Venus Williams hit the fastest recorded serve in a women’s tour main-draw match, reaching 128 mph at the French Open on Wednesday. Brenda Schultz-McCarthy hit a serve at 130 mph during qualifying for the Cincinnati tournament last year, and the WTA said Wednesday it considers that to be the fastest serve in women’s tennis history.

The next Australian Open will be played on a new surface. Organizers of the 2008 event, the year’s first tennis major, have started replacing the cushioned acrylic court at Melbourne Park with more modern technology. The new surface will have a different cushioning system from the Rebound Ace product that was used, tournament director Craig Tiley said Wednesday.

For the first time in at least 30 years, zero U.S. men will play in the second round at the French Open. All nine American men entered in the clay-court Grand Slam lost their opening matches, capped by Robby Ginepri’s five-set loss to Diego Hartfield of Argentina on Wednesday in a match suspended the night before because of darkness.

Somdev Devvarman of Virginia and Audra Cohen of Miami, two former national runners-up, won NCAA singles tennis championships Monday. Devvarman, who finished second in 2006, won two tiebreakers to beat top-seeded John Isner of Georgia for the men’s title. Cohen, who lost the 2005 final as a freshman for Northwestern, beat Southern California’s Lindsey Nelson, 7-5, 6-2.

Somdev Devvarman of Virginia won two tiebreakers to beat top-seeded John Isner of Georgia for the NCAA men’s singles championship Monday. Devvarman, the second seed and runner-up last year, won 7-6 (7), 4-6, 7-6 (2) to become Virginia’s first NCAA singles champion. Isner served 22 aces and won 17 more points off service-return errors.

Andy Roddick sets his sights lower at the French Open. He’s accustomed to going to other Grand Slam tournaments with plans to stay until the late stages. On the clay of Roland Garros, where play begins Sunday, the No. 3-seeded Roddick would be thrilled just to still be around for the fourth round. “Different goals.

Justine Henin will celebrate her 25th birthday during this year’s French Open, and the three-time champion is already concerned that she is getting old. “It’s very young in my life, but when you see these young players going at 15, 16 years old that push us a lot, it’s not easy,” said Henin, who won the French Open last year and reached the final at the other three majors.

Elena Dementieva won the Istanbul Cup on Saturday when Aravane Rezai withdrew from the final because of a knee injury. Dementieva led 7-6 (5), 3-0 when Rezai retired. The clay-court warmup for the French Open was the 13th-ranked Russian’s first singles title this year. “I feel pretty confident after this win.

For all of Roger Federer’s titles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open — and there are 10, and counting — his career very well may be defined eventually by how he fared at the French Open. Federer is well aware of that. It’s why he tweaked his schedule and his practice routine in the months before heading to Paris.

Roger Federer will face American Michael Russell in the first round of the French Open, the only Grand Slam tournament he hasn’t won. In the draw Friday, two-time defending champion Justine Henin of Belgium opens against Elena Vesnina of Russia, and No. 2 Maria Sharapova will play Emilie Loit of France.

Mardy Fish will miss the French Open after injuring his foot kicking a football. Fish and his U.S. teammates at the World Team Cup visited the NFL Europa team Rhein Fire on Wednesday. He apparently sprained ligaments in his foot while trying to kick a field goal. The 31st-ranked Fish has returned to the United States for treatment, ruling him out of the French Open beginning Sunday.

Wimbledon will give players three chances per set to challenge line calls using video technology at this year’s tournament — one more than the U.S. and Australian Opens. Wimbledon is introducing the Hawk-Eye system on Centre Court and Court No. 1 at the June 25-July 8 championship for the first time. The existing cyclops technology will be moved to courts 2, 14 and 18.

Ninth-seeded Emilie Loit of France routed Lilia Osterloh of the United States 6-1, 6-0 Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the Strasbourg International. Elena Vesnina of Russia also advanced in straight sets after beating Caroline Maes of Belgium 6-1, 6-4. Later, top-seeded Amelie Mauresmo was to play Varvara Lepchenko.

Tsvetana Pironkova defeated Olga Govortsova 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 Monday to set up a second-round match against top-seeded Maria Sharapova in the Istanbul Cup. Sharapova had a bye in the first round of the clay-court tournament that also features Venus Williams, who is seeded fourth and is scheduled to face Tatiana Putchek in the first round.

James Blake and Marty Fish both lost in singles and the U.S. team dropped its opening match to Chile at the round-robin World Team Cup on Monday. Fernando Gonzalez defeated Blake 6-4, 7-5 and Nicolas Massu beat Fish 6-4, 7-6 (1) in the clay-court event. The top-ranked doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan gave the United States its only point against Chile with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Jorge Aguilar and…