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Serena Williams: Tournaments
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Serena Williams retired with a left knee injury after one set Wednesday and defending champion Justine Henin advanced to the semifinals at the Sony Ericsson Championships. Henin cruised past Jelena Jankovic 6-2, 6-2 at the season-ending tournament. Williams was treated by the tournament doctor before the start of the ninth game. She retired after losing the first set 6-4 to seventh-ranked Anna Chakvetadze.
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Serena Jameka Williams was born on September 26, 1981 in Saginaw Michigan to her parents, Richard and Oracene Williams. She grew up in a rough neighborhood in Los Angeles. Her father encouraged Serena to take up tennis hoping that stardom in the sport will get them out of the rough neighborhood. When Serena was just four and a half years old, she won her first tournament. By the time she was 10, she won 46 out of 49 matches.
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Once she was playing in the big leagues, things got off to a rocky start: Serena suffered a glaring defeat at the 1995 Bell Challenge in Quebec, her first major tournament. In 1997, she was ranked 304th yet beat No. 7 Mary Pierce in the second round and No. 4 Monica Seles in the quarterfinals, at a 1997 Ameritech-sponsored tournament in Chicago. With her father's continuous encouragement, Serena continued her upward spiral.
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Serena became a professional in 1995, at the age of 14. Because of her age, she was banned from WTA sponsored tournaments, and had to participate in non-WTA events at first. Her first professional event was the Bell Challenge in Quebec, and she was ousted in less than an hour of play.
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Serena was spraying balls all over the place and basically handed Vera Zvonareva a ticket into the finals; Patty Schnyder went out in 3 sets to Katarina Srebotnik, on a double fault. The Cincinnati tournament directors must be gutted to have a starless final, though some of Vera's legendary meltdowns are Oscar-worthy. Here's a look at both matches.
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When Serena was four and a half, she won her first tournament, and she entered 49 tournaments before the age of 10, winning 46 of them. At one point, she replaced her sister Venus as the number one ranked tennis player aged 12 or under in California.
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