Black Tennis Pros

Frenchman Gael Monfils into the fourth round of the 2019 BNP Paribas Open

ATP Tour - Gael Monfils’ resurgence continued on Monday in Indian Wells, as the 18th-seeded Frenchman defeated Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-0, 6-3 to reach the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open.

The 32-year-old, who advanced to the semi-finals in his past three events, is now 14-3 in 2019. He captured his second ATP 500 trophy in February at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.

Thanks to his early-season efforts, World No. 19 Monfils is back inside the Top 20 of the ATP Rankings for the first time since July 2017. He will face a stiff test in the next round against World No. 1 Novak Djokovic or German veteran Philipp Kohlschreiber.

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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."

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SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA (TICKER) - At The SAP Open Blake injured his ankle on Friday in a quarterfinal win over Sam Querrey. The injury affected his effort against Fish. Fish defeated Blake 6-3, 6-2.

“I had no idea his ankle was that bad,” Fish said. “It’s just a testament to James. He’s never defaulted in a match in his career.”

Blake was down 1-2 in the first set when he asked for a trainer and had his ankle retaped. He had the process repeated at the end of the first set, but to no avail.

“It affected me more than I thought it would have when I did it,” Blake said. “I just iced it a few times yesterday and taped it up. I thought I’d be ready to go.”

The trainer told Blake that he would not do any more damage, so the third seed played on.

“I thought if I wasn’t going to hurt it any more, I could suck up the pain for 20 minutes, 30 minutes and make it a little better for the fans, hopefully, and better for Mardy to feel like he earned a victory, which he did,” Blake said.

PARIS (AP)— Elena Dementieva advanced to the final of the Open GDF Suez after top-ranked Serena Williams withdrew with a knee injury.

Williams said she hurt her right knee during Friday’s win against Emilie Loit and was in too much pain to play.

“My left knee always hurts, but this time it’s my right knee,” Williams said. “When I woke up this morning, it wasn’t feeling good. I wasn’t moving well at all in practice.

“Today I don’t feel like I could have gotten there. I wanted to make the fans extremely happy. It wouldn’t have been a good showing for me at all.”

"My knees have been really good, and I'm really optimistic. I think they'll continue to be really good," said Williams who is due to play in Dubai next week.

"I just have been playing a lot of tennis, so maybe it's just a sign that I'll need to take a day or two off and get ready for the next event."

Monfils, who struggled with illness in his quarter-final win over Julien Benneteau at the ABN AMRO World Tournament, cut a lethargic figure as he returned to court after an off-court medical time-out at the end of the first set and punishingly long rallies with World No. 1 Rafael Nadal. The 22-year-old Monfils showed great character as he continued to fight and produced some of his best tennis towards the end of the second set, when he forced break point opportunities in successive Nadal service games. However, the left-handed Nadal dominated on the important points to snuff out Monfils’ chances and confidently served out the victory to love at 5-4. He now improves to a 13-1 match record on the season.

Monfils was defeated 6-4, 6-4.

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Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who defeated Russian Dmitry Tursunov 7-6(6), 6-2 in one hour and 29 minutes, will face World No. 1 Rafael Nadal in the ABN AMRO quarterfinals in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Nadal has a 2-1 record against Tsonga, and prevailed in a 7-5 third set in their last meeting in March at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis tournament in Indian Wells.

Tsonga has now reached the quarter-finals in all five of his ATP-level appearances this season, and has a 14-2 record. The World No. 13 won his third ATP World Tour title last week in Johannesburg (defeating Chardy).

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Gael Monfils of France defeated defending champion Michael Llodra 6-4, 6-4 Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the ABN Amro tournament.

He will face fellow Frenchman Julien Benneteau. In another all-French match, Marc Gicquel defeated Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-3.

"It's interesting that French players have done so well in Rotterdam in recent years," Monfils said. "We like it here."

Source

Photo by AP

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Round 1 - Singles

James Blake, USA vs. Sam Warburg, USA

Donald Young, USA vs. Hyunk-Taik Lee, KOR


Round 1 - Doubles

Donald Young, USA and John Isner, USA
vs.
Mardy Fish, USA and Jurgen Melzer, AUT


Qualifying Rounds

American Scoville Jenkins was eliminated in round 2 of the singles by American Tim Smyczek 6-4, 6-1.



Round 1 - Doubles

Jeff Coetzee, RSA and Wesley Moodie, RSA
vs.
Jonathan Erlich, ISR and Andy Ram, ISR

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