The top ranked women’s tennis player Justine Henin has announced her retirement from professional tennis at the age of 25 years. The winner of seven Grand Slam tennis titles, Henin, said that it was a definitive decision and has been pondering upon the same since late last year. She was in supreme form last year as she had won 10 tournaments, but has been in one of the worst slump in form this season. Henin, who has won rare reviews for her stupendous play, said that she had thought long on deciding upon her retirement and said that people who know her closely will be able to justify her decision.

Roger Federer is back to being the top performer in the tennis world after recently suffering a victory drought. In Tuesday’s match against his main rival Guillermo Canas, he scored an easy 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the second leg of the Rome Masters. Earlier on, a relieved Federer revealed that he was glad to be back on track, and that the past two months was tough on him and his game play.

On related news, another tennis favorite Andy Roddick managed to subdue his arch nemesis Mardy Fish with the score 6-1, 6-4 in the All-American matchup. To note, this was his second match on a clay court, after beating Jurgen Meizer last February during the Davis Cup matches.

Serena Williams proved that she was the better woman on the court when she bested Vera Zvonareva with the scores 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to bring home the Family Circle Cup title last Sunday. This win is deemed her first clay court title since triumphing at the 2002 French Open tournament. And that’s not all, this is also Serena’s third overall victory for the year 2008 and this move is expected to propel her to the No.6 spot in terms of world ranking. This win is also her 31^st overall victory in her entire career as a professional tennis player.

The affable young lady commented that she was lucky to have excellent momentum and this has helped her win the title, thus being proud owner of the ornate crystal cup and $197,000 prize money. Fifth seeded Serena beat the ninth seeded Russian but even so, Zvonareva managed to rise to the No.14 rankings in no time.

Fans of Andy Murray are dismayed to find him pulling out of the Valencia Open after contracting a minor virus.

The British World Number One has previously placed high expectations and is set to rely on his performance in the Valencia Open and help him up his world ranking after slipping to number 22 but alas, it was not to be.

He has no choice but to skip this tournament but is expected to make a quick recovery and return to action at the Masters series tournament held in Monte Carlo on 21 April 2008.

To date, the 20 year old Murray has won two ATP Championships at Qater and Marseille but with after losing to Tommy Haas from Germany in Indian Wells, he dropped out of the world top  20 miserably since August 2006. Any Murray is now recuperating and is eager to best his opponent in the coming Masters series tennis tournament.

There is a lot of pride and money at stake for top tennis players in Grand Slam events, but that does not mean that these players do not have the lust for an Olympic gold. The pride to play for one’s country is a major thing that is bringing in many top players to the tennis event at the forthcoming Beijing Olympics. Andy Roddick of the U.S had earlier announced that he would skip the Beijing Olympics in a bid for the US Open title.

Many top men and women players see the Olympics event as important event in their 2008 tennis calendar. Maria Sharapova, the Australian Open champion, is very eager to compete in the Olympics event. Sharapova said that it was her dream to play in an Olympics tournament right from her childhood. Roger Federer, the world number one men’s tennis player and one who has received good reviews from most of the former players, is keen to contest in the 2008 Olympics event and is hoping to add an Olympic gold medal to his elaborate resume.

The Spanish legend tennis player Bjorn Borg has tipped fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal to replace Roger Federer as the world’s number one men’s tennis player in the near future. According to Borg, Nadal is putting maximum effort to develop his game and will soon become a complete player. Borg said that Nadal has no problems with his physical aspect of the game and has also received good reviews from various quarters on how he maintains his physical strength.

Borg said that even though he is physically strong Nadal should not overload his body by playing too much and will need to take care of his body in order to climb to the top of the rankings. Borg is of the opinion that if Federer concentrates on his tennis and does not suffer injuries then he could be one of the greatest tennis players of all times. Federer will have to have the hunger power in him to break more and more records and win many tournaments, which is not an easy job.

Serena Williams, a top American tennis player, said that she is excited to come to Key Biscayne to play in the Sony Ericsson Open that has started last Wednesday with matches involving unseeded players. Serena Williams who is a busy personality sometimes shows keener interest in acting and fashion than to tennis, but she says that she loves playing at Key Biscayne and holds a record of 23-1 since debuting here in 2002.

Serena, who has received rare reviews from players of the golden era, always has a lot of friends and family members in the court watching her play as she loves having a lot of people around her as it builds up pressure on her to keep on winning. She said that tennis is the most important thing in her life and she loves walking on the court every time. This is the third tournament that Serena is playing in the 2008 season and has so far been a quarter finalist in Australian Open and won the Bangalore Open.

The Australian tennis sensation and number one player Lleyton Hewitt has consented to lead the team for their tie against Thailand in Townsville, a north Queensland city, in the month of April. Lleyton Hewitt will be playing his 26th Davis Cup match for Australia in April and this is the Australian team’s second round group one qualifying match in the Asia/Oceanic Zone. It was revealed by tennis Australia that Hewitt, Peter Luczak, Paul Hanley and Chris Guccione will represent Australia for the tie against Thailand. The first Davis Cup match that Hewitt played for Australia was way back in 1999 in Boston, U.S.A, where he defeated Todd Martin in four sets.

Australia is the strong favorite to win this second round group tie and had defeated Taiwan 4-1 in their first Asia /Oceanic qualifying tie. If Australia comes out as winners in this tie that is to be held on April 11-13, then they will step into the World group’s playoff stage to be held in September. Australian captain John Fitzgerald said that the team for the tie against Thailand was picked by keeping the court conditions in mind. The tie against Thailand is to be played indoors and the court will be having high bounce, but will be slightly on the slower side.

Marina Navratilova, the nine-time champion of Wimbledon, regained her Czech citizenship. Navratilova said she was “ashamed” of the US under George Bush. She regained her citizenship after 33 years. She fled from the Communist Czechoslovakia 33 years ago to live in U.S. Although she got back her Czech nationality, she will retain her U.S nationality also. She is ashamed that people including herself selected Bush. Navratilova was only 18 when she left Czechoslovakia. The Communist regime in Czech stripped off her nationality without much delay. Navratilova was given American nationality in the year 1981.

She later revealed that, she was forced to leave her birthplace because the Czech authorities wanted to stop her from playing in U.S. At that time, most of the major Tennis tournaments were held in U.S. So, Navratilova could not agree with the demands of the Czech authorities. In America, she became one of the most successful tennis players. She won 18 grand slam single titles and 31 doubles titles. Though she retired in 1994, she came back to win several doubles titles after 6 years. Her 354th tournament was at the U.S Open in 2006, that was her final competition and she came out as a winner in the mixed doubles.

Roger Federer, the Swiss tennis sensation and the world number one player, who has been in the news recently with many journalists targeting him for his two consecutive losses, has silenced his critics with a three set victory over tennis legend and former world number one Pete Sampras in an exhibition match played at the Madison Square garden at new York last Monday. Federer said that he was motivated to practice more and was determined to establish his place at the top of the game after his twin consecutive looses this season. He says that he loves to be fighting with opponents on center courts around the world and enjoys the pressures, fans and center courts matches the most.

Federer, who has played the fourth exhibition match with Pete Sampras in the last 5 months, beat the former world number one player in three grueling sets 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 that took 2 hours and 14 minutes. Federer felt great to have played against Pete at the Madison Square garden and says that it is always a privilege to play against his idol and a great player. He was pushed to the brink in this exhibition match, but came up trumps when it mattered and even Sampras acknowledges that Federer is still the man to beat. Sampras says that there will be more tournaments to come in which one will see Federer holding the winning trophy.