Serena Williams resumes her winning ways in tennis

By: George Hardin

SportsBeat

Serena Williams

Serena Williams has made a brilliant comeback in winning the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, Calif., Sunday. She had been sidelined for almost a year because of foot operations and blood clots in her lungs—events that put her career in jeopardy. It was her first title since she won the Wimbledon in 2010

Williams defeated three of the four semifinalists before surging past Marion Bartoli7-5, 6-1 at Stanford University. It was revenge of a sort because Bartoli beat Williams, formerly ranked No. 1 in the world, at Wimbledon this year. A 13-time major champion, Williams moved past two breaks in the first set to claim her victory. She said she’s glad to be back in the game and hopes to move up to a single-digit number from her position now in the top 80, moving up from 169th because of her victory.

It was Williams’ best performance this year in the longest-running women only professional tennis tournament in the world. Now in its 41st year, the tournament is the first event leading up to the Olympus U.S. Open Series.

Venus Williams is one of the past champions of the Bank of the West Classic. Venus has been nursing a hip injury, which has kept her off the courts. The prospect of the sisters playing against each other in the WTA Tour event that begins Aug. 6 in Toronto is still likely. Venus is 31 and Serena is nearing her 30th birthday, Sept. 26.

Some experts are saying the sisters are nearing the end o their best playing days. But Venus told a reporter recently, "I feel like I’m a talented player and I have the experience, and that makes me more confident even when it seems I shouldn’t be as confident as everyone else in the field. People have realized how valuable it is to play into your late 20s and 30s. You really understand the game. And it’s just about staying fit and healthy."

The sisters’ standing shows once again the path their father chose was a wise one. Richard Williams became his young daughters’ main coach after tennis academies in Compton, Calif., were not willing to accept them. Williams was denounced by some coaches and columnists who said he was ignorant because he was not highly educated. But his teaching was not one-sided. He told his daughters, "Education is power, not chasing around some tennis ball."

His coaching techniques were ridiculed by those who said he should let experts teach them because he was hindering his daughters rather than helping them. He responded by rebuffing his critics in strong language and expressing indifference to the mainstream tennis world.

Williams also coached his neighbors’ children in Compton, but none of them reached the upper pinnacles of tennis like his daughters.

Tennis: is it just a country club sport?

　

The Davis Cup just made an appearance here in Austin. The Davis Cup is an international competition between 125 countries that occur on an annual basis. This year the number one ranked country in the world Spain beat the sixth ranked United States. The crowds were good the hospitality was excellent, the games were even great. However something is missing with this sport there is not a ground swell of passion like we have for football, basketball or even baseball. People reschedule you’re their life in order to make football and basketball fit in.

What happened to the love of tennis in this country? There are only three times a year I may pay attention to tennis, Wimbledon, the US Open and if a major professional tournament is in town. There are very few Americans that are playing at the top level of the game now. Most people may know Serena and Venus Williams, Marty Fish and local hero Andy Roddick.

Tennis is a very inexpensive sport to play and can be readily made available to the masses, but it isn’t. The Williams Sisters are watched and adored, but they do not inspire people to play the game. Arthur Ashe was a well-respected and he inspired us to play tennis. Even the video playing generation does not clamor to play the game via their XBOX or Wie consoles. If you go ask the average person to name four Americans that are currently playing on the professional tour, less than 10 percent surveyed would be able to pass this test.

What can be done to restore the broad appeal? The powers that be needs to remove the stigma of Tennis being only a Country Club sport and bring it back to middle America and most importantly back to the inner city. Tennis should increase their marketing and courts need to made available to the entire community. In the 80’s there were plenty of public tennis courts for the average person to play on at a very reasonable price.

Today I see tennis courts at some apartment that are in vast need of repair and most public courts not being used. Tennis need to adopt a program similar to the Pro Golf Association First Tee program which bring the game of golf to people who may not be able to afford to play or get quality teaching from a professional at no cost. Tennis needs some variety, color and not just the clones that are playing the game. Doing these things may just restore the domination the Americans once had across the world in tennis.

By Terry Davis

Kevin Durant talks summer camp

Kevin
Durant talks summer camp

By: Terry Davis

The dog days of summer got a little better for 360 kids at
the Kevin Durant basketball camp at Westlake High School.  This is the third year that Durant has hosted
a summer camp for kids, but this is the first time that the camp has come to
Austin where Durant played college basketball at the University of Texas.

When asked about why Durant wanted to bring the camp to
Austin, he stated “I’ve always loved Austin they embraced me so much, being
from the East Coast I felt right at home since I first time I stepped off the
plane for summer school.  I connected
with a lot of people here and I wanted to come back here to see how the turnout
would be and since has been successful and hopefully it can be even better next
year.”

When asked why he decided to bring the camp to Austin he
stated,” I wanted the young kids to have the opportunity to interact with NBA
players something I did not get a chance to do and I wanted to be there for the
younger kids and show them something different it was a easy decision for me”.  As a kid Durant did not have the opportunity
to attend a camp the was led by an NBA player so he would just go the park and
gym to work on his ball handling and shooting just for fun until he really got
good at it.

Durant occasionally would speak
and play different basketball games with the campers and offer them advice and
tips on how to improve their play on the court and how to be a better person in
life.  In one of the sessions Durant
stated, “play hard, play smart, but most of all play together”.

This year’s camp was coordinated by ProCamps.  According to Jake Moylan of ProCamps the
purpose of the camp is to teach fundamentals, improve technics and to allow the
kids to have fun.  The kids at the camp
are coached by 30 of the area’s top prep basketball coaches .  All of the campers receive a camp t-shirt and
a Durant-autographed team photo. Some campers are even lucky enough to get
signed t-shirts and/or basketball shoes by winning various contests.

The Kevin Durant Basketball Camp host a group of campers on
scholarship from the Boys & Girls Club of Austin.  The camp was conducted over a two day period
and the divided into two age groups.  The
first group consisted of 7-11 year old and the second group was for kids
12-18.  The camp is opened to boys and
girls.

NBA Lockout!!!!

By: Terry Davis

Kevin Durant Quotes:

One camper asked
Kevin Durant about the lockout

Question :  Are you
worried about the lockout and how long do you think it will go on?

I am worried of I want to play I think I am positive about
the situation, I think we can get something done before the summer is out even
though the talks are going really slow now I still think they can speed it
up.  The last lockout they got it done in
the wee hours of the night hopefully it happen again this time and we can get
back to what we want to do.

Questions what are the players doing to stay united?

Every meeting that they have had has had 20-30 players there
the owners are staying together, but there are more players in the league and
we are staying together, guys who not even at the meetings  we all standing together and we are not going
to give in if that what it takes even the some of the higher paid guys in the
league are attending these meetings hopefully we can get something done.

After the playoff
lost to the Mavericks

I was upset for a while we had a chance to get to the top of
that mountain and kinda hurt, but sometimes you have to go through tough things
to get to where you want to get to.  We
gained a lot of experience in getting to the Conference Finals not many people
thought we could get to we want to set bigger goals

Comments about Texas
Longhorn Basketball

Question: Kevin do follows the longhorns basketball team
during the season and what do you think about the newest members to the NBA
Fraternity?

I am so happy for them especially Jordan (Jordan Hamilton),
Tristan(Tristan Thompson) I have been knowing him since he was in the 10^th
grade, Cory, (Cory Joseph) I got to  get
to know him this past year or so see  all
of those guys go in the first round to teams that are pretty good it speaks
volumes to how much they work hard and the program at the University of Texas
of preparing those guys it will be fun to play against them we are friends until
they toss the ball up against them it should be cool to add three more brothers
into the Texas Fraternity of NBA players.

Questions:  Have the
young guys approached you about advice?

Yeah Tristan and Corey I just told these guys to embrace
everything the workouts , meeting with the teams, pre-draft camp and everything
that goes into it just have fun.  Every
time the draft comes around I wish I could go thru it again every single year,
because it is something that you have been dreaming about your whole life and
finally get there no one can take that away from you, embrace it all. because
only comes around once an enjoy it all.

Questions Do you get a chance to talk to Coach Barnes during
the season

Coach Barnes is a real big mentor to me during the season he
is so lock in and focused on what he has to do to make his team get better and
I don’t try to take that away from him he is one of the hardest workers I have
been around and he demands that respect from everyone.  During the season I try not to bug him that
much I know he has a lot on his plate but after the season we try to get
together to have lunch and he know loves me and I know he loves me as a person
outside of the basketball game I am honored and blessed to have the privilege
to play for him he is going to be a very important person in my life for the
rest of my life he has been great for me.