Vera Zvonareva

The Advanta Championships women's tennis tournament will begin at 9 this morning at the Pavilion at Villanova University with hometown favorite Lisa Raymond of Wayne, Maria Sharapova, Jennifer Capriati, Anastasia Myskina, Amelie Mauresmo, and Venus Williams among the headliners in the 28-player field. The competition in the weeklong event concluding Sunday will be without Serena Williams, who withdrew Friday because of illness, and Ai Sugiyama, No. 16 in the world, who withdrew because of injuries.

Nadia Petrova of Russia, who is ninth in the World Tennis Association rankings, and Nicole Vaidisova, a rising young star, are among the latest entries for the Advanta Championships. Vaidisova, a 16-year-old Czech, has won consecutive WTA Tour titles in the last two weeks, in Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo, and has jumped to 18th in the WTA rankings, a career high. Alicia Molik, Jelena Jankovic, Vera Zvonareva and Meghann Shaughnessy also have been added to the field, which begins play Oct. 31. The tournament will take place at the Pavilion, at Villanova.

U.S. Open champion Serena Williams remains on track to win back-to-back majors, advancing to the Australian Open semifinals with a comeback win over Svetlana Kuznetsova today. Russia's Kuznetsova, the No. 8 seed, served for the match in the second set but Williams rallied for a 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 win. The stadium roof was closed after the first set when temperatures soared above 104 degrees. The 27-year-old Williams, the No. 2 seed, has nine Grand Slam singles titles and won the Australian Open in 2003, 2005 and 2007.

Venus Williams advanced to her first semfinal of the year, beating Vera Zvonareva, 6-3, 6-4, in the quarterfinals of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, S.C. Williams, seeded fourth and the highest remaining seed in the event, has become a crowd favorite. "I've never played in front of a crowd that's really, really been so behind me, ever," Williams said after yesterday's win. "It's almost to the point of, 'OK, how do I deal with this?' So it's definitely, definitely nice.

Serena Williams was seeded 28th for the U.S. Open, which stuck with its policy of following the rankings instead of taking into account players' past performances. The decision means Williams could face one of the Grand Slam tournament's top eight seeded players as early as the third round. The 29-year-old American leads active women with 13 major championships, including three at Flushing Meadows - in 1999, 2002, and 2008. She recently won consecutive hard-court tune-up tournaments at Stanford and Toronto, making her one of the favorites to win the U.S. Open, which starts Monday.

Venus Williams was upset by unseeded Elena Bovina, 6-3, 6-2, in a Kremlin Cup quarterfinal yesterday in Moscow that lasted little more than an hour. Williams, playing her first tournament since losing to Lindsay Davenport in the third round of the U.S. Open, had 10 double faults and committed 29 unforced errors. "No loss is a lot of fun," Williams said. "My serve wasn't there the way I wanted it to be today. " Williams broke Bovina in the first game of the second set, but the Russian capitalized on a string of unforced errors to make it 2-2 in the fourth game, when the American double-faulted on a deuce.

The biggest professional tennis tournament in the area - the Advanta Championships - opens at Villanova University next week, featuring eight of the top 20 women's tennis players in the world. Unlike previous years, where several big-name players have dropped out at the last minute, the tournament has perhaps its toughest field ever. Serena Williams has dropped out for the second year in a row, complaining of illness, and Ai Sugiyama (No. 16 in the world) pulled out with injuries, but there are plenty of top players left.

Kim Clijsters overwhelmed 16-year-old Maria Sharapova, 6-0, 6-3, yesterday in the SEAT Open semifinals in Luxembourg. Clijsters, who will regain the No. 1 ranking this week, will play Chanda Rubin in the final. Rubin eliminated Marlene Weingartner, 6-2, 7-5. Fourth-seeded Nadia Petrova reached her first career WTA Tour final by beating Patty Schnyder, 6-2, 6-2, at the Generali Open in Linz, Austria. Petrova will play No. 2-seeded Ai Sugiyama, a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 winner over No. 3 Vera Zvonareva.

WIMBLEDON - Serena Williams hit bottom at the end of February. Shortly after treatment for clots in her lungs, she went back into a hospital because of a hematoma, a large gathering of blood under the skin on her stomach. She calls that "the disaster. " "After I had the lung problem, it was, like, 'OK, I got through that.' Then having to have a surgery removing the hematoma was just my low point. I felt it was never going to end," Williams said before today's start of Wimbledon, where she has won the past two titles and four overall.

Top-ranked Justine Henin-Hardenne advanced to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open today, saving a set point in a 6-1, 7-6 (5) victory over Italian qualifier Mara Santangelo. The 21-year-old Belgian star set up a quarterfinal match with 2000 champion Lindsay Davenport, while fourth-seeded Amelie Mauresmo advanced to face 32d-seeded Fabiola Zuluaga, the first Colombian woman to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal. Davenport won the last eight points in her 6-1, 6-3 victory over 11th-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia.

NEW YORK - The U.S. Open's most stunning loss Wednesday was bigger than just the Grand Slam tournament, with Venus Williams withdrawing and revealing that she is suffering from an autoimmune disease. The seven-time major champion said in a statement that she has Sjogren's syndrome, "an ongoing medical condition that affects my energy level and causes fatigue and joint pain. " The 31-year-old Williams pulled out of two hard-court tune-up tournaments this summer because she was not feeling well.

Serena Williams was seeded 28th for the U.S. Open, which stuck with its policy of following the rankings instead of taking into account players' past performances. The decision means Williams could face one of the Grand Slam tournament's top eight seeded players as early as the third round. The 29-year-old American leads active women with 13 major championships, including three at Flushing Meadows - in 1999, 2002, and 2008. She recently won consecutive hard-court tune-up tournaments at Stanford and Toronto, making her one of the favorites to win the U.S. Open, which starts Monday.

WIMBLEDON - Serena Williams hit bottom at the end of February. Shortly after treatment for clots in her lungs, she went back into a hospital because of a hematoma, a large gathering of blood under the skin on her stomach. She calls that "the disaster. " "After I had the lung problem, it was, like, 'OK, I got through that.' Then having to have a surgery removing the hematoma was just my low point. I felt it was never going to end," Williams said before today's start of Wimbledon, where she has won the past two titles and four overall.

WIMBLEDON, England - For all the unpredictability at Wimbledon in women's singles, for the seeds fallen and the contenders crushed, the tournament ended as most predicted it would at the beginning. It concluded with Serena Williams hoisting another trophy, delivering another barrage of aces, and taking another step forward among tennis' all-time greats. It ended, 6-3, 6-2, against 25-year-old Russian Vera Zvonareva on Saturday afternoon, in a little more than an hour, a victory stunning, lopsided, and complete.

U.S. Open champion Serena Williams remains on track to win back-to-back majors, advancing to the Australian Open semifinals with a comeback win over Svetlana Kuznetsova today. Russia's Kuznetsova, the No. 8 seed, served for the match in the second set but Williams rallied for a 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 win. The stadium roof was closed after the first set when temperatures soared above 104 degrees. The 27-year-old Williams, the No. 2 seed, has nine Grand Slam singles titles and won the Australian Open in 2003, 2005 and 2007.

Venus Williams rallied to win the WTA's Sony Ericsson Championships for the first time yesterday in Doha, Qatar, defeating Vera Zvonareva, 6-7 (5), 6-0, 6-2, at the season-ending event. The Wimbledon champion took command in the last two sets with powerful serving, smashes and aggressive groundstrokes against her Russian opponent. "I'm so excited," Williams said. "That was a hard-fought match, every point, right down to the end. " Williams won $1.34 million at the event, which for the first time offered the same prize money as the men at the ATP's season-ending Masters Cup. The first lady of Qatar, a conservative Muslim sheikdom, presented the trophy to Williams, shaking her hand and kissing her on both cheeks.

Nadia Petrova of Russia, who is ninth in the World Tennis Association rankings, and Nicole Vaidisova, a rising young star, are among the latest entries for the Advanta Championships. Vaidisova, a 16-year-old Czech, has won consecutive WTA Tour titles in the last two weeks, in Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo, and has jumped to 18th in the WTA rankings, a career high. Alicia Molik, Jelena Jankovic, Vera Zvonareva and Meghann Shaughnessy also have been added to the field, which begins play Oct. 31. The tournament will take place at the Pavilion, at Villanova.

Amelie Mauresmo successfully defended her Advanta Championships title yesterday with a win over up-and-coming Russian player Vera Zvonareva, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, at Villanova's Pavilion. This is the first time in Mauresmo's career that she has defended a tour title. Mauresmo won $93,000 and enough points to allow her to regain her No. 1 ranking next week at the WTA Championships in Los Angeles. No French player has ever finished the year at the top. "This is what I've been working on for years.

Tennis fans came to the Pavilion at Villanova University yesterday expecting to see two heated semifinal matches in the Advanta Championships. They only got one. Vera Zvonareva beat Nadia Petrova, 6-3, 7-6 (2), to earn a berth in today's final round. She will face Amelie Mauresmo, the defending Advanta champion and the No. 2-ranked player in the world, who didn't have to do much more than wake up yesterday morning to advance. Mauresmo, the tournament's top seed, was supposed to face 17-year-old Russian Maria Sharapova, this year's Wimbledon champion.

It just wasn't Jennifer Capriati's day. Vera Zvonareva routed her, 6-0, 6-1, in a quarterfinal match at the Advanta Tennis Championships at the Pavilion in Villanova yesterday. Capriati walked into the postmatch news conference with an icepack on her shoulder. And her loss eliminated her from contention for the season-ending WTA Tour Championships next week in Los Angeles. "Among other things, my arm's pretty tired. It was just tough to be able to do what I wanted to do today," Capriati said.