WORLD SPORTS STARS

Sunday, March 27, 2011

serena williams american professional tennis player

Serena Jameka Williams born September 26, 1981 is an American professional tennis player who is a former World No. 1 and currently ranked World No. 11 in singles and No. 20 in doubles with sister Venus Williams. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her World No. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She regained this ranking for the fifth time on November 2, 2009. She became the World No. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002. She is considered to be one of the greatest women's tennis players of all-time in a career hampered by numerous injuries.
Williams is the reigning champion in singles at Wimbledon, and in women's doubles at the French Open. Her 27 Grand Slam titles places her ninth on the all-time list: 13 in singles, 12 in women's doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. She is the most recent player, male or female, to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously and only the fifth woman in history to do so. Her 13 Grand Slam singles titles is sixth on the all-time list.Williams ranks fourth in Grand Slam women's singles titles won during the open era, behind Steffi Graf (22 titles) and Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (18 titles each). She has won more Grand Slam titles in singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles than any other active female player.
Williams has won two Olympic gold medals in women's doubles. She has won more career prize money than any other female athlete in history. has played older sister Venus in 23 professional matches since 1998, with Serena winning 13 of these matches. They have met in eight Grand Slam finals, with Serena winning six times. Beginning with the 2002 French Open, they played each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, which was the first time in the open era that the same two players had contested four consecutive Grand Slam finals. The pair have won 12 Grand Slam doubles titles together.
Contents
* 1 Early life
* 2 Playing style
* 3 Professional career
o 3.1 1995–99: Professional debut
o 3.2 1999–2001: Becoming a top 10 player
o 3.3 2002–03: Four consecutive Grand Slam singles titles
o 3.4 2004–06: Injuries and inconsistent results
o 3.5 2007–08: Return to the top 10
o 3.6 2009: Back at World No. 1
o 3.7 2010: Two Grand Slam singles titles in an abbreviated year
o 3.8 2011: Medical Complications
o 3.9 Rivalry with Venus Williams
o 3.10 Controversy
* 4 Off-court activities
o 4.1 Fashion
o 4.2 Entertainment
o 4.3 Miami Dolphins venture
o 4.4 Charity work
o 4.5 Writing
* 5 Other records and achievements
* 6 Awards
* 7 Recognition
* 8 See also
* 9 References
* 10 External links
Early life
Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan to Richard Williams and Oracene Price. She is of African American heritage and is the youngest of Price's five daughters: half-sisters Yetunde (1972–2003), Lyndrea and Isha Price, and full sister Venus. When the children were young, the family moved to the city of Compton in Los Angeles county, where Serena started playing tennis at the age of five. Her father home-schooled Serena and her sister Venus to this end, Serena Williams was and remains coached by both her parents.
Williams' family moved from Compton to West Palm Beach when she was nine so that she could attend the tennis academy of Rick Macci, who would provide additional coaching. Macci spotted the exceptional talents of the sisters. He did not always agree with Williams' father but respected that "he treated his daughters like kids, allowed them to be little girls". Richard stopped sending his daughters to national junior tennis tournaments when Williams was 10, since he wanted them to take it slow and focus on school work. Another motivation was racial, as he had allegedly heard parents of white players talk about the Williams sisters in a derogatory manner during tournaments. At that time, Williams had a 46–3 record on the United States Tennis Association junior tour and was ranked No. 1 among under 10 players in Florida. 1995, Richard pulled his daughters out of Macci's academy, and from then on took over all coaching at their home. When asked in 2000 whether having followed the normal path of playing regularly on the junior circuit would have been beneficial, Williams responded: "Everyone does different things. I think for Venus and I, we just tried a different road, and it worked for us."--

serena williams

Friday, March 25, 2011

steffi graf tennis player

stefanie Maria Graf born June 14, 1969, in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany is a former World No. 1 German female tennis player.
In total, Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, second among male and female players only to Margaret Court's 24. In 1988, she became the first and only tennis player (male or female) to achieve the Calendar Year Golden Slam by winning all four Grand Slam singles titles and the Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year. She is the last player, male or female, to win all four Grand Slams in a calendar year.
Graf was ranked World No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for a record 377 total weeks—the longest period for which any player, male or female, has held the number one ranking since the WTA and the Association of Tennis Professionals began issuing rankings. She also holds the open era record for finishing as the year-end World No. 1 the most times, having done so on eight occasions. She won 107 singles titles, which ranks her third on the WTA's all-time list after Martina Navratilova (167 titles) and Chris Evert (154 titles).
A notable feature of Graf's game was her versatility across all playing surfaces, having won each of the four Grand Slams at least four times, the only player to do so. She won six French Open singles titles (second to Evert) and seven Wimbledon singles titles (third behind Navratilova and Helen Wills Moody). She is the only singles player to have achieved a Calendar Year Grand Slam while playing on all three major types of tennis courts (grass courts, clay courts and hard courts), as the Calendar Year Grand Slams won by other players before her occurred when the Australian and US Opens were still played on grass. Graf reached thirteen consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, from the 1987 French Open through to the 1990 French Open, winning nine of them. She played in 36 Grand Slam singles tournaments from the 1987 French Open, her first Grand Slam win, through the 1999 French Open, her last Grand Slam win, reaching the finals 29 times and winning 22 titles. She reached a total of 31 Grand Slam singles finals, third overall behind Evert (34 finals) and Navratilova (32 finals).[citation needed]
Graf is considered by some to be the greatest female player. Billie Jean King said in 1999, "Steffi is definitely the greatest women's tennis player of all time."Martina Navratilova has included Graf on her list of great players. In December 1999, Graf was named the greatest female tennis player of the 20th century by a panel of experts assembled by the Associated Press.Tennis writer Steve Flink, in his book The Greatest Tennis Matches of the Twentieth Century, named her as the best female player of the 20th century.
Graf retired in 1999 while she was ranked World No. 3. She married former World No. 1 men's tennis player Andre Agassi in October 2001 and they have two children, Jaden Gil and Jaz Elle.
Contents
* 1 Biography
o 1.1 Early career
o 1.2 Breakthrough year: 1987
o 1.3 "Golden Slam": 1988
o 1.4 New challengers and personal challenges
+ 1.4.1 1989
+ 1.4.2 1990
+ 1.4.3 1991
+ 1.4.4 1992
o 1.5 Second period of dominance
+ 1.5.1 1993
+ 1.5.2 1994
+ 1.5.3 1995
+ 1.5.4 1996
o 1.6 Final years on the tour: 1997-99
o 1.7 Post-retirement activity
+ 1.7.1 2005
+ 1.7.2 2009
+ 1.7.3 2010
o 1.8 Summary of career
* 2 Records
* 3 Career statistics
* 4 Playing style
* 5 Personal life
* 6 Notes and references
* 7 See also
* 8 External links

steffi graf

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Natalie Gulbis Golf career

Natalie Anne Gulbis born January 7, 1983 is an American professional golfer who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour.
Contents
* 1 Golf career
* 2 Personal life, business and media
* 3 Professional wins (3)
o 3.1 LPGA Tour (1)
o 3.2 Other wins (2)
* 4 Results in LPGA majors
* 5 LPGA Tour career summary
* 6 Team appearances
* 7 References
* 8 External links
Golf career
Gulbis started finding interest in the game at the early age of 4. By the time she reached 7 years old, she had won her first tournament. In three years, at age 10, she was breaking par.
She played in her first LPGA tour event as an amateur at the age of 14 (handicap of 2). She attended Granite Bay High School and graduated when she was 16. She turned professional at age 18 after playing for one season on the women's golf team at the University of Arizona.
Gulbis did not win a tournament in the first five years of her professional career but still finished sixth on the LPGA money list in 2005 with over $1 million (U.S.) in earnings and played on the winning United States Solheim Cup team. She placed in the top 10 in four consecutive major championships from the 2005 LPGA Championship to the 2006 Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Gulbis' first professional win came in 2007 at the Evian Masters where she defeated Jeong Jang in a playoff to claim the winner's share of the $3,000,000 purse.
Personal life, business and media
Gulbis has two younger brothers named George and Charlie Innocent. She is considered to be a sex symbol in the LPGA. She released a 2005 calendar, just before the 2004 U.S. Women's Open, which featured her not only playing golf, but also in striking poses in swimwear. The United States Golf Association (USGA) barred it from being sold at the event, deeming it inappropriate. The calendar was sold openly at Golf Canada; the USGA was criticized for overreacting. Gulbis also posed for the November 2004 issue of the magazine FHM, an issue that also gave away a chance to play golf with her at her home course, the Lake Las Vegas Resort, where her calendar photo shoot took place. Gulbis has said that she likes the attention she gets, even if it is for her appearance; she has endorsement deals with RSM McGladrey, TaylorMade Golf, Adidas, Canon, Michelob Ultra, SkyCaddie, Payment Data Systems, MasterCard, Winn Golf Grips, Lake Las Vegas Resort and EA Sports.
In 2006, Gulbis began writing a monthly advice column in FHM. In November 2005, a reality television show, The Natalie Gulbis Show, made its debut on The Golf Channel. The show had its second season premiere on October 18, 2006. Gulbis has also appeared on the 2007 version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour by EA Sports along with fellow professionals Annika Sörenstam, Ian Poulter and Luke Donald, among others. In August 2007 Gulbis appeared on the August/September cover of Sactown Magazine in an article that profiled the rising star's busy life of product endorsements and photo shoots, though no pro win. Gil Ozir, Vice President of Marketing for Raymond Weil, a luxury watchmaker and one of Gulbis' endorsement deals, was quoted[citation needed] as saying, "Once she starts winning, she's going to be a megastar". A few days later, Gulbis won the Evian Masters, her first professional LPGA title.
In 2009, she appeared in the second season of Celebrity Apprentice. Throughout the season, each celebrity raised money for a charity of their choice; Gulbis selected the Boys and Girls Club. She was fired on the April 19, 2009 episode of the show.
Gulbis also appeared on the April 28, 2009 episode of The Price Is Right as a Showcase theme. She also participated in a playing Hole in One to perform the game's "inspiration putt". She also appeared on Sports Jobs with Junior Seau where Seau worked as her caddy during the pro-am round for the Safeway Classic.