Victoria Azarenka routed Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-0 to win the Australian Open women's title and secure the No. 1 ranking on Saturday night, all in her first Grand Slam final. The 22-year-old Belarusian dropped her opening service game and was down 2-0 after a nervous start before winning 12 of the next 13 games to take the match away from Sharapova, a three-time major winner and the 2008...

Fifteen-year-old Taylor Townsend wasn't intimidated by playing the most important match of her young tennis career at 15,000-seat Rod Laver Arena on Saturday. In fact, she took a souvenir so she could remember the experience. "I was actually surprised that I saw four towels, like two towels on one seat, two towels on the other," she said.

With singles play on their minds, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva nearly forgot to sign up in time for doubles at the Australian Open. The Russians were lucky they got in under the wire. On Friday, they rallied to beat the Italian duo of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 to win the women's doubles championship.

Venus Williams will return from illness and her sister, Serena, will play Fed Cup for the first time in nearly five years after being selected in the U.S. team to meet Belarus in a Feb. 4-5 World Group II match at Worcester, Mass. U.S. Fed Cup captain Mary Joe Fernandez announced the team, also containing Christina McHale and Liezel Huber, late Tuesday.