Venus Williams is rollin’ on the river with her latest dress.

One month after drawing worldwide headlines for wearing a now-infamous Moulin Rouge outfit at the French Open, the American tennis star debuted a Tina Turner-inspired white, fringed tennis skirt in her first-round victory at Wimbledon on Monday afternoon.

The dress is part of Williams’ clothing line "EleVen", which is named in honor of the address of her childhood home in Compton, Calif.

It’s a vast improvement over the French Open get-up, as it manages to be both simple and fun at the same time. The other one seemed forced, like it was designed to get attention. (In which case: mission accomplished.)

[Photos: See more of Venus' white hot dress, inspired by Tina Turner]

Venus said in a postmatch interview that she got the inspiration for the frills from the "What’s Love Got To Do With It" singer:

I love her. I love Tina Turner. Obviously, she’s just an amazing, amazing artist, just a survivor. She reinvented herself. Plus she looks great. I’ve loved her forever. So the dress is really inspired by her.

Come to think of it, the can-can dress was sort of Tina Turner inspired too, albeit from her "Mad Max" days not the "Private Dancer" ones. 

Venus defeated Rossana De Los Rios 6-3, 6-2. She will play Ekaterina Makarova in Wednesday’s second round.

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The scourge of the World Cup won’t be making an apperance at the All England Club during Wimbledon. In a pre-emptive strike against the vuvuzela, the ear-splitting plastic horn which has annoyed soccer fans across the globe during the World Cup, Wimbledon organizers announced last week that the instrument and similar noisemakers would be banned from the grounds during the tournament.

In a statement released last Thursday, organizers wrote:

"Out of courtesy to the players and their fellow spectators, we make a point of asking spectators not to bring items which could either cause a distraction or interfere with the enjoyment of the occasion.

"Rattles, klaxons and vuvuzelas all fall into that category and they will not be allowed into the grounds. Our message is do not bring them in the first place."

It’s unclear why Wimbledon organizers felt the need to explicitly ban vuvuzelas, as whispering is frowned upon during play and the wave is about as rowdy as it gets during downtime at the grass-court event. Still, it’s good to know that some sporting bodies have enough courage to stem the tide of the buzzing menace instead of capitulating to its 125-decibal drone.

… at the start of Wimbledon.

And say what you will about Wimbledon’s stuffy dress code, but the white really does pop against the luscious green of the lawns.

When most people think of street magic, they think of David Blaine. Don’t let that stop you from watching this nifty viral clip of Andy Murray performing his own blend of tennis-related street trickery:

The video was filmed in London. Judging by the World Cup results of the English soccer team, it contained the best ball-handling that city has seen in years.

"Serves and Volleys" is Busted Racquet’s daily roundup of all things Wimbledon.

If the rest of Wimbledon is anything like Day 1, we’re in for a treat. The highlights of the first day of the fortnight:

Love — Three of the top five men in the world had to go five sets to advance to the second round. In addition to Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Nikolay Davydenko were pushed to the brink in their opening matches; Davydenko because he’s coming back from an injury and Djokovic because he’s Djokovic. The Serb’s match ended in an enclosed Centre Court at 10:59 p.m., one minute before the Wimbledon curfew. 

15 — Newfound fan favorite Andy Roddick earned an easy first-round win over fellow American Rajeev Ram on Monday on Court One. The Wimbledon crowd gave Roddick a standing ovation before the match, a continuation of the love he received following his epic five-set loss in last year’s final to Roger Federer. Roddick later told reporters that he still hasn’t watched the replay of that match, which he lost 16-14 in the deciding set.

30 — Other easy winners included Kim Clijsters, Venus Williams, Gael Monfils, Melanie Oudin and Jelena Jankovic, who beat British teenager Laura Robson on Centre Court. (And if you didn’t remember that Robson made some uncouth comments about her fellow junior players that were blown way out of proportion last month, you would have remembered after the tenth time Pam Shriver brought it up while calling the match.) 

40 — Losers included Ana Ivanovic (sporting some odd-looking white leggings), Ivan Ljubicic and Marin Cilic. Disappointing losses for each, but particularly Cilic, who many expected to make a breakthrough after he advanced to the semifinals at the Australian Open. 

Game — Francesca Schiavone‘s reign as defending Grand Slam champion didn’t last long. The surprise winner at Roland Garros lost in three sets Monday to Vera Dushevina. Despite the Italian’s No. 5 seed, it wasn’t the most surprising result. In nine previous appearances at Wimbledon, Schiavone advanced past the second round only twice.

When Queen Elizabeth attends Wimbledon on Thursday for the first time in 33 years, players on Centre Court won’t be required to bow or curtsy toward the royal box. Up until 2003, players were required to adhere to the protocol, but this week they’ll be given the option of whether to show the gesture of respect to the sovereign.

Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova have all said they’d do so if they play on Thursday, as expected. Scotsman Andy Murray, the player you’d most think would have reason to bow in front of the queen, was non-commital in his plans:

"If the players want to, it should be personal preference, I guess. I’m sure all of the players might like to do it.

"I’ll have to wait and see. I’ll have a chat with the guys. I don’t want to be bowing and the person I’m playing with walk straight past. You obviously need to have an agreement before you go on. I’ll have to speak to the organizers about it.

"I don’t want to get into some ridiculous argument over something like that. I’ll see what the organizers want us to do and I’ll do what they tell us to."

Predictably, this blew up in Murray’s face. It wasn’t so much that there was an uproar over his decision (to the contrary, a number of columnists defended Murray’s right to not bow), but it created the proverbial mountain out of a molehill. If Murray had some political reason to not bow to the queen, great. But if it’s a matter of indecision, why tug at this thread? Like Andy Murray doesn’t have enough to worry about during Wimbledon, now he has to face three days of questions about whether he’s going to lower his torso for two seconds on Thursday?  

Murray later changed his mind. He Tweeted on Monday:

Few stories about me not bowing to the Queen if I play in front of her.  Not the case, would be an honour and privilege, of course I’ll bow.

That’s what he should have said in the first place.

For what it’s worth, Serena Williams is infinitely more excited about the opportunity:

"Well, I definitely don’t think I should take a bow, so I’ll probably curtsy. I’ve been working on my curtsy. It’s a little extreme, so I’m going to have to tone it down a little bit. I have a lot of arm movement. Actually, I was practicing it this morning. Like I said, it’s very extreme. I get really low. So, yeah, I have to tone it down. But we’ll see. I hope we’ll have a chance to do that."

Murray better hope he goes on first on Thursday. With her arm movement and getting low, Serena might be a tough act to follow.

It would have been the greatest upset in the 133-year history of Wimbledon. Instead, it served as a reminder that Roger Federer is no longer invincible.

The six-time Wimbledon champion stormed back from a two-set deficit against 65th-ranked Alejandro Falla to avoid an unprecedented first-round loss at the All England Club. Falla had Federer on the ropes in both the third and fourth sets, but was unable to close, as the world No. 2 held on for a 5-7, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (1), 6-0 victory.

In the first two sets, Falla used his massive backhand to force Federer into uncharacteristic forehand errors. It was a bizarre sight, as the Swiss star was netting shots that he used to make look simple.

Yet even when he was down two sets and facing three break points in the third, it never felt as though Federer would lose. He’s been too dominant on grass (Federer is 48-1 in the last seven years at Wimbledon) and too consistent in Grand Slams to lose to a guy who has never won a title on the ATP Tour. When Falla failed to convert three break points, which would have put him up 5-4 in the third set, the match felt finished. After blowing that chance, Falla would surely collapse in the fourth and fifth sets and Federer would cruise to victory. The outcome was inevitable.

And then, for an instant, it wasn’t. Falla broke in the first game of the fourth set and held his serve to get to 5-4. Here he was, Alejandro Falla, a 9-9 record in 2010, serving for the match against one of the greatest players ever to set foot on the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon, a chance to beat the defending champion and score the greatest victory of his tennis career, and to forever go down in history as the man who ended the reign of King Roger and rewrite the — but before he had time to let those fantasies play out in his head, Falla had pushed one shot wide and netted another to go down 0-30. Federer stole the game.

On a break point at 5-5 in the fourth, Falla caught Federer leaning the other way and had an open look at a backhand winner. It floated just wide. Federer heaved a huge sigh of relief, having avoided going down 5-6 and needing another break to stay in the match. It will be the point that everyone will look back on and say "what if?"  

The greatest rivalry in tennis took to the soccer pitch today when Roger Federer’s native Switzerland faced off against Rafael Nadal‘s beloved Spanish national team in a World Cup pool game. And for the first time in what seems like a while, Federer came out on top.  

The Swiss pulled off the biggest upset of the 2010 World Cup on Thursday afternoon in South Africa, stunning top-ranked Spain 1-0. Federer and Nadal are passionate supporters of their national teams. Nadal, in particular, is known as a big soccer fan and was said to have celebrated into the night against his coach’s wishes in 2008 when Spain won the Euro Cup during Wimbledon.

The small amount of soccer pride wasn’t the only good news for Federer today. In defiance of the current ATP rankings, Wimbledon organizers installed Federer as the No. 1 seed at next week’s grass court Grand Slam. Nadal is the No. 2 seed, a flip-flop of the current rankings. Wimbledon is the only tournament that breaks away from the rankings when determining seeds. It was an easy, obvious decision — Federer has won six of the past seven events at the All England Club – and one that matters in stature only, as the pair would have been on opposite sides of the draw regardless.

Federer and Nadal will learn their respective Wimbledon draws on Friday. As defending champion, Federer will have the honor of playing in the first match of the tournament on Centre Court. He’ll have more incentive than usual to make quick work of his first-round opponent. Switzerland’s second match kicks off at 3 p.m. London time on Monday.

Roger Federer‘s loss to Lleyton Hewitt on Sunday in the finals of the Gerry Weber Open was unexpected, to say the least. After all, the Aussie star hadn’t beaten Federer in their previous 15 meetings and he’s long past his prime, having not advanced to the semifinal of a Grand Slam since 2005 and hovering around the 20s of the ATP rankings. Throw in the fact that Federer was 78-1 on grass since 2003 and the 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4 result becomes even more striking.

But should it be? After all, even the most ardent Federer supporter wouldn’t argue that the 16-time Grand Slam champion is still at his peak. He’s been on a steady decline since a bout with mono robbed him of training time in 2008 and seemed to hasten the arrival of his tennis twilight.

Since then he’s been beatable. From 2004 to 2007, Federer lost a total of 24 times. He’s dropped the same amount of matches since June 2008. In that dominant four-year stretch, Federer failed to win five Grand Slams in 20 tries. In the past 10 majors, he’s lost six times.

What’s so remarkable isn’t that Federer has lost his invincibility, but that he was ever so invincible in the first place. Lleyton Hewitt is a two-time Grand Slam champion and a former world No. 1, yet Federer treated him like he was a guy scraping by on the Futures tour. That 78-1 grass court record since ’03 is mind-boggling.  Federer lost one match — one! — on the surface over seven years, and that loss came in what is largely considered the greatest match of all time. And though his game has been declining, he’s still the odds-on favorite to Wimbledon.

His prime is over, but Roger Federer still has a lot of tennis left in him. 

For the first time since March, Rafael Nadal walked off the tennis court a loser Friday in London. The new world No. 1 dropped his quarterfinal match at the Aegon Championships to fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez by a score of 7-6 (5), 6-4.

The defeat is Nadal’s first in 25 matches and comes in his first week as the No. 1 player in the world. All things considered, the result was probably as good as a loss can ever be for a player like Nadal.

Rafa’s goal for Queen’s was to get some grass-court matches under his belt before Wimbledon. He accomplished that. Sure, everyone wants to win every time they go out on the court, but after playing five tournaments in the last two months, Nadal could use the rest.

Quarterfinal losses at Queen’s Club have been a harbinger of bad Wimbledon tidings for Nadal though. The Spaniard lost in the quarters in both 2006 and 2007 and then went on to lose in the finals of the grass-court major. When Nadal took the Queen’s Club title in 2008, he beat Roger Federer three weeks later to hoist the trophy at Wimbledon. Rafa hadn’t lost on grass since that 2007 Wimbledon final, a streak of 14 matches.

Nadal’s loss, combined with Andy Murray dropping his suspended match to Mardy Fish, means that none of the top-6 seeds are left at the tournament. American Sam Querrey is the highest seed (No. 7) remaining.