ALLAN THE MAN

Serena Williams avenged her loss to Sloane Stephens earlier this year by thrashing her fellow American in straight sets on Sunday (Monday in Manila) to reach the quarter-finals of the U.S. Open.

The world number one showed no mercy against Stephens, crushing the rising star 6-4 6-1 to remain on course to defend the U.S. Open title she won last year and restore the sport's world order.

The big names in the Men's and Women's Tennis , Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Victoria Azarenka, played on the Day 4 of US Open Tennis, the final grandslam of the year held in the Flushing Meadows, New York.

Rafa Nadal remains undefeated on hardcourts this year by crushing Rogerio Dutra Silva of Brazil 6-2 6-1 6-0 to storm into the third round of the U.S. Open on Thursday (Friday, PHL time).

It was a match full of drama, especially on the third set, but eventually it was Belarussian Victoria Azarenka that prevailed at the Western & Southern Open 2013 in Cincinnati after the world number two defeated top-ranked Serena Williams 2-6, 6-2, 7-6.

 It was a match reminiscent of the US Open 2012 final between these two ladies but this time it was Williams who served for the match but was broken to force a tiebreaker in the third set.

Maria Sharapova believes rival Serena Williams should not comment on matters outside of tennis as she criticised the American ahead of Wimbledon.

Defending Wimbledon champion Williams was forced to apologise for what she was reported to have said about the rape of a 16-year-old girl in Ohio. 

"I was sad to hear what she had to say about the whole case," Sharapova said.

Serena Williams won her second French Open title on Saturday, 11 years after her first triumph, defeating title-holder Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-4 in a brief, but high-quality final.

It was the 31-year-old American's 16th Grand Slam title win, taking her to within two of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova who are tied for fourth on the all-time list.

ISTANBUL - Serena Williams completed her sensational 2012 comeback by easing to a 6-4, 6-3 win over Maria Sharapova for a third WTA Championships title on Sunday.

The 31-year-old's victory came at the end of a spectacular year in which she also collected the Wimbledon, Olympic and US Open titles.

"Now I have won I can be honest -- I really wanted to win this title, and I put pressure on myself (to do so)," said Williams, whose career head-to-head record over Sharapova now stands at 10-2.

Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova will battle it out for Olympic gold on Saturday afternoon. 

Going into the London 2012 Olympics, Serena and Sharapova were the only players in the field who have achieved the legendary career Grand Slam (Serena achieved the feat back in 2002 with Sharapova completing the set in June). As such it seems only right that they're battling it out in the final with the winner achieving the career Golden Grand Slam.

Steffi Graf (who won all four slams and Olympic gold back in 1988) is the only other player to have managed this. 

Serena will be strong favourite to win her first singles gold medal (she's won two doubles golds with her sister Venus) given her progress through the draw so far this week. The American has yet to concede more than three games in a set and she's destroyed Vera Zvonareva, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka in success. Given how good those players are (they've all reached Grand Slam finals), for Serena to beat them all dropping just 7 games across the three matches, is simply remarkable.

GAME TODAY:

World's No. 6 Serena Williams vs World's No.3 Agnieszka Radwanksa on Final game of Wimbledon 2012 Ladies' Singles draw.