It’s not enough that tennis champion Venus Williams just added a Wimbledon doubles title (earned with her sister Serena) to the list of seven Grand Slams she’s won. She and Serena will also be heading into the Olympics to win doubles gold there. If they do, it will add to the gold medals they’ve already won in Beijing and Sydney.

Venus Williams is a big-time business woman, too. She and her sister Serena own a stake in the Miami Dolphins football team. Venus has a clothing line, Eleven. She has an interior design business. And she’s working on building a chain of Jamba Juice stores.

Williams just opened her second Jamba Juice outpost in Washington D.C.; the first is in Bethesda, MD. Besides the money-making prospects for this endeavor, she sees it as an opportunity to reinforce the importance of healthy eating.

“My goal is to help inspire our nation’s youth to become more active and to make better dietary choices,” she told Limelife.com.

As an athlete, healthy living has always been important to Williams. But since Williams’ recent diagnosis of Sjögren’s syndrome, it has become more important. Sjögren’s syndrome is an autoimmune disease that causes joint pain, fatigue, and dry mouth, among other symptoms. There is no cure. Williams has become a raw vegan, which she says has helped.

Besides its usual smoothies and juice drinks, Jamba Juice has just introduced a line of “Make It Light” smoothies that have one-third of the calories, sugar and carbs of the “Classic” versions of their products. Williams’ goal is to add five more Jamba Juice shops in the D.C. area in that many years.

The 2012 Summer Olympics in London are set to begin this week and many talented African Americans will be representing the United States during the games. Just being chosen to be an Olympian is an honor in and of itself, but it’s especially a moment of honor to have so many blacks carry on the legacy of legendary Olympians like Florence Griffith-Joyner, gymnast Dominique Dawes and the 1992 basketball team, aka, the Dream Team, which consisted of Hall-of-Famers like Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Magic Johnson and more. Here are some of the athletes who will be carrying the torch in London and hopefully bringing home the gold.

Gabrielle Douglas
The 16-year-old gymnastic powerhouse earned first place at the Olympic trials and is the 2012 U.S. uneven bars champion, the all-around silver medalist and a bronze medalist in floor exercise. Affectionately known as Gabby, she just told E! News that she wanted Gabrielle Union to play her in the movie of her life. Douglas is the one of the main stars of the summer games, and that was made clear by the fact that she just graced one of the covers of TIME magazine (for the week of July 30) and on Sports Illustrated for a preview of the games.

Source: eurweb.com

From eurweb.com

Serena Williams just beat Victoria Azarenka in straight sets to reach her 7^th final at Wimbledon, where she’ll face first-time finalist Agnieszka Radwanska on Saturday for the title.

Williams, who clocked a record 24 aces during the match, was dominant on her own serve throughout the first set, losing just four points in her five service games and winning 94% of points on her first serve.

In contrast, Azarenka had to fight a lot harder for each service game. The break eventually came in the penultimate game of the set, giving Williams a 5-3 lead that she quickly turned into 6-3 to take the first.

Read more at eurweb.com

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Serena Williams made her rap debut in a 60-second clip released by TMZ last week. The sample is a product of recording sessions the tennis champion participated in last year at a family friend’s studio. Williams has yet to comment on the leaked clip. So, there’s a chance the world was made privy to a rich woman’s secret hobby. However, if Serena is planning to pull a Shaquille O’Neal and be an athlete/rapper, sister, seriously, stop it.

Serena’s performance is not particularly bad, but she’s not what the rap game has been missing. Sample lyrics include: “I ball hard, no tennis racket / I can’t see these haters through my Gucci glasses.” Serena is a beast at tennis with 13 Grand Slam titles. She has expressed that she doesn’t love tennis anymore, and never actually liked sports. But, mediocre rapper (and that’s being generous) is not a title that benefits her brand.

Entering a new market is not a decision that should be taken lightly. Sometimes the decision is obvious; a market leader may be in the decline or consumers in that segment may be clamoring for your participation. If that isn’t the case, the decision of expanding your brand is one that should be examined carefully. Making the wrong decision can screw up the entire direction of your company or brand.

Stay in your lane is a popular mantra, because entering a new market is risky business. Before you launch a new product or enter a new industry, consider the following:

Does this venture mesh well with your brand’s resources and customer perceptions? Make sure you can handle the financial, emotional and physical challenges competing in a new market requires. It is also critical that your existing customers’ perceptions inform all of your business initiatives. If this new venture alienates your existing consumer base, it’s not worth it.

Are you needed in this new market? Wanting to be involved in a market or industry does not justify entering it. You have to have a viable customer to succeed. Do your research, and make sure your targeted customers are able and willing to support you.

Can you compete? If you cannot provide a customer with a great product that is a complete solution package, they have little reason to leave the supplier they’ve been supporting. If you want to poach customers, you have to be able to provide something bigger or better than what is already available from the start.

Can you sway consumer loyalty? Some industries have more loyal followings than others. Make sure your target audience is willing to leave behind well-established relationships with existing suppliers to support you.

Is this the most profitable path for you to take? This new venture should offer a greater return on investment than any other option. It is always less costly to grow profits from customers and markets you already have secured, than pursuing new territory.

Do you have the time and money needed to enter a new market? Don’t let a new pet project distract you from maintaining your existing business. Be sure you have the time and resources needed to develop and distribute a product/service within the time frame required. Also, understand your costs before you assume your revenues. People typically overestimate their sale projections and underestimate the costs.

Can you anticipate your new competitors’ response? You may be entering the market will all smiles and optimism, but your new competitors will be looking for ways to crush you in infancy. Dropping prices or offering added value are among the tactics established suppliers use to squelch new competition. Figure out if you can sustain a business model that can handle whatever the competition throws at you.

Cortney Cleveland is a freelance writer and content strategist in New York City. You can follow her on Twitter @CleveInTheCity and visit her personal column, The Red Read.

By Indigo Black and Renay Alize

Serena Williams has come a LONG way since her beads-and-braids wearing early tennis playing days. Seriously, when you think of young Venus and Serena, you think of tennis–then braids. But the tennis champ has left those things behind for a bevy of extensions that could take up a whole weave aisle in a beauty supply store (variety IS the spice of life). Some have been very chic and Hot looks, others have been very crazy and confusing. This gallery features some of her best and worst hair looks over the years. Hopefully you’ll get some inspiration of what to try out, and what Yaki to leave in the bag.

It appeared that hot-tempered tennis pro Serena Williams had officially traded in a rap star for a country singer when she was spotted on what seemed like a date with up and coming country music star Jake Owen at Matsuhisa restaurant in Los Angeles.

Although you probably haven’t heard of Jake, he does have a No. 1 hit, “Blue Jean Barefoot Night.” He also has three albums under his belt and has toured with country legends Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Sugarland, and Keith Urban.

No PDA was seen between the two at dinner and Serena, although annoyed by the paparazzi, when she reportedly tweeted, “Ugh paparazzi annoying. Honestly really? Like I wonder what tomm they will say,” still sent friendly tweets to Jake after dinner:

@jakeowen had so much fun tonite! Yea can’t wait to see concert tomm! Fun time see u tomm/today!!! Lol @MardyFish wish u were here!”

A few days later Serena took to the Twitter world again to squash the buzz surrounding her and Jake’s relationship:

“I NEVER address rumors but this one I will. I am not dating @jakeowen. He is a great guy with a super amazing girlfriend.”

“Its not fair to me to Jake or his girlfriend to say we r dating when u just hang out and have dinner with friends. So stop the lies!!”

Yes mam. So what do you think — are they just friends? Who would you like to see Serena make her new boo?

by Charing Ball

Have you ever been in the heat of a situation? Been at work where you have a deadline to meet, where a coworker is getting on your last nerve? Or have you been on the phone with the telephone company, who transfers your query call from country to country,until you just reach the point that you snap and let someone have it?

No needs in lying or attempting to play the sanctified, Mother Teresa role because I know we all have been there.  It’s okay, it happens to the best of us. Sometimes all the meditation, happy thoughts and Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo chanting in the world can’t stop the sudden release of raw emotion.  Matter of fact, I went off on an employee of a hardware store recently, who tried to ignore me when I kept asking for his assistance. I yelled, “look here, got dammit, ya’ll got me in here waiting like I’m a damn waiter.” It didn’t make sense but it was effective. And it ain’t right to verbally abuse people but sometimes in the heat of the moment, you just have to turn into the mad rapper and tell ‘em why you mad, son.

Which is why I wasn’t too mad at Serena Williams, who recently “went off” at an umpire during her most recent U.S Open tournament. After losing the first set to Sam Stosur, Williams, who said that she was in the zone, yelled out, “come on!” before Stosur hit the ball. This act apparently violated a little known “point hindrance” rule in tennis, where you are not suppose to do anything that might distract the other player on their return. The umpire, who made the call, deducted a point from Williams, which gave Stosur the first game.  And that’s when all hell broke loose.  In an act of sheer emotion, Williams let the umpire have it with such statements as: “You’re out of control,” “You’re a hater, and you’re just unattractive inside” and “Really, don’t even look at me.” Williams was fined $2000 for her outburst. Also, she lost the game.

Yawn. Besides being one of the most awkward curse-out moments in history (“You are unattractive on the inside” -seriously what was that?) frankly, William’s outburst wasn’t that bad. Before I saw the video of the incident, which has sent shockwaves around the web, I had expected some truly vulgar language unbecoming of a superstar athlete, only to discover that what she said was safe enough to say in front of my grandmother, without being embarrassed. I heard better put-downs from Ned Flanders on The Simpsons.  Call me when she really “goes off” McEnroe-style.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Williams went semi-H.A.M on an ump at one of her matches.  At the 2009 Open, she was fined $82,500 and put on probation for threatening to shove a ball down the throat of a referee who kept giving her poor calls including a minor foot fault, which some argue should have been called in the first place.  And as such, some folks – mainly Fox News and company – see this, as well as the other incidences, of Williams’ apparent sense of entitlement, even going as far as to suggest that her rant had some racial undertones, particularly the hater part.

And then there are others, particularly from the Afro-sphere, who wonder if her outburst has helped to reinforce stereotypes of the angry black woman. For one, tennis has a long history of whiney crybabies throwing temper tantrums. And yes the media tends to overblow things related to black people, especially regarding anger, because who isn’t scared of an angry Black person right?

Was anybody else extremely shocked by the fact that Serena Williams didn’t win the U.S. Open finals match against Samantha Stosur on Sunday? I had been following William’s matches during the tournament and became more and more enthralled with her play after watching her wax the floor with most of her opponents during the tourney. But on Sunday, she lost 6-3 and 6-2 to Stosur, and I don’t want to call her a sore loser, but she sure wasn’t a pleasant one.

Granted, Serena didn’t flip out on Stosur during the match or after, rather, she kind of had an out-of-body experience with the match umpire, Eva Asderaki. Williams is known for screaming “c’mon” from time to time when she’s succeeded in getting a great shot during the match or when she successfully gets a point after a tough back and forth with her opponent. After saying it and sending forth a fiery shot that Stosur wasn’t able to hit back, umpire Asderaki ruled that Williams shouted with the intent to disrupt her opponent. It was a call many didn’t agree with, but none more than Williams. Confusing Asderaki with the umpire she infamously threatened at the U.S. Open two years earlier, Williams said, “Aren’t you the one that screwed me over last time? Yeah, you are. Seriously, you have it out for me. I promise you, that’s not cool, that’s totally not cool. I truly despise you.” Williams later went on to call Asderaki a “hater” during a break from play and during commercials, and the rant got worse:

“If you ever see me walking down the hallway, look the other way, cause your out of control. You’re out of control. You’re a hater, you’re just unattractive inside. Who would do such a thing? And I never complain. Wow, what a loser. I get a code violation because I express myself, we’re in America last time I checked. Can I get a water? Or am I going to get violated for a water? Really, don’t even look at me. I promise you, don’t look at me because I am not the one. Don’t look my way.”

And unfortunately for Asderaki, she was not the umpire who allegedly “screwed” Serena over before. The two women look nothing alike by the way. When Williams was confronted about that and her remarks, she said she couldn’t even remember what she said, it was just that intense out on the court. However, she offered up no apology to the umpire, or for her anger. I love Serena, but man oh man, she’s got to work on that mouth! To check out video of the whole incident, click HERE.

But what do you think? Did she go too far with her rant?

Tennis queen Venus Williams has been playing the game for years now. She started playing pro at 14, and currently at the age of 31, she has amassed many accolades, including Wimbledon championships and formerly being ranked as the number one female player in the world. But Williams had to pull out of the U.S. Open yesterday, pulling out of her second round match after revealing that she was diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome.

The disease is said to have some non-serious setbacks and symptoms, such as extreme dry mouth and eyes. It also is said to attack your energy level and joints. But in it’s most extreme form, it can cause joint swelling, kidney and lung disease. Dr. Eric Matteson, chairman of the rheumatology department at the Mayo Clinic said the following about the disease to the Los Angeles Times:

“An athlete might see a very dramatic drop in his or her level of performance, even once the disease is under control. I’d love to see her back at the top of her game,” Matteson said. “But I don’t think it’s a guarantee.”

We’re rooting for Venus over here and hope that she has a mild form of the disease and can get back to the game with no trouble. But it’s clear she needs to take it easy for now.

Photos by Stephan Wurth for Hamptons Magazine

Is it just me, or do you rarely see Venus and Serena Williams together outside of the court these days? What, with Serena hobknobbing with celeb friends like La La Anthony, Kim Kardashian and Kelly Rowland. But the duo got their sisterly love on for Hamptons Magazine, gracing the cover and the magazine’s pages in high fashion pieces and flowing, whip-worthy hair. The two even cut out the middle man and interviewed each other about everything from going back to school (which Serena is currently doing), Venus’ interior design venture, parlaying it up in the Hamptons, and those “colorful” tennis outfits they play in.

To read their full back and forth correspondence and see more photos, check out or pick up Hamptons Magazine.