The 31-year-old American has won seven Grand Slam titles, including at Flushing Meadows in 2000 and 2001.

“I enjoyed playing my first match here, and wish I could continue but right now I am unable to,” Williams said in a statement released by the tournament. “I am thankful I finally have a diagnosis and am now focused on getting better and returning to the court soon.”

She was supposed to face 22nd-seeded Sabine Lisicki in the second round Wednesday.

Williams cited a virus when withdrawing from hard-court tuneup tournaments since losing in the fourth round at Wimbledon in late June.

She returned to action Monday, beating Vesna Dolonts 6-4, 6-3 in the first round in New York, then said: “No one is more in one-match-at-a-time mode than me now at this tournament. It will just be one match at a time, for sure.”

According to the Sjogren’s Syndrome Foundation website, the disease is a chronic autoimmune illness in which people’s white blood cells attack their moisture-producing glands. Common symptoms include dry eyes and dry mouth. As many as 4 million Americans have the disease.

In rare cases, it can cause arthritis and joint pain, said Dr. John Fitzgerald, director of clinical rheumatology at UCLA. Fitzgerald is not involved in treating Williams and does not know her symptoms or medical history. But, he said, if Williams has the typical symptoms, “it does not seem life-threatening or career-ending.”

Williams arrived at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Wednesday hours before her match was scheduled to begin and tried warming up by hitting balls.

When Williams left the site shortly before 5 p.m., wearing a white sweater and purple shorts, she was asked by reporters whether she would say anything. She smiled and waved and shook her head to indicate, “No,” then climbed into the back of a tournament transportation car and rode away.

“All of us came with the full expectation she’d be playing today. She was geared up to play her match,” said Williams’ agent, Carlos Fleming.

“I just hope she’s OK,” Fleming added, “and I hope she’s healthy and going to be fine.”

Despite all of her past success, including a brief stint at No. 1 in the rankings, Williams was unseeded at the U.S. Open, because she has fallen to 36th after a year of little action. Since reaching the semifinals at last year’s U.S. Open, Williams has played only 11 matches, and the WTA projects that her ranking now will slide out of the top 100.

Her younger sister, Serena, a 13-time Grand Slam champion, is scheduled to play her second-round match Thursday.

“A lot of times, they’ve drawn a lot of criticism. But, trust me, (in) five years, when they’re gone, everyone is going to miss them. Everyone is going to realize they’re going to be living legends for the rest of their lives. Two girls from Compton, dominating tennis – that’s not an everyday story,” said 2003 U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick, who’s known the Williams sisters for about two decades.

“Venus is just the epitome of class, the way she’s gone about it,” he said. “I don’t think she’s ever even had a sniff of controversy around her. She’s just done it the right way.”

On Monday, Venus Williams was asked about the illness that caused her to skip tournaments this summer. She said that night that her ailment had been diagnosed, but wouldn’t say what it was.

“It was just energy-sucking, and I just couldn’t play pro tennis,” she said Monday. “It was disappointing, because I had huge plans for this summer, of course, to improve my ranking. To miss out on all those points was definitely devastating. Just to miss so much time off tour was just disheartening. But I’m just really excited to be back.”

Lisicki said she saw Venus Williams on the practice courts and in the locker room and expected to play their match – until the tournament referee passed along the news of the withdrawal.

“She’s a tough girl, and I think she’ll come back. You know, it would be unfortunate if she couldn’t,” Lisicki said. “Serena and Venus both are amazing players, and it’s nice to have them in the women’s sport. I hope she comes back.”

Both Williams sisters, who have won nine of the last 11 titles at Wimbledon, returned to the court after grave injuries, however, their coach and father does not theorize that to be the cause of defeat in London.

“There’s a time when they were sick and hurting,” Richard Williams said. “That wasn’t the problem. The problem was technique. They have to decide whether they’re really ready to play every ball or whether they’re going to be out there reaching for it.

“Technique starts on the practice courts. They expect to manufacture things out there.”

Williams’ comments come after both tennis stars were ejected from Wimbledon after devastating fourth-round losses. Serena lost 6-3, 7-6 (6) to the ninth seed Marion Bartoli, while Venus lost miserably to Tsvetana Pironkova, 6-2, 6-3.

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During her victory over Akgul Amanmuradova, Williams wore a self-designed outfit that has the web and tennis commentators debating on whether it was a poncho, or a jumper.

“It’s a jumper,” Venus told reporters who questioned the outfit. “Jumpers are very now, kind of trendy. The back is kind of, I don’t know, like a cutout or a peek-a-boo. I’m always trying to do something different and fun.”

Most agreed that it was an outright disaster, as opposed to Venus’ play in a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan.

Read more at TheRoot.com

Venus Williams’ latest U.S. Open outfit is drawing plenty of attention. The tennis superstar showed up at the Grand Slam event Sunday in a skimpy pinkish red outfit — hardly the first time she has made waves with her on-court clothing. And in May, Williams’ lacy French Open outfit was the subject of much conversation.

“This outfit was supposed to be about New York. It’s like bursts of fireworks,” she said of her latest selection.

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Venus Williams ousted at Wimbeldon

Williams sisters are top seeds at French Open

WIMBLEDON, England — Five-time champion Venus Williams was ousted in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon on Tuesday, losing 6-2, 6-3 to 82nd-ranked Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria.

The second-seeded Williams, who had reached the Wimbledon final in eight of the past 10 years, was undone by a slew of unforced errors and double faults in the biggest upset of the women’s tournament.

In another surprise, 21st-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia rallied to beat two-time U.S. Open winner Kim Clijsters 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 to reach her first Wimbledon semifinal.

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Venus Williams never got untracked against the 22-year-old Pironkova, who was the lowest-ranked player left in the women’s draw and had never previously passed the second round of a Grand Slam.

The result rules out another all-sister final between Venus and Serena Williams, the defending champion who faced China’s Li Na in a later quarterfinal.

Pironkova beat Williams in the first round of the Australian Open in 2006, but few gave her a chance of replicating the feat on the grass of Wimbledon, where Williams has been so dominant for the past decade.

But Williams was clearly off her game and Pironkova took advantage.

Williams committed 29 unforced errors, compared to just six for Pironkova. Willians served five double-faults, including back-to-back doubles in two games.

Pironkova denied Williams her 200th career match win on grass and spoiled the prospect of a fifth Wimbledon final against Serena, who beat her older sister last year for her third title at the All England Club.

Pironkova becomes the first woman representing Bulgaria to reach a Grand Slam semifinal in the Open era. Bulgarian-born Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere was representing Switzerland when she got to the U.S. Open semis in 1992 and 1993.

Pironkova broke Williams twice in the first set and won four straight games from 2-all, finishing the set with a backhand passing shot down the line.

After Williams broke to go up 2-1 in the second set, it looked like she might be able to take command. But Pironkova broke right back in the next game that included the shot of the match: After Williams hit a forehand drop volley, the Bulgarian raced forward and flipped a backhand lob winner over Williams’ head. Pironkova swung her arm in an uppercut celebration.

Williams saved two match points while serving at 5-2 down, but Pironkova served out the match in the next game. After Williams missed a forehand volley, Pironkova squealed and fell on her back on the turf.

Pironkova earned a semifinal berth against Zvonareva, who came back from a set down to beat Clijsters on Centre Court. It was the Russian’s first win over Clijsters in six matches.

Clijsters, returning to Wimbledon for the first time since 2006 after coming out of retirement, beat fellow Belgian Justine Henin on Monday and was viewed as a potential title threat.

The eighth-seeded Clijsters looked in command after sailing through the first set, but the match turned in the Russian’s favor after she broke to go up 3-1 in the second.

Clijsters finished with 36 unforced errors, compared to 19 for Zvonareva.

In another quarterfinal, unseeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic played qualifier Kaia Kanepi of Estonia.

The men had the day off ahead of Wednesday’s quarterfinals.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are there. So are Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Robin Soderling.

But there’s one name among the list that may not be quite so familiar — Yen-hsun Lu.

He’s the 82nd-ranked player from Taiwan who shocked three-time runner-up Andy Roddick to become the first Asian player to reach the men’s quarters of a Grand Slam tournament in 15 years.

The 26-year-old from Taipei outlasted fifth-seeded Roddick 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 9-7 in a match that stretched over 4½ hours.

Lu will face third-seeded Djokovic.

Federer, chasing a record-tying seventh Wimbledon title, will meet Tomas Berdych.

Nadal renews his rivalry with sixth-seeded Robin Soderling, the Swede who beat him in the fourth round at the French Open last year and lost to him in last month’s final in Paris.

Murray, the only player in the men’s draw who hasn’t lost a set, will next meet 10th-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Murray is seeking to become the first British player to win the men’s singles title since Fred Perry in 1936.

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Venus And Serena Win 4th Consecutive Grand Slam Title

Williams Sisters Are Two Top-Seeded Women At French Open

PARIS — Venus and Serena Williams have won their fourth consecutive Grand Slam doubles title and 12th overall, beating Katarina Srebotnik and Kveta Peschke 6-2, 6-3 at the French Open.

The victory by the top-seeded sisters Friday makes them only the third women’s doubles pair to win four major titles in a row. Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver did it in 1983-84, and Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva did it in 1992-93.

It’s the siblings’ second French Open doubles championship, but first since 1999.

The doubles title might ease some of the sting from the Williams’ exits in the French Open singles tournament. No. 1-ranked Serena lost in the quarterfinals, and No. 2 Venus lost in the fourth round.

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PARIS — Serena and Venus Williams are the French Open’s two top-seeded women, and if it seems as though it’s been a while since that was the case at a Grand Slam tournament, that’s because it has.

This is the first time the American sisters are seeded 1-2 at a major championship since the Australian Open in January 2003.

Plenty has transpired in their lives during the intervening years. Each Williams has dealt with injuries, absences from the tour and drops in the rankings, as well as the far-more-serious matter of the shooting death of their half-sister Yetunde Price in September 2003.

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Yet Venus and Serena keep returning to the heights of their sport.

“You know,” Serena noted, “people have said we would never be No. 1 and No. 2 in the world again. You look, I don’t know, 10 years later and … we’re still doing the best.”

When the French Open begins Sunday, second-ranked Venus will play former top-10 player Patty Schnyder of Switzerland to start a bid for her eighth Grand Slam singles title.

Among active women, only top-ranked Serena, with 12, owns more major trophies than her older sister.

“We feel like we deserve to be here,” Serena said. “We’ve worked so hard for so many years, and, you know, ups and downs, and, you know, all kinds of problems and everything. And to be back is cool.”

Having won this season’s Australian Open, Serena will be trying to become the first woman since Jennifer Capriati in 2001 to get halfway to a calendar-year Grand Slam. She also aims to win the French Open for the second time; Serena beat Venus in the 2002 final at Roland Garros.

Still, this season hardly has been perfect for the 28-year-old Serena, who is 15 months younger than Venus.

After Australia, Serena was off the tour for all of February, March and April because of a bothersome left knee. Since returning to action, she is only 4-2 on clay, losing two of her past three matches.

Venus, meanwhile, is 26-4 in 2010, a tour-leading .867 winning percentage, and is coming off a run to the final on clay at Madrid, where she lost to Aravane Rezai of France. Only one woman could overtake Serena at No. 1 in the rankings by the end of the French Open: Venus.

“I mean, in essence, I’m still the same player, but I just think that I understand the game more … and how to play the point better and situations,” Venus said earlier this season. “I think when you’re younger, you just kind of go through it, especially someone with a game like mine. I guess sometimes you take more chances — sometimes for the best and sometimes not for the best. I guess at this point, I feel like I’m at that balance of knowing when to hit which shot.”

The slow, red clay used in Europe has never been either sister’s preferred surface, mostly because it tends to dull their powerful serves and groundstrokes.

This is the 14th consecutive French Open for Venus, and she’s only made it past the quarterfinals once, in 2002.

For Serena, the French Open is the only major championship she hasn’t won at least three times. She last reached the semifinals in Paris in 2003.

“It’s not her favorite surface, but she’s been talking all year about, ‘This is really the one that has been elusive to me. I haven’t been able to get my hands around this title. Its clay goes against my grain,’” seven-time French Open champion Chris Evert said. “Yes, it does — it challenges her patience. She’s so aggressive all the time. She’s going to have to change, not only her style of play, but mentally, she’s going to have to change a little bit, if she wants to win the tournament.”

While most everyone anticipates Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to meet in the French Open men’s final for the fourth time in five years, the women’s event is expected to be far more competitive, with several players considered contenders to be around two weeks from now.

Justine Henin, a four-time champion, is back after missing the French Open in 2008 and 2009 while taking a break from tennis, and she brings with her a 21-match winning streak at Roland Garros that covers her 2005-07 titles. Rezai proved in Madrid she could be factor. Jelena Jankovic beat both Williams sisters en route to the final at Rome on clay. Three-time major champion Maria Sharapova won a clay-court title at Strasbourg on Saturday.

“Serena has always stepped up in the big events. Except when she had health issues, she showed she could dominate,” said Henin, who could face Sharapova in the third round and the younger Williams in the quarterfinals. “But I believe here, in the French Open, anything can happen.”

Henin, Sharapova and Serena will play their opening matches Monday or Tuesday, and here is one daunting statistic for the American’s opponent, Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland, to ponder: Serena is 41-0 for her career in first-round matches at Grand Slam tournaments.

Looking ahead a bit, Serena only once has lost in the second round of a major — at the 1998 Australian Open.

Who beat her way back then?

Venus.

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NEW YORK — Serena and Venus Williams are back in the U.S. Open women’s doubles final for the first time in a decade.

The fourth-seeded Americans beat No. 13-seeded Alisa Kleybanova and Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-2 in the semifinals Thursday.

The Williams sisters are aiming for their 10th career Grand Slam doubles title as a pair and third this season. Their only U.S. Open doubles championship came in 1999.

They are 9-0 in major doubles finals.

The other semifinal, scheduled for Friday, pits the defending champions and top-seeded pair of Cara Black and Liezel Huber against the third-seeded team of Samantha Stosur and Rennae Stubbs.

The final is Sunday.

Jay-Z’s got a great lyric on the song “So Ambitious” from his new Blueprint 3 release where he spits, “I can’t base what I’m gonna be off of what everybody isn’t.”

Naturally, I started thinking about the movie The Wizard of Oz. In that flick, four travelers, all lacking in at least one capacity, decide to journey to see an all-powerful wizard that holds in his hands, basically, the power of life and death.

When our travelers greet this magnificently projected wizard, they are frightened and amazed by an astonishing technical display of artificial omnipotence. Then Toto the dog draws a curtain back to reveal that the force behind this “wizard” is actually a wrinkled white geezer that couldn’t bust a grape in a fruit fight.

Now, I’m not trying to argue that racial hatred and racial violence don’t exist. That would be insane. What I’m wondering, however, is if racism really exists or if it is indeed like the idea of “white supremacy”; a concept so laughably absurd that it is dashed to ribbons every time Venus Williams serves a tennis ball?

And no, the election of Barack Obama hasn’t made me into one of them Spooks that now want to join hands with everybody and sing, “I Gotta Feeling“. Anybody that knows anything about history knows that there have already been 5 Black presidents.

But what I’m wondering now is if the concept of “racism” hasn’t been used as a scarecrow to keep non-whites from even attempting to do certain things (like elect our Blackest president yet).

And now that this  latest curtain has been drawn back to reveal our “wizard” for what he truly is, do we continue to believe that we need to petition this bozo to get what we want, or do we, like Dorothy, The Tin Woodsman, The Cowardly Lion and The Scarecrow realize that the power to effect the change we need has been ours all along?

Venus and Serena Williams have found a new sport: pro football.

The tennis-playing sisters will become the latest celebrities to own a stake in the Miami Dolphins, a person familiar with the deal said Wednesday. The person didn’t want to be identified because the team plans an announcement Tuesday.

Another person close to the negotiations said an agreement was near but not yet final. That person also didn’t want to be identified because the announcement has not been made.

“There have been preliminary talks, and hopefully it’ll work out,” Serena Williams said Wednesday night after a 6-3, 6-2 win over Yaroslava Shvedova in Toronto. “That would be a great opportunity for both of us. You never know. We’ll see what happens.”

The Williamses live in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., about an hour’s drive from the Dolphins’ stadium. Their new role will be significant in part because the NFL has no African-American majority team owner.

Musicians Gloria and Emilio Estefan and Marc Anthony recently bought small shares of the team. New Dolphins owner Stephen Ross also forged a partnership with singer Jimmy Buffett.

The Dolphins have said the involvement of the celebrities reflects the diversity of South Florida and shows that the franchise is connected with the community.

“There’s always so many opportunities out there, and Venus and I are always trying to expand our brand and do the best that we can do, and if an opportunity presents itself, we would love to see where it can take us,” Serena Williams said. “Who knows what’s going to happen, but hopefully we’ll be able to hopefully continue to expand our brand.”

A Dolphins spokesman said the team had no comment regarding next week’s announcement.

The Williams sisters have combined to win 18 Grand Slam titles, and they staged their latest sibling showdown last month at Wimbledon, where Serena beat Venus in the final.

Serena has won 11 major titles and Venus seven.

Ross, a New York real estate billionaire, completed his purchase of the Dolphins from Wayne Huizenga in January and began a partnership in May with Buffett. The agreement with the Estefans was announced in June, followed by the deal with Anthony last month.

Buffett and the Estefans are longtime Dolphins fans. The Williams sisters aren’t known to closely follow the Dolphins or the NFL.

Ross has said the minority owners are strategic partners and aren’t being brought aboard because of a financial need. He has pledged to improve the fan experience at games, and the celebrities will help — although it’s unlikely the sisters will be staging tennis exhibitions at halftime.

Buffett has yet to accept Ross’ invitation to become a minority owner, but the Dolphins’ stadium has been renamed Land Shark Stadium for this season. Buffett has written a song for the Dolphins, and they’ve introduced a new version of their fight song by the rapper T-Pain.

Anthony will perform the national anthem when the Dolphins host the New York Jets on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” on Oct. 12.