Venus to return vs. Serena

MILAN - Venus Williams plans to make her comeback in an exhibition match against her sister Serena in Colombia on Wednesday after being forced to pull out of the U.S. Open because of an immune system disease. Venus tells the Gazzetta dello Sport that she has changed her diet to fill it with vegetables after being diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome, which can cause fatigue and joint pain. The Williams sisters will play Italian pair Francesca Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta in another exhibition match in Milan on Dec. 3. The 103rd-ranked Venus tells the Gazzetta, which is sponsoring the Milan match, that she's practicing and training in the gym.

Fish thrilled to make ATP Finals

When it comes to the ATP World Tour Finals, Mardy Fish is quick to admit he's simply happy to be there. "I'm sort of taking the approach of, 'Kind of excited to be a part of this thing,'" said Fish, who will be making his debut at the season-ending tournament for the top eight men in tennis a few weeks before his 30th birthday. "I know well enough that you can't take it for granted," the American said Tuesday on a conference call with reporters. "There's no guarantee that anyone's going to be back here doing this thing again, and so I'm going to take it all in." Fish, who was born in Minnesota and now lives in California, will face 10-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal when play begins Sunday in London. Fish's other opponents in round-robin play will be Roger Federer, owner of a record 16 major singles titles, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. "There's really not too many holes there — apart from me, I think," Fish said with a chuckle. "I still don't feel like I really belong in that group. But I'll take it. I'll enjoy it for sure." The tournament's other four-man group includes No. 1 Novak Djokovic — who won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open this season — along with Andy Murray, David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych. Fish is ranked No. 8; he reached his career-best of No. 7 in August. Before this season, he never had been better than 16th. He went 43-22 in 2011, with one title and two runner-up finishes, and reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon for the first time before losing there to Nadal. After years of playing in the shadow of former No. 1 Andy Roddick, Fish emerged as the highest-ranked American for the first time. And so the sort of question that's been posed to Roddick regularly over the past decade or so was put to Fish on Tuesday: How bleak is it for U.S. tennis at the moment? Eight years have passed since the last time an American man won a Grand Slam singles championship, Roddick at the 2003 U.S. Open. "I think we're in great shape," Fish replied. He then rattled off the names of various players, including his pal Roddick, who Fish said "can still beat anyone on any given day." Fish also mentioned Ryan Harrison and Donald Young ("Two guys that'll be around for a long time"), John Isner ("Starting to figure it out, it seems like; he's a top-10 player for sure") and Sam Querrey. Fish, though, is the one responsible for continuing the 25-year streak of having at least one American man in the tour's season-closing event. He concedes that he's not 100 percent fit, because of what he called a "small" left leg injury, and he knows that playing Federer and Nadal means dealing with "two of the best players of all time ... which sounds pretty daunting." Add in Tsonga, and Fish's combined career record against his three round-robin opponents is 2-14. Not that Fish is ready to concede a thing. "I've had a lot of top-10 wins in my career, and top-five wins, so, I mean, it's not out of the realm of possibilities to get to the semis and beyond for me. I feel like that. And I'm sure everybody will feel like that going in," he said. "These guys are all the best of the best." For the first time in his career, Fish is part of the group.

Kvitova wins player of year

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova has been honored as the WTA's player of the year for 2011. The 21-year-old Kvitova went 60-13 with six singles titles, including at the season-ending tour championships, and rose from No. 34 to No. 2 in the rankings. She helped the Czech Republic win the Fed Cup and won more than $5 million in prize money. In the awards announced Monday, Kvitova also won for most improved player and sportsmanship. Sabine Lisicki of Belgium was honored as comeback player of the year, Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania was the newcomer of the year, and the top-ranked pairing of Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik won for doubles team of the year.

Qualifying

PARIS (AP) -Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Mardy Fish filled out the last qualifying berths for the eight-man ATP World Tour Finals on Thursday. All three earned their spots for the elite London tournament after Berdych beat Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 7-5, 6-4 in the third round of the Paris Masters. Tipsarevic needed to win the title in Paris to qualify for the season-ending event, which starts on Nov. 20. Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and David Ferrer had already qualified. "It's just amazing," Berdych said of qualifying for the tour finals for the second year in a row. "I had a great season last year with the final of Wimbledon and semifinal in Paris and other results ... but now I'm sitting in the position that I made it again." Tsonga knew he had secured qualification before even stepping on court to defeat Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-3, 6-4. "That helped me to be more relaxed when I started the match," Tsonga said. "I'm just really happy to go there. At the beginning of the year I didn't play really well and I didn't expect to be there at the end of the season." Tsonga's win over Federer in the Wimbledon quarterfinals before losing in the next round to Djokovic, the eventual champion, gave him confidence after an average start to the season. "When I was playing well at Wimbledon, I believed already I could make it because I knew I would get back to an acceptable ranking," Tsonga said. Fish was forced to retire at the Paris Masters while leading 6-1, 6-7 (6), 2-1 against Juan Monaco of Argentina because of a hamstring injury, but he still plans to go to London. "There's no doubt about that, even if it's torn, I'm still going to play and still try to play," said Fish, who is enjoying his best season after breaking into the top 10 in the rankings for the first time. "The next two weeks are arguably the most important of my whole career. I'd just love to be close to 100 percent at the end of the year. We'll do everything we can to get there. I'll ice it five, six times a day; electric stimulate it, ultrasound, all that stuff." Federer wasn't surprised by the look of the field. "For me, that was somewhat logical after the (U.S.) Open that that was going to be the eight," Federer said. "Anything else would have surprised me. They have had the best season so far, all these players, and I think it's going to be an exciting world tour finals."

Bryans top year-end doubles ranking for 7th time

LONDON (AP) -American twins Bob and Mike Bryan will finish the year ranked as the No. 1 ATP doubles pair for a record seventh time. The 33-year-old Bryans' first-round win at the Valencia Open on Wednesday means they cannot be overtaken by No. 2-ranked pair Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic. Since 2003, the Bryans have only twice failed to finish No. 1 - in 2004 and 2008. This year, they have won seven titles, including the Australian Open and Wimbledon. They've won an Open-era record 74 titles. The twins have been ranked No. 1 in the individual doubles rankings for 265 weeks and will overtake John McEnroe's record of 270 on Dec. 12. Bob said of McEnroe that "he's such a legend and to achieve something like this won't truly set in for a while."

Djokovic, Murray, Ferrer win

PARIS (AP) -Novak Djokovic rallied from a set down to beat fellow Serb Viktor Troicki 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 and reach the Paris Masters quarterfinals on Thursday. Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Tomas Berdych, David Ferrer of Spain and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France also advanced. The top-ranked Djokovic looked a pale shadow of the player who dominated the first half of the season, making 44 unforced errors compared to 28 winners. "It's obvious that I'm still not playing in the form that I had in the last 10 months," said Djokovic, who returned to action last week in Basel after a six-week injury layoff. "It takes a little bit of time to get into the rhythm." Djokovic dropped serve twice to lose the first set to Troicki. But he broke for a 4-2 lead in the second, and leveled the match when Troicki sent a bakchand wide. The Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion then raced to a 4-0 lead in the final set. Djokovic will next play Tsonga. Murray routed Andy Roddick 6-2, 6-2 and will next face 2005 champion Berdych, who beat Janko Tipsarevic 7-5, 6-4. The second-seeded Murray improved his record to 17-0 since the U.S. Open and has won 27 of his last 28 matches since mid-August. Murray outclassed Roddick, hitting 27 winners compared to only four for the American. He broke Roddick twice in each set, taking the first with a crosscourt forehand winner before clinching victory with an ace. "I started the match well, which against him is always important, because he plays his best when he's ahead," Murray said. "Because I broke him earlier, I was able to dictate a lot of what happened out there." Roddick received a warning from the chair umpire at 2-0 in the second set after smashing his racket out of frustration. Roddick will finish the season outside the top 10 for the first time since 2001. "I just need to get in better shape as far as movement, and kind of catch up a little bit," Roddick said. The fifth-seeded Berdych trailed 5-1 in the first set and 4-1 in the second, but fought back both times to clinch his spot in the eight-man ATP World Tour Finals. His victory meant Tsonga and Mardy Fish also secured spots in the season-ending tournament in London, with Tipsarevic missing out. Tipsarevic made two double-faults in a row to set up match point for Berdych. Federer downed Richard Gasquet of France 6-2, 6-4 to next meet Juan Monaco of Argentina. The third-seeded Swiss broke serve twice in the first set and took a 4-3 lead in the second on a double-fault from Gasquet before clinching victory with a forehand winner. Meanwhile, fourth-seeded Ferrer ousted Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-3, 6-2, and the sixth-seeded Tsonga defeated Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-3, 6-4. Ferrer will take on American John Isner, who beat Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-4, 6-2. A double-fault from Seppi gave Tsonga a 2-0 lead and the Frenchman took the first set with a forehand winner. The 2008 champion then broke for a 4-3 lead in the second, winning the match when Seppi netted a forehand. Fish was leading 6-1, 6-7 (6), 2-1 against Monaco when a left hamstring injury forced him to retire. Fish received treatment in the final set but was forced to quit after playing one more point. "I started feeling it probably late in the second set," Fish said. "It went from sort of tightness and an uncomfortable feeling to, in that last game that I served, a lot more pain, a lot sharper." The injury was a recurrence of his hamstring problem from the Swiss Indoors in Basel last week, but Fish still plans to play in the tour finals in London.

Djokovic denies money key for playing in Paris

PARIS (AP) -Novak Djokovic denied his participation in the Paris Masters was linked to a $1.6 million bonus. The ATP bonus pool is split among the world's top dozen players at the end of the year, and No. 1-ranked Djokovic would have lost his entire share if he had not played in Paris, thus missing the last two Masters events. "It was really somehow funny for me to see how people are coming up with that story," Djokovic said on Wednesday. "I even heard that I would get on the court and play a game just to get this money. I mean, this is ridiculous. "I want to play well here. I want to get as far as possible, and then London (for next week's tour finals), which is the most important tournament in this part of the year for all of us." Nevertheless, he protected his bonus by stepping on court on Wednesday then winning his opening match against Ivan Dodig of Croatia 6-4, 6-3 in the second round. Doubts about his participation emerged when Djokovic was treated twice for shoulder pain last Saturday while losing in the Basel semifinals, only his fourth defeat this year. "I really wanted to come because I played at Basel a couple of matches, but I need more matches before London," Djokovic said. "I'm definitely intending to finish the season strong. Maybe I'm physically paying for the long season that I had, and the unfortunate injury after the U.S. Open, the Davis Cup, and everything. So I think everything is kind of catching up with me now." Djokovic stood to earn $2 million from the ATP bonus pool if he'd played in all eight Masters tournaments, but he lost $400,000 when he didn't appear in Shanghai last month because of injury. He would have lost all of it if he hadn't played in Paris. Djokovic has won five of the Masters events this year, plus three of the four majors: Australian Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open. But injuries have marred the end of his season. Before Basel, trouble in the same shoulder prompted his retirement in the Cincinnati Masters final in August against Andy Murray. In the Davis Cup semifinals, Djokovic also suffered a back injury that sidelined him for six weeks. "If I know that I'm physically good enough, in good condition to be competing, I will compete," he said. "If I don't, I will not compete. It's as simple as that."