The Toray Pan Pacific Open at Tokyo is without some of the game’s brightest women stars this week. Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, and Serena Williams are among the absentees citing injury.
While Serena made headlines by winning her ninth Grand Slam title in New York earlier this month, she continued to make news while hitting the Fashion Week circuit and brokering a deal to publish her impending memoir, which is said to have garnered a bid of $1.3 million dollars from Grand Central Publishing. The autobiography is scheduled for a 2009 release.
Williams is currently out with a right ankle injury but instead of spending some downtime at her West Palm Beach Gardens, Florida home to recover, she was seen hitting the practice courts of the Vancouver Lawn Tennis and Badminton Club in British Colombia, north of the border.
The US Open champ was spotted taking in a two hour hitting session indoors around 12:45 on Wednesday, before 75 club members who had gathered to watch.
While it was her first time in the city, she told Vancouver’s daily newspaper, The Province, that sister Venus had high praise for the city and gave it a good recommendation.
“I like it, it's such a beautiful day today,” she said of her experience in Vancouver.
Incidentally, her rumored boyfriend, rapper, Common, was performing the Malkin Bowl during the same time. The R&B artist was in attendance during Serena’s match against Jelena Jankovic during the US Open final as well.
Asked whether that was a coincidence or if she was planning to take in the show, she replied with a smile, “Maybe, maybe not.”
Williams was seen leaving the club dressed in a white long-sleeved top, black leggings and a red hair band, a violation of the Club’s 100-year-old all-white dress code. It appears if you have the right credentials, you’ve earned the right to an exception.