Female tennis world number one Serena Williams will visit Kenya for three days next week to inaugurate a school built with her funds and several other partners, local media reported on Thursday.The school, which is located in Makueni district of eastern Kenya, was built through partnership between Hewlett Packard (HP), one of the world’s largest technology firms, and Build African Schools (BAS) initiative — an American non-profit making organization.

The school will give chance to hundreds of primary school pupils in the area to continue with their education and an opportunity to pursue secondary school education. Read more »

Q. How are you feeling at the moment? Could you tell us something about the match?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I feel amazing. I feel like it happened but it hasn’t happened, so it’s really kind of cool. I really am in the moment right now.

Q. Was it a tough match mentally and physically?

SERENA WILLIAMS: It was definitely a tough match mentally and physically. I felt like we both were out there trying to kind of prove something. I think we both did at the end of the day.

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The tennis world, except China perhaps, is anxiously hoping for a grand slam final between Justine Henin and Serena Williams. But before that Justin and Serena have to square off against Chinese opponents Zheng Jie and Li Na for a place in the final. Nobody from China has ever reached a grand slam singles final. So this must be a huge event there! Serena and Henin never played in a grand slam final against each other.  Who will be the ONE?

P.S. I love this photo. Both of them show Number 1. In Europe, when you do finger counting, you start with your thumb. Holding up your thumb means 1. I wonder how they do it in China?

photo: wtatour.ru

Today tennis royalty met with real royalty. Prince William made a surprise visit to watch Roger Federer play a second round match at the Australian Open. Federer acknowledged Prince William in the crowd after the win against Romanian opponent, Victor Hanescu. “Your Royal Highness, welcome to the world of tennis. Thanks for coming,” Federer said.

Prince William stayed for the final match of the evening between Casey Dellacqua and Karolina Sprem  and also posed for pictures with both Federer and Serena Williams.

I follow Serena’s tweets. They are mostly non-informative, slightly amusing, with frequent sales pitches for her book or whatever she is selling at the given moment. However, her today’s tweet somewhat annoyed me. As someone who has experienced a major devastating earthquake, I can’t help but say something about what she tweeted today:  “How is it an earthquake can happen in Haiti…This is a good time to draw close to God and learn more about his kingdom.”  REALLY???? This is what people in Haiti and the world aids organizations need now? How about “this is a good time to be generous and donate money for the relief efforts, pay more attention to earthquake preparedness, research, education, awareness…etc, etc. Serena, please just do what you are doing best–play tennis and sell books!

Have you been watching the Joy Behar Show? I love her! You can double the pleasure and watch her program today since Serena Williams is going to be her guest. If you have a questions for Serena, you can submit to Joy on her Facebook page. It is also interesting to read the suggestions there.

Check out Serena William’s tweets during the last 24 hours. You be the judge! What do you think?

For the past several months Serena Williams has been trying very carefully to promote her book in well-planned TV appearances, through blogs and Twitter. However, yesterday she ruined all her months of hard work in a couple of minutes. Yesterday, before her semi-final  match against Kim Clijsters she wrote: “I would like to thank everyone that purchased, “On the Line!” I am on the NYT bestsellers list as number 23! I am honored & very thankful.”

My guess is, that her book sales numbers will be going down. I wonder if people who were planning to buy her book would now change their mind after the “foot fault” incident? Or maybe more people will be intrigued now to buy and read her book? What do you think?

 After Serena Williams yesterday’s theatrics, her name was one of the top ten trending topics in Twitter land. Here are some of the comments that I overheard on Twitter.

1) Feeling very “Serena Williams” this morning, so watch out.

2) Serena Williams should have chanted, “Serenity now!”

3) Serena Williams the next John Mcenroe? One can only hop.

4) My tennis geek head is still reeling from that Serena Williams bitchfest last night. 

5) Serena Williams screams “You lie!” loses a point, and lots of money. Why are tennis players held to higher standards than legislators?

6) Can’t wait to see Serena Williams & Joe Wilson in the same anger management class. I smell sitcom!

7) From USTA: All future Serena Williams matches to be line judged by John McEnroe