Serena Williams

Roger Federer rallied to beat Tomas Berdych , 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, and win the Madrid Open for a third time on Sunday. Earlier, Serena Williams overpowered top-ranked Victoria Azarenka , 6-1, 6-3, to win the women's final. While Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal had blamed the new blue-clay court for their early exits, Federer's biggest obstacle was to overcome an opponent who had beaten him in three of their previous five meetings. "It is amazing to win here again," said Federer, who will overtake Nadal as the second-ranked player behind Djokovic.

Roger Federer rallied to beat Tomas Berdych , 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, and win the Madrid Open for a third time on Sunday. Earlier, Serena Williams overpowered top-ranked Victoria Azarenka , 6-1, 6-3, to win the women's final. While Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal had blamed the new blue-clay court for their early exits, Federer's biggest obstacle was to overcome an opponent who had beaten him in three of their previous five meetings. "It is amazing to win here again," said Federer, who will overtake Nadal as the second-ranked player behind Djokovic.

The eldest sister of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams was fatally shot early Sunday on a Compton street, not far from the cracked concrete tennis courts where her sisters began their ascent to the upper echelons of the sport. Yetunde Price, 31, of Corona was shot shortly after midnight in the 1100 block of East Greenleaf Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

John Isner is suddenly leaving a large footprint on the men's professional tennis circuit. The 26-year-old late bloomer has reached a career-high ranking of No. 9 in the world this year (he's No. 11 this week). He briefly became the top-rated American in the world, defeated No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic at Indian Wells and No. 3 Roger Federer in Davis Cup play, and has led the underdog U.S. to stunning upsets of Switzerland and France on red clay in away Davis Cup matches. He has also become an Olympic contender and maybe even a power broker.

TODAY'S FEATURED MATCHES All third round World rankings in parentheses Serena Williams (2) vs. Roberta Vinci (53), Italy Williams just has that look -- one that can make half a bracket seem as if it's disintegrating to the floor like Christmas tree needles. Roger Federer (2), Switzerland, vs. Philipp Kohlschreiber (32), Germany Kohlschreiber, who admirably upended Novak Djokovic at the French Open, is 0-3 against Federer. That is much better than so many other players.

Serena Williams was knocked out of the China Open on Thursday, losing to Nadia Petrova , 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (5), in Beijing only days before regaining the No. 1 ranking. Williams, who will take over the top spot in the rankings from Dinara Safina on Monday, looked sluggish in the first set before recovering in the second. Neither player was able to earn a break in the third set. Petrova, who finished with 14 aces, said her strong serve was the key. Petrova will face Peng Shuai , who eliminated Maria Sharapova in straight sets on Wednesday.

Serena Williams beat Russian Maria Kirilenko , 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, at the Bank of the West Classic to set up a quarterfinal match with Maria Sharapova in a battle of former world No. 1s. "I'm sure we'll both go out and do the best each of us can," Williams said. "It's nothing personal. It's my job and I want to get paid. I leave it on the court. " Williams is playing her third tournament since winning at Wimbledon last year, and the first tournament on U.S. soil since the 2009 U.S. Open.

Reporting from Wimbledon, England -- Top-seeded and defending champion Serena Williams shrugged unhappily when she finished off her third-round 6-0, 7-5 win over Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova on Saturday at Wimbledon. Williams had 20 aces and 37 winners to only nine unforced errors but Williams said she would need to play better next week. "Hopefully I can keep serving well," Williams said, "but I have to play better than I did today. I'm just glad to get into the second week. Williams saved herself from getting into a dangerous second-set tiebreak by breaking Cibulkova's serve in the final game.

Normally Serena Williams exhibits all the nervousness of a shark in a goldfish pond, so her confession of jitters here illuminates a French Open task she labels "uphill." It's no wonder she hopped up and down on the Court Suzanne Lenglen after her 2 1/2 -hour, first-round squeaker in the wind Tuesday afternoon, considering her 2009 clay-court preparation amounted to three tournaments, two countries, zero wins, three losses and one retirement.

The eternal wrangling between aloof, know-it-all computers and the noble human species that created them has found its latest hearing in the case of Serena Williams, the alleged No. 2 women's tennis player in the world.

Gemologist won the $1-million Wood Memorial for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct in New York, holding off Alpha by a neck to improve to five for five. The latest victory makes the colt trained by Todd Pletcher one of the favorites for the Kentucky Derby on May 5. Gemologist will enjoy an important advantage over many rivals in the Derby, having already won twice at Churchill Downs. He captured an allowance race and the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes there to close out his 2-year-old season.

The California desert sun can be relentlessly unforgiving. So too, it seems, can the tennis powerhouse Williams sisters. Eleven years have passed since Serena Williams was greeted with a booming chorus of boos in the women's finals and left for good. Venus did the same. And with the two-week BNP Paribas Open underway this week at the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens, still no sisters. "Even now, all these years later, we continue to boycott the event," Serena wrote in her 2009 autobiography.

Venus Williams returned from a five-month layoff, and Serena Williams and Christina McHale won singles matches Sunday, sending the United States past Belarus, 5-0, in the first round of the Fed Cup at Worcester, Mass. By sweeping Belarus in World Group II, the Americans head to a playoff in April in hopes of playing their way back into the top tier of the Fed Cup after being bounced last year. Venus Williams and Liezel Huber completed the shutout with a doubles victory, defeating Darya Kustova and Anastasiya Yakimova , 6-1, 6-2. This was Williams' first sanctioned match since the opening round of the U.S. Open.

The Australian Open begins Monday in Melbourne (Sunday in the U.S.) and the injury scorecard is already cluttered before the season's first major. Serena Williams has already hurt her ankle and Venus Williams didn't make the trip to Australia as she deals with an autoimmune disorder that she disclosed at the 2011 U.S. Open. Roger Federer has been spotted clutching at his achy back. Rafael Nadal has been seen using a bag with wheels to cart around his tennis gear instead of slinging one over a sore shoulder.

Serena Williams on Monday was fined $2,000 for her verbal outburst against chair umpire Eva Asderaki during the U.S. Open women's final Sunday. In a statement, U.S. Open tournament referee Brian Earley said the fine was for the code violation of verbal abuse. "This fine is consistent with similar offenses at Grand Slam events," the statement said. "After independently reviewing the incident which served as the basis for the code violation, and taking into account the level of fine imposed by the U.S. Open referee, the Grand Slam Committee Director has determined that Ms. Williams' conduct, while verbally abusive, does not rise to the level of a major offense under the Grand Slam Code of Conduct.

Reporting from New York — One powerful forehand could have been what sent Serena Williams to an uplifting comeback on the world's biggest tennis stage. Instead it sent Williams into another moment of uncontrolled anger and public rage against a tennis official on Arthur Ashe Stadium, and it might have cost her a U.S. Open title Sunday. Williams, 29, lost the women's final to 27-year-old Australian Samantha Stosur, 6-2, 6-3. In the first game of the second set, when Williams was desperately grabbing at some momentum, she pounded the booming forehand.

Serena Williams moved a step closer to successfully defending her Australian Open title and extracted some family revenge Saturday with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Carla Suarez Navarro. Last year, Suarez Navarro beat Venus Williams in the second round. The Spaniard didn't even get close this time. Serena Williams' only real difficulty at Hisense Arena was in closing the first set, needing eight set points in a game that went to deuce 13 times and lasted longer than the previous five games combined.

Serena Williams was fiercely focused Saturday night. She walloped winners from every place on the court, and Caroline Wozniacki, the top-ranked player in the world, found out that, in tennis, defense does not win championships. Williams, out of tennis for almost a year with a series of injuries, reached her fifth U.S. Open final Saturday night with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Wozniacki the semifinals. The 28th-seeded Williams will play ninth-seeded Samantha Stosur on Sunday at 1 p.m. PDT in the final.