Black Tennis Pros

 
EASTBOURNE, England -- Madison Keys claimed the first title of her career on Saturday when she defeated Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 to win the Aegon Championships.

Playing in her first final, the unseeded 19-year old is the first American to win the event since Chanda Rubin won back-to-back titles in 2002 and 2003, and she is the youngest American to win a singles title since Vania King (17 yrs, 254 days) triumphed in Bangkok in October 2006.

Keys' triumph also marks the first time that two American women have won titles in the same week since 2002, following Coco Vandeweghe's win, also on Saturday, at the grass-court Topshelf Open in the Netherlands.

It is the second defeat in the final for fifth-seeded Kerber, who fell to Tamira
Paszek in 2012, and the third time she has lost a final this year after defeats in Sydney and Doha. She was seeking her first title came winning Linz in October 2013.

"I'm so incredibly happy," said Keys, who on Monday should be ranked in the top 30 for the first time. "You know, it's one of those things where when you're training and you don't want to be there, you're tired or everything hurts, it's one of those things where you think of this moment, and, you know, it really helps push you through all the hard times.

"My serve was definitely a weapon today, and it really helped me through the entire time."

Keys' win came after she fired 17 aces and struck a serve clocked at 126mph, the fastest this year on the WTA Tour and one that if confirmed would establish her as one of the top five fastest servers since records began in 1989.

Most of the rallies were short and just one break of serve decided the first two sets, with Keys breaking to lead 3-1 in the first and Kerber 2-0 in the second.

"It's always not easy when somebody is serving like she did the whole match," Kerber said. "She played at a really high level."

Kerber fought off two break points as she served out the second set, and games went with serve in the third until the dramatic 12th game. Kerber held two game points to take the set to a tiebreaker before Keys claimed victory on her fourth match point.

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The AEGON Championships website posted the following:

"Sunday's play at the AEGON Championships has been abandoned because of rain and the singles (Andy Murray vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga) and doubles (Bob and Mike Bryan vs. Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes) finals have been postponed until Monday 13th June at 12:30 pm BST."

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James Ward

Frenchman Jo Wilfried Tsonga set up a meeting with Britain's own Andy Murray in the final of the AEGON Championships on Sunday at the Queen's Club when he beat British No. 2 James Ward in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6(7).


After Ward failed to convert a couple of break points of his own, Tsonga was able to serve out the set. Even when Ward had a chance to level the match after breaking for a 4-2 lead in the second set, Tsonga broke back to force a tie-break.


Both players had chances in the breaker, but it was Tsonga who came through as Ward missed a passing shot on the Frenchman's second match point.

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LONDON, June 7 (UPI) -- Jo-Wilfried Tsonga dropped just one game Tuesday in sailing through his second-round match at the Aegon Championships in London.

Tsonga, seeded fifth in the grass-court tournament, was on the court just 47 minutes before finishing off a 6-0, 6-1 rout of Michael Berrer. Tsonga won 68 percent of the points in the match, including a healthy 63 percent off Berrer's serve.

Third-seeded Andy Roddick also advanced but in a much more difficult 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (5-7), 6-4 match against Feliciano Lopez. Roddick managed just two breaks in the match -- both coming in the third set.

Wild-card entrant James Ward pulled the upset of the day, knocking off fourth-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 (7-3), 6-3. But seventh-seeded Fernando Verdasco topped Nicolas Mahut 6-2, 6-3, 10th-seeded Michael Llodra took out Julien Benneteau while defending champion and No. 13-seeded Sam Querrey defeated Rainer Schuettler 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 6-3.

Ninth-seeded David Nalbandian got past Illya Marchenko 6-3, 6-4 and No. 12 Juan Martin del Potro beat Denis Istomin 6-4, 6-2 in first-round matches. Also in the first round 14th-seeded Janko Tipsarevic and No. 15 Kevin Anderson advanced with wins.

Unseeded first-round winners Tuesday were Matthew Ebden, Radek Stepanek, Adrian Mannarino, Michael Russell and Xavier Malisse.

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American James Blake advanced to the championship match of the AEGON Championships at the Queen's Club in London when fellow American Andy Roddick retired from the match at 4-4 in the first set because of an ankle injury.

When asked about Roddick's injury Blake said, "I think he was hurt before, I saw him pull up."

"It was unfortunate, but Andy is such a great player and he doesn't want to endanger the injury anymore. He normally moves so well and you could tell this wasn't the same Andy Roddick."

For the title Blake will play Britain's Andy Murray. To a lot of crowd laughter and clapping Blake said, "I realize that the crowd probably won't be behind me, but I have to remind you that I'm half British."

When asked if he would ever consider a change Blake said, "I've been asked about that but they (Americans) have been so good to me, I can't turn my back on them."





In women's doubles at the AEGON Classic, Americans Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears defeated Italians Francesca Schiavone and Roberta Vinci to advance to the championship match where they will play Zimbabwe's Cara Black and American Liezel Huber for the title.

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First off, Frenchman Gael Monfils is going to get some of these guys killed thinking they can fly, lol.

In today's semifinals of the AEGON Championships at the Queens Club in London, American James Blake will face fellow American Andy Roddick. Blake defeated Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (5), 6-3 in 76 minutes in yesterday's quarterfinals.

Despite trailing their head-to-head 2-6, Blake has won his past two meetings with Roddick – including in the Queen’s Club semi-finals three years ago.





On the USTA Pro Circuit at the 2009 Hunt Communities USTA Pro Challenger El Paso, Texas, American Mashona Washington has advanced to the semifinals after defeating Canadian Heidi El Tabakh 6-1, 6-4 in Friday's quarterfinals.

Mashona will play Australian Monique Adamczak for a spot in the final.

At the same event in doubles, Americans Brittany Augustine and Jennifer Elie advanced to the semifinal round where their final hopes were halted by American Christina Fusano and India's Shikha Uberoi. They were defeated 6-3, 6-2.

At the 2009 Recoating West Inc. USTA Men's $15,000 Professional Tennis Tournament in Loomis, California, American Todd Paul, teamed with American Tim Smyczek, also advanced to the semifinal round but was defeated by Americans Austin Krajicek and Conor Pollock 6-1, 6-4.

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