The Wimbledon winner Serena made a brief cameo in TV medical drama “E.R.” in 2005 but her character died in the show and now she’s looking for a more action-packed role.

India have taken an unassailable 3-1 lead in the tie. Junior Australian Open champion Yuki Bhambri will make his Davis Cup debut in the dead singles rubber next.

The first mother to win a major since Evonne Goolagong Cawley at Wimbledon in 1980, wept tears of joy as she buried her face in her towel after defeating Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 7-5.

She then climbed towards her box to kiss her family, husband, management and infant daughter Jada.

A listless Novak Djokovic made a shock exit at the French Open on Saturday, while Serena Williams provided more fireworks by labelling her opponent a “cheat”.

The fourth-seeded Serb, tipped as the man who could deny Rafael Nadal a record fifth consecutive title after snapping at the Spaniard’s heals throughout the claycourt season, instead became the biggest name to tumble out.

Djokovic hopes were snuffed out 6-4 6-4 6-4 in the third round by Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber before women’s second seed Williams created some drama of her own.

“Six finals is incredible I didn’t expect it or hope for it,” Pennetta said. “Every year I come just hoping to play good tennis and produce a little magic for myself.”

Pennetta, the second seed and defending champion, awaited the winner of a late semifinal between top-seeded Venus Williams and unseeded Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic.

Sania fought her heart out against her formidable opponent but the Russian drew from her vast experience to halt the India’s brilliant run in the one hour and 17 minutes contest.

Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi have claimed the Australian Open 2009 mixed doubles crown in emphatic fashion, downing Nathalie Dechy and Andy Ram 6-3 6-1 at Rod Laver Arena on Sunday.

The Indian duo avenged their loss in last year’s final, dismantling the French/Israeli pairing in just 54 minutes and tallying 28 winners against just 10 unforced errors for the match.

Bhupathi was also able to end the tournament on a positive note, after going down along with Mark Knowles in three sets to the Bryan brothers in Saturday’s men’s doubles final.

The Indians looked sharp early, barricading the net and preventing the majority of Dechy and Ram’s groundstrokes from finding space.

The third seed Indo-Bahamian pair proved too good for their unseeded Polish-Austrian opponents as it took them just 58 minutes to win the semi-final encounter.

The winners improved on their last year’s performance here as they had lost the semi-finals. This is also for the second time that Bhupathi has reached the final of the Australian Open.

Last time he made the finals of the men’s doubles at Australian Open was in 1999 with his estranged partner Leander Paes.

After missing the latter half of 2008 Mirza showed she had now recovered with an emphatic win over world number 61.

“It was a great way to begin after such a long break,” Mirza said after her first round romp.

“I’ve not played a match in almost six months now … I’m just happy to have come through.

“I feel like I’ve been hitting the ball really well over the last few days but I was a bit nervous when I went on because there’s a difference between being fit and being match-fit.”

The Russian appeared certain to follow Jelena Jankovic, Venus Williams and Ana Ivanovic out of the tournament when Cornet was serving for the match at 5-4 and 40-15, but she somehow clung in there and dug herself out of trouble.

Three games later Safina was raising her arms in triumph as Cornet was slumped in a chair in tears, her dreams of joining fellow Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli in the quarter-finals in tatters.

The 2008 Australian Open champion said she was making steady progress from a shoulder injury but was not fit enough to compete in the first grand slam of the year, starting January 19.

“I am very sorry to announce that I am not going to be able to defend my title at this year’s Australian Open,” she said in a statement.

“My shoulder is doing great but I just started training a few weeks ago and I am just not near the level I need to be to compete at the highest levels.”

Sharapova won her first Australian Open title last year when she beat Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic in the final at Melbourne Park but has not played since August.

Somdev dropped one of his service games to lose the first set 4-6. The huge-serving Cilic coming up with some timely winners to pick up the opening set in 52 minutes. And even though Somdev fought back in the second set, he lost it in the tiebreaker. The young Indian came back from being 2-5 down in the second set to be level at 5-5.

The 23-year-old baseliner counter-punched hard to subdue the big-serving Croatian 7-6, 6-4 in one hour and 25 minutes to enter his first ATP Tour event semi-final.

The highest-ranked Indian at 202, Devvarman, who stunned former world number one Carlos Moya in the previous round in what has been a dream run in his home event, will meet fifth-seeded German Rainer Schuettler in the last four on Saturday.

Third-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic will meet Spaniard Marcel Granollers, seeded eight, in the other semi-final.

Devvarman, who is based in the United States, produced another inspired display to clinch the first set on a tie-breaker with a service winner as a partisan crown in a city where he spent his formative years loudly cheered for the home favourite.

World number 10 Saina took just 26 minutes to sent Nicole packing 21-15 21-8 in the first round to set up a clash with Hsiao Huan Chen of Chinese Taipei, who defeated compatriot Shih Ying Chen 21-18 21-15, in the second round on Thursday.

Both Sunitha and Shikha, who were part of the team last year, are US passport holders. They have been excluded following the new government policy that now allows only Indian passport holders to represent the country.

“IMG in consultation with AITA has decided to offer the Indian pair of Yuki Bhambri and Harsh Mankad the wild card. The combine of India’s number one and two ranked players Somdev Devvarman and Prakash Amritraj have received the second wild card,” said a press release.

Delhi teen Yuki has had an exceptional run as he ends the year as world number two junior player following victories at Osaka Mayor’s Cup at Japan and the Orange Bowl at USA.

The world number 10 Indian used every trick from her arsenal but failed to match the experience of her third seed Hong Kong opponent and went down fighting 21-15, 14-21, 16-21 to bring down curtains in the prestigious tournament.

An attacking player, Wang rode on her smashes and better net play to wrest the match as Saina huffed and puffed helplessly all across the court.

Sania, who is in the Capital for the treatment of her chronic wrist injury, said she thoroughly enjoyed India`s 320-run record win at Mohali on Tuesday.

“Cricket has been my first love. It was great to see India winning over the best team in the world with such a big margin,” said the Hyderabadi, who has been practising at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA).

My left ankle has been bothering me since the US Open and I need to take a break now to get it back to 100 percent,” the US Open champion was quoted as saying by the Moscow organisers.

“I have played a lot this year and my body needs to recover. My goal is to try and get the number one ranking back,” said the American, who will relinquish the number one spot to Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic when the new rankings are released on Monday.

Saina became the first Indian woman shuttler with two Grand Prix crowns under her belt after she clinched the title in Chinese Taipei beating unseeded Malaysian Li Ya Lydia Cheah 21-8, 21-19 in the final of the GP Gold event on Sunday.

“This is my biggest victory. Philippines Open was a four-star event but this one was five star and I feel I really played very well. I was in peak form and my confidence was very high,” Saina said.

Playing for the sixth year at Flushing Meadows, the No. 1-ranked Nadal rallied to reach the quarterfinals. He got quite a workout and a scare from his unseeded, 20-year-old American opponent.

‘‘Very tough,’‘ Nadal said. ‘‘Sam is a big player, a big server. He has a great future.’‘

Sania, returned into the game after a three-month lay-off following a wrist surgery, was trailing 1-6 1-2 against Czech Iveta Benesova when she decided to concede the match. The injury also casts a cloud of doubt over her availability for tomorrow’s doubles first round match.

The Indian scratch pair of Sania and Sunitha Rao is scheduled to meet French pair of Tatiana Golovin and Pauline Permentier in the opening round here on Tuesday.

“She had a surgery on her right wrist and it was bothering her right from the beginning. She was covering the court well and keeping the ball in play too. But things subsequently became too painful and she had to retire,” team coach Nandan Bal said.

It was a tougher match than expected for Kuznetsova though as rank outsider Kanepi had her back-pedalling in the first set with the weight of her groundstrokes.

The fourth seed will play the winner of the all-Russian clash between Dinara Safina and Elena Dementieva for a place in the final.

The last, and only time, the two had met was in the junior girls final here in 2001 when the Estonian won on her way to taking the world No.1 junior ranking.

They went different ways after that, Kuznetsova basing herself in Spain to further her career, while Kanepi elected to stay at home.

The Russian went on to win the US Open title in 2004 and was runner-up here last year as well as rising to second in the world.

Kanepi struggled to make the switchover to the seniors and she has yet to win a WTA Tour level title.

Williams has caught the eye at Wimbledon with the white trenchcoat she wears during the pre-match warm-up, while Maria Sharapova’s tuxedo top and shorts combo attracted plenty of attention.

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Sania will compete in the strongest ever singles field, led by world number one Serb Ana Ivanovic, in the history of the quadrennial extravaganza and the young Indian knows well that the road ahead is full of challenges.

Yet, she is determined to live up to the expectations.

Mirza went down in the opening singles match after cramp hampered her in the final set against America’s Meghann Shaughnessy. Rohan Bopanna then lost in straight sets to Mardy Fish before Mirza and Bopanna maintained its undefeated doubles record.

Despite the 2-1 loss, Mirza was happy with how she played.

The Spaniard missed two championship points in the fourth set but recovered to win a dramatic rain-interrupted match 6-4 6-4 6-7 (3-7) 6-7 (8-10) 9-7.

The final shot was struck in near darkness on Centre Court at 2115 BST.

Nadal, 22, is the the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win the French Open and Wimbledon back to back.

Federer, 26, had been trying to become only the second man to win six consecutive Wimbledon titles, and so surpass Borg to match Willie Renshaw, who played in the 1880s.

The defeat brought to an end his unbeaten run of 65 matches on grass, and arguably his reign as the undisputed king of tennis.

The defending champion recovered from a whirlwind start by her younger sister to land her seventh Grand Slam title courtesy of a 7-5, 6-4 win.

Venus paid tribute to the performance of Serena, who had looked as if she might blast her big sister off court in the opening games.

“I can’t believe it is five because when you are in the final against Serena Williams five seems so far away,” said the champion.

“It’s unbelievable especially with some of the injuries I have gone through. I love this place.”

The quality of the meeting dispelled any suggestion that the two siblings were incapable or unwilling to produce their best tennis against each other.

The third seed and local favourite won a topsy-turvy first set before easing through the second to capture his second title of the year and repeat his New Haven triumph of 2005.

“That’s a great way to go into the U.S. Open,” Blake told reporters.

“I am going into every match feeling that I can win. To win another title is great, so hopefully I can carry it over into the U.S. Open.”

World No. 50 Fish, in his first final for 16 months, twice recovered from a break down in the first set but Blake broke again in the 11th game and served out to move ahead.

Blake then broke twice to lead 4-1 and though Fish got one of the breaks back, the third seed held on to win his 10th career title and claim his 17th victory in 20 matches on hard courts this summer

But though he is high on confidence after winning his 50th career title in Cincinnati last weekend, the world number one has one name nagging away at him.

Rafael Nadal [Images].

Victory in New York would not only make Federer the first man since American Bill Tillden in the 1920s to win four titles in succession, it would also see him win three of the four Grand Slam events for the third time in four years.

A 12th Grand Slam crown is also on the line for Federer, just two short of the record held by Pete Sampras.

Nadal ended any hope of a Federer Grand Slam by beating him in the French Open final and pushed him to five sets in the final at Wimbledon. The Swiss had no doubts about who will be his main rival over the next two weeks.

“Even though now people talk about (Novak) Djokovic, for me Nadal is better, a lot better to be honest,” Federer told Reuters in an interview.

“If I don’t win the US Open I expect him to win it.”

Djokovic beat both Nadal and Federer to win the Montreal Masters the week before Cincinnati but Federer said the Spaniard was a cut above the rest

Blake, runner-up to world number one Roger Federer [Images] in the Cincinnati Masters last week, will play 16th seed Agustin Calleri of Argentina or unseeded American Robby Ginepri in the third round.

“I think I am playing some of my best tennis,” Blake said.

“American hard courts is where I feel the most comfortable. It suits my game the best, I’ve got the fans on my side and I end up feeling great.

“I feel like I am playing better than when I won here in 2005 but the tour is getting better as well.”

In the women’s event, Indian Sania Mirza [Images] advanced to the second round with a 6-3 6-3 win over Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues

Sharapova, the third seed, tumbled out of the tournament she won in 2004 after a lacklustre display on Court One.

The pin-up of the women’s game had reached at least the fourth round on all five of her previous visits to the All England Club, but she could have no complaints after being over-powered by her compatriot, who now plays China’s Peng Shuai.

Usually, the beautiful 21-year old, who won Wimbledon 4 years ago, has taken a liking to wearing dresses on court. Of course, we’re not talking about any kind of dresses. Two years ago, at the U.S. Open, Sharapova delighted her fans by donning a sports dress inspired by Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.

Last year at Wimbledon, she wowed fashion critics yet again with her famous by now Swan Dress – a Nike tiered dress with swan-style ruffles on the back, reminiscent of an elegant pair of wings. In 2008, with the eyes of the entire tennis world upon her, Sharapova once again manages to keep a little fashion surprise up her sleeve.