Philadelphia, June 13: Serena Williams is busy preparing for Wimbledon, the grand slam tennis tournament -- not "Wimbledon", the movie.
The world's top-ranked women's tennis player has side careers in acting and fashion design, but she passed on the Kirsten Dunst movie scheduled to begin filming later this Summer.

"I believe I am a good actress and I have a lot of skill," she said. "Playing a part in a tennis movie is not challenging for me at all and I would like to do something that challenges my acting skills and get people to see the skills that I do have."

Williams spoke from her home in Florida on a conference call yesterday to announce that she will play in the Advanta championships at Villanova University from October 27 to November 2.

Williams seemed confident about defending her Wimbledon title -- she won't play any warm-up tournaments to prepare for the fast grasscourt surface.

"I don't want to be in Europe for eight weeks in a row," she said. "The warm-up tournament before Wimbledon are not anything like the courts at Wimbledon, so it's like I would rather not play a warm-up," Williams said.

Bureau Report