Tennis | Serena, Venus Williams to meet in Sony Ericsson singles final today in Qatar

Tennis

All-Williams Sony Ericsson Championships title match is today in Qatar: The Williams sisters will end their season with a title matchup.

Venus Williams defeated Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 Saturday in one semifinal at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Serena Williams won the other semifinal when Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark quit because of an abdominal injury while trailing 6-4, 0-1.

"It was just too much for me to keep playing," Wozniacki said.

Serena, who secured the year-end No. 1 ranking last week, is returning to the final of the WTA Tour's season-ending championships for the first time since 2004. She was knocked out in the group stage the last two years, but was the only player to go undefeated through the round-robin rounds this time.

Today, Venus will defend her title from last year.

"It's wonderful, I'm so excited," Venus said. "It's the way I wanted to end my year."

Serena won't play in Fed Cup final: Serena Williams withdrew from the U.S. team that will travel to Italy in the Fed Cup final, deciding she needs to rest after a long season.

Williams informed U.S. captain Mary Joe Fernandez she won't play in the Nov. 7-8 matches. Vania King, ranked 78th in the world, will replace Williams. Other U.S. players are Melanie Oudin, Liezel Huber and Alexa Glatch.

Henin aims high: Belgian Justine Henin said she wouldn't be returning to the sport if she didn't believe she could win the Wimbledon title and complete her own career Grand Slam — as soon as next year.

"It's a dream," said Henin, who left the sport in May 2008, when she was No. 1 in the world. "I don't know if it will come true, but I like to dream."

Henin said she left because she needed to realize she could do more than play tennis. She also said she was exhausted and didn't enjoy the sport.

"I have no secrets that the fact that I retired was because I was tired," the 27-year-old Henin said. "I'm returning because it's the passion that I give to what I do again. It's the fact that I can push my limits, and that I can give people a dream."

Running

Gomes, Radcliffe seek third NYC Marathon titles: Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil won the NYC Marathon in 2006 and 2008 and today will try to become the third man to win the event at least three times — and the first since American Alberto Salazar won his third in 1982.

On the women's side, Britain's Paula Radcliffe, the two-time defending champion and world-record holder, is seeking her third title and is the heavy favorite after a series of withdrawals.

A field of more than 40,000 — the largest for the NYC Marathon — is expected to start the 26.2-mile race. The men's and women's winners will each earn $130,000; a $70,000 bonus goes to former champs.

The race doubles as the men's marathon national championship.

Figure skating

Shen-Zhao duo excels: Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo of China know how to make a comeback.

Competing at their first event since winning the 2007 world title, Shen and Zhao claimed gold at the Cup of China in Beijing. Their score of 200.97 points was almost 15 ahead of reigning world silver medalists Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao of China.

"I am very happy about today's performance," Zhao said.

Nobunari Oda of Japan won his second Grand Prix title of the season, beating world champion Evan Lysacek of the United States.

Akiko Suzuki of Japan took the women's competition, while Olympic silver medalists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto of the United States won the ice-dance title.

Seattle Times news services