tournament finals continued.The Swiss has now lost six of the seven finals that he has contested -- with his lone win in Umag (2006) coming courtesy a Novak Djokovic [ Images ] retirement."Every time I play a final, I play it against a bigger player," lamented Wawrinka, while trying to explain his poor record in the finals. "I definitely missed a chance to win the title today but he won the match because he deserved to."I needed to be aggressive in the tie-breaks, but it was he who kept on attacking at every available opportunity and that is why he won," added the Swiss.

It was nonetheless an improved performance by the 24-year-old Swiss, having lost in the first round here last year.Coming to the match, it was anything but spectacular, with both players relying on each other to commit the errors more than makings them happen.However, since both the contestants were evenly matched -- in terms of strengths and weaknesses -- it ensured the contest was a lengthy one, at 160 minutes to be precise.Things went on serve for the first seven games before Wawrinka, after taking a medical time-out to treat a stiff neck, drew first blood in the eighth.

The Swiss secured three break points, courtesy three successive errors from Cilic's racket. The latter saved one of them only to commit yet another unforced error and hand Wawrinka the game and a 5-3 lead.Cilic, however, came right back breaking the Swiss player's serve in the next game and holding his own comfortably to square things at 5-5.Wawrinka had a set point - on Cilic's serve in the 12th game -- but failed to convert it.And Cilic expressed his gratitude by dominating the ensuing tie-break (7-2).The duo traded early breaks in the second set before going back to what they did in the first -- holding their respective service games with ease.Cilic had a couple of more opportunities on Wawrinka's serve in the eighth game. He squandered both.Not surprisingly, it required yet another tie-break to settle the second set.

And Cilic repeated what he had done best in the opening set -- dominate the tie-break. It was enough to give him his first win against the Swiss as also his second staright Chennai title.

Photographing Tennis

While photographing tennis, film through the fence with a long telephoto or arise up with the net with an average zoom. Clip your shot for the instant before the racket strikes the ball, and do not numb to pen tightly. Anticipate moments of peak excitement, such that while the server flips the ball in the air and halts hardly a moment. This sport commonly calls for a telephoto in 300mm to 400mm drift whenever you are filming from behind the fence. The constrict view angle makes shooting through link chain at ease. Use an 80-200 zoom if you are staying up at the net abiding by players at the service line. Apply a shorter zoom whenever you are covering a server and volleyer of the net. Almost all tennis action at lawn is covered horizontally, making it a trouble to get strong vertical compositions. Anticipate uprights while the player serves and does overhead slams.Timing asks you to slip the shutter concisely after the player begins his back swing. Be ready for very fast action while the player is at the court. Build the shot slackly as you can’t assure which way the players will move till the last moment. Several indoor courts and yet a few outdoor venues provide elevated viewpoints of the courts. Though this isn't the better choice for your primary coverage, this spots may give you an alternate viewpoint. If it is achievable to shoot almost square down on the player while he is serving, you are able to make an unusual shot looking down into his eyes. Mostly, you want to set up these pictures during practice by sticking out on a ladder and scaffolding the action. To get more info about this log on toweb-articles.info. There you will find some important topics likeDebt Consolidation has So Many Benefits Why Wait?and more.

Fascinating Clijsters vs Henin match after 3 years

Belgian comeback queens Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin followed the script to the letter on Friday to reach the final of the Brisbane International tennis tournament. Henin demolished third seed Ana Ivanovic 6-3, 6-2 to win the first semi-final while Clijsters was made to work much harder before overcoming unheralded German Andrea Petkovic 6-4, 6-2. Henin, granted a wildcard to play this week, was ruthless as she disposed of Ivanovic in just 65 minutes. There were no signs of any of the rustiness she displayed in her epic three-set win over Melinda Czink in Thursday's quarter-finals as she broke Ivanovic three times in either set. And while Ivanovic, like Henin a former world number one, was able to break the Belgian's serve in each set, Henin came back even harder to break back almost immediately and underline her complete dominance. "I'm in the final of my first tournament back -- it's a great feeling," Henin said. "It's a surprise of course, because it's not as easy as it may seem, because 18 months with no competition is not that easy."

Clijsters looked on course for a similarly easy ride when she broke Petkovic in the opening game of the match.

But the German refused to buckle to her more illustrious opponent and broke back later in the set to get the match back on even terms.

However, the greater experience of Clijsters began to tell and she gradually wore her opponent down, taking the match in one hour and 20 minutes.

Henin and Clijsters have set the tennis world alight since their respective comebacks.

Clijsters, who retired in May 2007 and had a baby girl, set the ball rolling when she came back midway through last year to sensationally win the US Open.

Soon after that triumph, Henin announced she too would end her retirement at the start of this year, with the Brisbane International marking her return to the court.

From the moment Clijsters, 26, and Henin, 27, found themselves in opposite halves of the draw, the prospect of the pair meeting in Saturday's final has been the tournament's main talking point.

Fierce rivals on the court, their careers have also been marred by speculation of severe rifts off the court.

Henin, while admitting they weren't close friends, was keen to play down any talk of bad blood.

"Just because we are from the same country does not mean we have to be best friends," she said.

"(But) there is so much respect between the two of us.

"I know sometimes people would love to hear that there have been problems between us but it's not the case.

"I respect her personally and I respect her play and I think it's the same for her."

Henin said it was simply a case of two different personalities.

"We are so different. We have good memories of when we were younger and we were travelling a lot to the same tournaments, but after that we grew up differently -- we went in different directions," she said.