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Serena prepares for acting career

Derrick Whyte
Saturday 10 August 2002 00:00 BST
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Serena Williams has added "struggling actress" to her resume after revealing at the Manhattan Beach tournament in California that she has been taking classes and has a new acting coach.

"I'm trying to get some parts. A lot of people want me, but my schedule right now is kind of conflicting with my acting," she said.

Williams, 20, said she would love to work with Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins or Morgan Freeman.

"With my time schedule, I'd have to have a small role," Williams said, "but I'd like the movie to be all about me, so maybe I can get hurt in the beginning of the movie and I can just stay in a coma until the end."

After 15 years at the top, Michael Chang is glimpsing at life after the sport and plans to take up not acting but missionary work.

At the Cincinnati Masters, the former French Open champion acknowledged his playing days were numbered.

"I'm in the twilight of my career," the 30-year-old said. "When you're young, it's easy to take things for granted. After another year and a half or so, then it'll be time to move on to other things."

A devout Christian, he is making plans for the future. "Definitely some missionary work is on the agenda. Tennis will be mixed in there as well. I have a passion for young people, I feel like I am in a position to impact them and touch their lives, maybe particularly the Asia-Pacific Rim.

"Let's see how it unfolds. I will be much more involved with our family foundation, with our kids and different programmes."

The American is not ready to call it a day just yet, however.

"God has blessed me with a lot much more than I could ever imagine in my career," he said. I never even dreamed of playing professional tennis at this calibre for so many years, so everything from here on out is really icing on the cake."

In Helsinki, Swiss Patty Schnyder became the latest big-name casualty at theHelsinki Open yesterday as she went down in three sets to Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Ranked No 3 in the tournament and 24 in the world, Schnyder comfortably took the first set 6-2 before capitulating and losing the next two sets 6-1, 6-2 to the world No 123.

Denisa Chladkova of the Czech Republic continued her seed-beating ways with a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of the Swede Asa Svensson. Chladkova beat the event's top seed, Silvia Farina-Elia of Italy, on Thursday.

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