Tennis star Serena Williams has poured out her heart on the break up of her relationship in an extraordinary internet blog just days before starting her defence of the first grand-slam tournament of the season.In an emotional 600-word account on her official website, Miss Williams, 26, revealed how she fell in love only to have her heart broken when her boyfriend (who she doesn't name) stopped calling and finally told her he 'needed space'.
In a blog headlined 'Stand in these shoes (I'm sure u have before)', Miss Williams wrote of her experience meeting someone she wanted to 'spend every second' with.
"You can't stand being without each other", she wrote. "You start to feel like you have never felt before, and you do things for him you have never done before.
"He tells you he adores you. He tells you u guys were meant for each other. You care for him. You are falling for him.
"You take things slow. You don't want to make any mistakes. You are feeling this and you feel this could mean forever."
The despatch is all the more remarkable because the tennis star - currently in Melbourne for the start of the Australian Open on Monday - has until now, been famously silent on the subject of her love life.
She stopped short of naming the mystery man in her blog, potentially read by millions of fans around the world, but the tennis star had been linked to little-known U.S. actor and hip-hop artist Jackie Long.
In November, U.S. gossip columns also linked her to Chicago-born rapper Common after the pair had been spotted hand-in-hand.
Miss Williams goes on to write in the blog about how she dared to open her heart again, despite being jilted before.
"You start to trust him," she wrote. "Something you have not done since your first heartbreak. Something you vowed you would never do again.
"But slowly your heart comes out of its steel enclosure.
"Weeks turn into months and you no longer talk to anyone else, just him.
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"And then it happens. Not the 'L' word. But what you have been most afraid of.
'What deep in your heart you have been afraid to confront. What you always suspected would happen one day sooner or later. HE STOPS CALLING."
Miss Williams said her man "disappeared for a week" before finally calling her.
She added: "As you begin to ask him what happened he stops you. He says 'I need space'.
"You cringe at these words. This is the very reason you begin to think why your heart was in that steel enclosure... because one day it always turns into this day."
Miss Williams then described going through a spell of self-blame and soul-searching over the relationship's collapse.
"Tears finally come and they make you feel a little better, but the pain is piercing through your soul", she wrote.
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The blog, which was posted on Monday, shows a vulnerable side to the superstar, whose tough court demeanour took her to victory in last year's Australian Open.
Although dated January 2007, it is posted on a red background, distinctive from the rest of the blue-toned site, with the word 'new' flashing in the top corner.
It is believed the current world number seven made a typing error with the date and actually posted the blog last week.
The tennis star is believed to have recently split from Long, whose fledgling movie career peaked in 2006 with a supporting role in the US college drama ATL.
But the blog reveals she has not given up totally on love, although the break-up seems to have left her cynical
"Eventually you know you will try again," she wrote on the blog.
"And eventually you know you will find the keys to your heart, but also in the back of your mind your think ... it will happen again."
Next week's Australian Open won't be the first time she plays with a heavy heart.
In 2003 her half-sister Yetunde Price was shot dead in Los Angeles. Williams dedicated her victory in Melbourne last year to the murder victim, who she said had been with her in spirit through the final.
Miss Williams' spokesman was unavailable for comment yesterday, as fans began leaving messages of support on the website.
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