Newz Forum: OTHER: Tennis News 27/03/04

Serena Williams marked her return from injury with a simple 6-1 6-0 victory over Marta Marrero in the second round of the Nasdaq-100 Open in Miami.The top seed, who had knee surgery in August before her return was further delayed by a family bereavement, wrapped up victory in 42 minutes.

The American has not played since beating her sister Venus in the Wimbledon ladies final last July.She will now face Elena Likhovtseva or Barbora Strycova in the next round.

Tim Henman crashed to a surprise defeat to world number 64 Jurgen Melzer in round two of the Nasdaq-100 Open.Henman served for the match at 6-5 in the third set, but Melzer broke to force a tie-break and came through 7-6 (7-3) 2-6 7-6 (7-4).

Serena and Venus Williams will play for the United States team in the Fed Cup first-round tie in Slovenia next month. The sisters join the experienced doubles duo of Martina Navratilova and Lisa Raymond in an all-star line-up.The US team has a combined total of 28 Grand Slam singles titles, 63 Slam doubles crowns and 456 WTA titles plus a 54-6 Fed Cup record.


Greg Rusedski has been included in Britain's Davis Cup team for their Euro/Africa zone match with Luxembourg on 9-11 April. It will be his first taste of competitive tennis since being cleared of a doping charge. The British number two, sidelined since January, has under a month to prove his fitness to GB captain Jeremy Bates.

Stella Artois have agreed a new 10million deal to continue their sponsorship of the annual men's grass court tournament at Queen's Club in London.The contract with the Lawn Tennis Association is for another five years and will take the Stella Artois Championships into a 31st year.John Crowther, chief executive of the LTA, said: "This new contract will underpin the pre-Wimbledon tournaments and is of vital importance to British tennis."


Meanwhile reigning champion Andy Roddick Has confirmed he will return to defend his title.

Henman is such a let down,he promises so much and just fails to deliver.He does rise to the occasion in the big games but he should be beating people like this.