Tennis Tournament

Serena Williams , who hasn't played a tennis tournament since winning Wimbledon in 2010, announced Monday that she plans to play Wimbledon, which begins June 20, and a tournament in Eastbourne next week as preparation. "I am so excited to be healthy enough to compete again," Williams said in a statement. "These past 12 months have been extremely tough and character-building. I have so much to be grateful for. I'm thankful to my family, friends and fans for all of their support.

Andy Roddick has already pulled out of the French Open tennis tournament. He has a sore shoulder and with a fourth-round finish as his best ever on the red clay of Roland Garros, really, what was the point of jeopardizing a late-career run at Wimbledon? John Isner, famous for his three-day marathon match at Wimbledon last year? He's drawn the top-seeded defending champion Rafael Nadal in the first round. Melanie Oudin, who burst onto the women's scene when she made it to a quarterfinal of the U.S. Open in 2009?

Kim Clijsters, the queen of normal, was brightening the interview room Wednesday at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament. She enters and the lights turn up, even if the switch had been flicked hours ago. There are tennis players who live in the vacuum that the pro tour provides, almost demands. And there are tennis players who walk right through the restrictive walls of celebrity, smell the flowers on the outside and still find a way to succeed. Clijsters is the latter. She is within a couple of well-hit backhands of being No. 1 in the world, again, for a fourth time.

The desert tennis tournament that began 36 years ago as a nice little mom-and-pop, sit-on-the-lawn-and-watch event will put its international stature on display for the next two weeks. The BNP Paribas Open, annually the fifth-best attended tennis event in the world ? after the four Grand Slams ? will begin Monday with qualifying play and end March 20 with men's and women's singles finals that annually feature some of the top players in the world. The women's qualifying will be Monday and Tuesday, with admission free to the public.

The return to the Grand Slam stage by Serena Williams, who hasn't played in a tennis tournament since winning her fourth Wimbledon last July, will take much longer now after the 29-year-old star underwent emergency medical treatment in Los Angeles this week, less than 10 days after doctors had hospitalized her for a blood clot in her lungs. It was not immediately known what triggered Monday's treatment of a hematoma -- an area of bleeding -- at Cedars-Sinai, something first reported Wednesday morning by People magazine.

Say that you've been glued to coverage of the U.S. Open tennis tournament for the last two weeks. Today, you go to hit with a friend, and are incredulous when you blow a cross-court volley you felt sure you had mastered. You're flustered by your inability to serve with the sizzle you distinctly remember you brought to the court when you last played. A group of German and Canadian psychologists have another possibility for you to consider: Perhaps your glowing assessment of your tennis talent is the result of a false memory, induced by watching Roger Federer's five-set duel with Novak Djokovic or the epic match between Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters.

Venus Williams drew a crowd Friday night at the Farmers Insurance Classic, the line snaking through the crowded grounds of the Los Angeles Tennis Center with fans eager to get autographs on their copies of Venus' book, "Come to Win." Williams was dressed impeccably, her silver earrings twinkling in the evening lights, her hair pulled into a prim bun. She wore a long and muted gray-colored sweater that reached her knees, and black jeans. Her entire look said "author." There was nothing that said "tennis."

Farmers Classic Los Angeles Tennis Center at UCLA Monday-Aug. 1 Monday's schedule Straus Stadium, beginning noon. Horacio Zeballos (7), Argentina, vs. Rainer Schuettler, Germany; Lukas Lacko, Slovakia, vs. Ernests Gulbis (5), Latvia; Janko Tipsarevic (6), Serbia, vs. Santiago Giraldo, Colombia. Straus Stadium, 7:30 p.m. Xavier Malisse, Belgium, vs. Dudi Sela, Israel; Arnaud Clement, France/Jonathan Erlich, Israel, vs. Travis Parrott, U.S./Dusan Vemic, Serbia.

Jack Kramer, a world-renowned tennis player in the 1940s and early '50s and a well-known businessman and tennis promoter in Southern California for more 60 years, died late Saturday night at his home in Los Angeles. He was 88. The cause of death was a soft tissue cancer that was diagnosed in July. Kramer, the No. 1 player in the world for much of the late 1940s, won the Wimbledon men's singles title in 1947 and the men's U.S. Championships, the forerunner of the U.S. Open, in 1946 and '47. He also won seven other Grand Slam titles in doubles, all at Wimbledon or the U.S. Championships.

The women's pro tennis tournament held at the Home Depot Center in Carson the last seven years will move to San Diego County next summer. Pending a site inspection, the tournament will be played at the La Costa resort in Carlsbad, starting Aug. 2. That will immediately follow a tournament played annually at Stanford. San Diego and La Costa had a popular women's tour stop for 24 years, until it was purchased by the WTA Tour and closed after the 2007 event. The Carson event was owned jointly by AEG, which owns and operates the Home Depot Center and Staples Center, and by the U.S. Tennis Assn.