The epic Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on NBC earned the best national rating and viewership since 2000. The women’s championship between sisters Venus and Serena Williams earned the highest national rating in three years. The coverage of the men’s final Sunday drew a 3.5 rating, 10 share and viewership of 5.2 million from 9 a.m.-4:45 p.m.

Andy Roddick has withdrawn from a World Team Tennis match in St. Louis, citing a lingering injury. Roddick was scheduled to play Saturday for the St. Louis Aces in a match against Kansas City. Aces general manager Dani Apted says Roddick’s injury is too severe for him to play or travel to St. Louis. In a statement, Roddick said he’s been dealing with the injury since mid-May.

David Nalbandian could miss the Beijing Olympics due a right arm injury. Nalbandian was injured during his first-round loss at Wimbledon on June 23. He has not ruled out surgery. Physical therapist Diego Rodriguez was quoted in Friday’s editions of sports newspaper Ole as saying that the seventh-ranked Argentine has started a recovery program and will only compete again once his arm has healed.

Former touring tennis pro Justin Gimelstob’s sexist comments on a radio show have gotten him in trouble again. Television commercials featuring Gimelstob promoting the U.S. Open Series are being scrapped by the U.S. Tennis Association because of what he said about Anna Kournikova and other women last month.

Three days after losing to her sister in tennis’ showcase event, Serena Williams awoke Tuesday morning at her part-time home in Paris. She flew to London, where she had a layover of a few hours, then hopped a trans-Atlantic flight in which she “slept pretty much the whole way.” Upon arrival in the nation’s capital, she made a brief appearance at a youth tennis clinic and then held a news…

Igor Andreev beat Marcos Daniel of Brazil 6-4, 7-5 in an opening round match at the Swiss Open on Monday. Andreev, the 2004 runner-up here, broke Daniel once in each set. The only other seed in action, No. 8 Guillermo Canas, overcame Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic 7-6 (9), 6-3. Canas lined up a second-round match with Kristof Vliegen of Belgium, who defeated Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina…

One day after winning the Wimbledon title for the first time, Rafael Nadal pulled out of the Mercedes Cup on Monday with unspecified knee problems. The second-ranked Spaniard traveled to the Weissenhof tennis center to tell promoters personally of his withdrawal as the clay-court event’s defending champion and star attraction.

The Williams sisters’ duel drew the highest preliminary television ratings for a women’s Wimbledon final in three years. Venus Williams’ straight-set victory over younger sister Serena on Saturday earned a 3.4 overnight rating and a 10 share on NBC, the network said Sunday. That’s up 21 percent from the 2.8/8 for last year’s meeting between Venus and Marion Bartoli.

Forget the wins, the losses, the struggles. Everything changes when Venus Williams steps onto the manicured lawns of the All England Club. The 28-year-old American won her fifth Wimbledon singles title Saturday, showing once again that she seems able to unleash something special in herself at key moments during the grass-court Grand Slam tournament.

The Williams family has collected a second Wimbledon championship Saturday. Sisters Venus and Serena Williams paired to beat Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur 6-2, 6-2 in the women’s doubles final. The match began about 3 1/2 hours after Venus finished beating Serena 7-5, 6-4 in the women’s singles title match.

Not long after losing to her older sister in the Wimbledon final, Serena Williams was already gathering the information she’ll need to beat Venus the next time they face each other. Venus, who won her fifth Wimbledon title by beating Serena 7-5, 6-4 Saturday, repeatedly hit big serves into Serena’s body to defeat her sister for the first time in three Wimbledon finals.

Marat Safin went into the match with a plan for beating Roger Federer, only for the five-time champion to take it apart almost at will. The two-time Grand Slam champion from Russia knew what he needed to do upset Federer and stop his amazing 39-match winning streak at the All England Club, but Federer just wouldn’t let him do it and beat Safin 6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-4 on Friday in the semifinals.

Rainer Schuettler has reached the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time, beating Arnaud Clement 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (6), 6-7 (7), 8-6 in a match that took two days to complete. The match started Wednesday but was suspended because of darkness at one set apiece. Clement had a match point in the fifth set, but Schuettler saved it.

Less than two months after her sudden retirement, Justine Henin isn’t completely ruling out a return to tennis. “I can never say for sure that I’ll never be back because I hate to say never,” Henin said. “But for me, and the people who know me, they know that when I do something, I do it 200 percent — and when I decide it’s over, it’s over and I go to the next step.” The 26-year-old Belgian…

Austrian doubles player Sandra Klemenschits will return to the WTA Tour later this month after battling abdominal cancer — the same illness that her twin sister and former doubles partner Daniela died of in April. Organizers of the Gastein Ladies said Wednesday they awarded Klemenschits a wild card for their July 14-20 tournament.