Black Tennis Pros

At the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, fourth-seeded Gael Monfils of France was up half the night prior to round one play feeling ill and took his plight to Twitter where he tweeted his pain. In spite of his ill feelings, he still managed to defeat Belgian Olivier Rochus 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 and advance to the second round.

In the aftermath, speculation arose that Monfils should be wary of giving constant updates as it could be used by gamblers.

In his press conference Monfils stated, "I love to play tennis but I don't think about it much off the court. I'm a 23-year-old person. What we do off court with Twitter or Facebook, it's private life. I don't even know all of the rules of tennis, I just play."

Monfils had six breaks over Rochus in the one hour 43 minutes match setting up a rematch against Dutch player Thiemo de Bakker who previously beat him in a Davis Cup match.

I felt so-so on court," said Monfils, now 4-2 in his third Rotterdam appearance.

"He played well in the first set, I was trying to get into the match. I took more risks to try for the win. I stayed calm and found a solution.

"I certainly didn't feel 100 percent, I tried to train last night but felt a fever. It was a big change from South Africa and 30 Celsius to minus-five here. I'm still sick but I hope to wake up better each day."



American James Blake's stay in Rotterdam was cut very short by Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis who defeated Blake in the first round 6-4, 6-2.

Post match Baghdatis stated, "I was really happy with the way I started the match, very solid." "James didn't play the best match, hitting a few more unforced errors than normal but I stayed concentrated, served well and it was enough for the victory so I am very happy. It's hard to play against somebody going for so many winners like James was today, but I moved well and made some great passing shots at important moments."




Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga withdrew from the tournament because of a stomach muscle injury.

Tsonga stated on his website, "The problem started in the fourth round of the Australian Open against Nicolas Almagro."

"It bothered me in the quarter-final against Novak Djokovic and in the semi-final against (eventual winner) Roger Federer. I hope I'll be able to go back to training next week without serving."