Serena set to tie the knot

Police end probe to Kvitova stabbing case

WASHINGTON, Nov 16, (AFP): Tennis superstar Serena Williams is used to hoisting trophies, but on Thursday, it looks like she’ll be carrying a wedding bouquet.

Music royalty Beyonce and Jay Z, along with actress Eva Longoria are among the A-listers reportedly convening in New Orleans for Williams’ wedding to Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian.

People and The Daily Mail, citing unnamed sources, have reported that about 250 guests will be invited to the ceremony at the Contemporary Arts Center in the Big Easy.

The Daily Mail said the wedding planning has been shrouded in secrecy and guests would not learn the details until Thursday morning.

It said the event would cost more than $1 million and guests would be asked not to bring their cell phones because an exclusive photo deal has been signed with Vogue.

Williams, 36, a 23-time Grand Slam champion, and Ohanian, 34, welcomed their first child, daughter Alexis Olympia, on September 1.

They announced their engagement in December after meeting in 2015 in Rome.

Williams won this year’s Australian Open while pregnant, and is expected to defend her title in Melbourne in 2018 — just four-anda-half months after giving birth to her baby girl.

Meanwhile, Czech police have ended their investigation into a knife attack on twice Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova last year that forced her off the court for five months this season.

Kvitova, who lifted the Wimbledon trophy in 2011 and 2014, required four hours of surgery in December after protecting herself from a man wielding a knife who had gained access to her apartment by posing as a utility worker.

The police received a number of clues from the public but could not identify the attacker.

“It was not possible to find facts that would warrant launching prosecution (of any specific person),” police spokeswoman Jitka Dolejsova said in a statement.

Kvitova, 27, was ranked 11th in the world at the time of the attack, in which she sustained injuries to tendons in all four fingers and the thumb on her left hand.

She returned to competitive tennis in May, getting knocked out in the second round at the French Open. The left-hander won the Aegon Classic in Birmingham in June before exiting Wimbledon in the second round.

Kvitova made it to the US Open quarter-finals and is now ranked 29th in the world.