Venus Defends 2nd Consecutive Title In A Row

Venus Williams defended a WTA Tour title for the second consecutive week, following up her win no hard courts in Dubai last week with a win on clay in Acapulco, Mexico by defeating World #60 Polona Hercog 2-6 6-2 6-3.

Winning the Mexican Open title increases Venus' lead of having the most titles of all active players on tour with 43 (compared to Justine Henin's 41).

Mexico City Passes Marriage Equality

Wow! I guess following in the footsteps of the District of Columbia last week, the Distrito Federal (also known as Mexico City) has also passed marriage equality legislation.

The leftist-dominated legislature of this massive city of about 20 million people turned aside opposition from the influential Roman Catholic Church and ended lively debate to approve the measure by a 39-20 vote. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard is expected to sign the bill into law.

"Mexico City has put itself in the vanguard," said legislator Victor Hugo Romo. "This is a historic day."

Mexico City's initiative goes further than any other in Latin America by rewriting the law to redefine marriage as a "free union between two people" not only between a man and a woman. It gives homosexual couples the same rights as heterosexual pairs, including the right to adopt, inherit, obtain joint housing loans and share insurance policies.

Several countries, most of them in Europe, and a handful of U.S. states have legalized same-sex marriage in recent years, and the issue is being hotly debated in parts of predominantly Catholic Latin America. Uruguay was the first Latin American nation to recognize same-sex unions, as well as adoptions by gay couples, and some cities in Argentina have adopted similar laws.

It's interesting that the capital city of both United States and Mexico have adopted marriage equality in the last two weeks.

Venus Wins Second Title in 2 Weeks

World #5 Venus Williams defeated defending champion Flavia Pennetta 6-1 6-2 in just over an hour in Acapulco, Mexico win her second WTA Tour title in as many weeks, her 41st overall.

Pennetta has given Williams difficulty in the past, and is one of a mere handful of people who had beaten the 7-time major champion 3 times in a row, in addition to bouncing Venus from the 2008 French Open.

Mexican President Promises Universal Free Anti-HIV Drugs

Felipe Calderon, the President of Mexico, opened the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City on Sunday by making two big announcements: Mexican citizens will now have access to universal anti-retroviral drugs and he is lifting restrictions on foreign manufacturers making generic anti-retroviral drugs in his country. "All absolutely, all, antiretroviral drugs will be provided for free," President Calderon said (in Spanish).

Anand Leads World Chess Championship

The World Chess Championship Tournament is currently being held in Mexico City. The qualified players are Vladimir Kramnik (Current World Champion, World #2, rated 2769), Peter Leko (World #8, 2738), Vishwanathan Anand (World #1, rated 2792), Boris Gelfand (World #13, 2733), Peter Svidler (World #9, 2736), Alexander Grischuk (World #16, 2732), Alexander Morozevich (World #4, 2762), and Levon Aronian (World #5, 2759). The former World #1 and current World #2 Veselin Topalov, is not in Mexico City contesting the World Championship tournament. If you want to know why the person widely regarded as the best player in the world is not playing for the world championship, read this informative article at about.com by Mark Weeks. The New York Times lalso has an informative blog on chess called Gambit which is covering the world championships and chess news in general.