Serena Williams was only two points from her 500th career match win when she tumbled to the court in the second round of the Australian Open.
Nearly 40 years after she won the last of her 11 Australian Open singles titles, Margaret Court is back in the news at Melbourne Park for her opposition to gay marriage.
Not a bad day's work for women's tennis. In new Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, it has a new star. In runner-up Maria Sharapova, it has a star reborn. And Serena Williams showed on these lawns she is several steps down the comeback trail, too. So just why, exactly, were so many people so down not so long ago about the state of the women's game?

Petra Kvitova won her first Grand Slam title Saturday by beating Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-4 in the Wimbledon final.
Maria Sharapova whacked some serves long and blasted others straight into the net, and all too often she did it one after another.
Seven years after winning Wimbledon as a 17-year-old, Maria Sharapova is back in the final, this time as a three-time Grand Slam winner and heavy favorite.
After 15 years of coming to the All England Club, Venus Williams knows what it takes to pull out a tough match on the biggest stage in tennis.
Five-time champion Venus Williams needed three sets and nearly three hours to overcome the oldest player in the field Wednesday and reach the third round at Wimbledon.
Venus Williams is playing in her 15th Wimbledon. Kimiko Date-Krumm is back at the All England Club where she made her first appearance way back in 1989. They have a combined age of 71.