Black Tennis Pros

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(L)Venus Williams, USA, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA and (R) Serena Williams, USA all celebrated wins during Sunday and Monday's Olympic Games.

Four-time Olympian Venus Williams walked off Wimbledon's cozy Court 2 gleefully waving her fist as fans chanted, "U-S-A! U-S-A!"

Twenty minutes later, at the other end of the All England Club, Serena Williams departed Court 1 with a triumphant grin and a shout of "Whooo!"

She waited an extra day because of rain to begin her bid for a record fourth gold medal in Olympic tennis, then defeated recent French Open runner-up Sara Errani of Italy, 6-3, 6-1.

French number one, Jo-Wilfried Tonga, took down the Brazilian contender, Thomaz Bellucci, in a three-set match. He notched up a 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 victory against the left-handed Brazilian to power into the second round.

Next in line for the French seed is the winner of the match between Japan’s Tatsuma Ito and Canada’s Milos Raonic.

Serena completed a July sweep of Poland's Radwanska sisters by beating Urszula in the second round, 6-2, 6-3. Federer also reached the third round, beating Julien Benneteau of France, 6-2, 6-2.

Venus Williams, also unseeded, drew a tough first-round foe in Errani, who has won four titles this year and is ranked a career-high No. 9. Williams served well, charged the net aggressively and appeared at ease on the Wimbledon grass, where she has won five of her seven Grand Slam titles.

"I've been working really hard on my serve," she said. "I really haven't had my serve where I wanted it this year. But I definitely worked a lot on it, so that way it would be a real weapon for me, which is what I'm used to."

Despite being diagnosed last year with an autoimmune disease that can cause fatigue, she began 2012 determined to make the Olympic team. She won the gold in singles at the 2000 Games and teamed with Serena to take the gold in doubles in 2000 and 2008.

Because her opening match was delayed a day by rain, Williams will have to play six consecutive days if she reaches Saturday's final.

"I definitely expect everything to be tough on me almost nowadays," Williams said.

Over on Court 1, Serena's serve lacked its usual sizzle, and she was even broken once, but she still eliminated Radwanska with little drama. She defeated Radwanska's sister, Agnieszka, in the Wimbledon final this month.

Serena will next play Vera Zvonareva of Russia, the Wimbledon runner-up in 2010.

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Don't tell me Serena doesn't take her tennis career seriously!

Three successive days of play may place wear and tear on the body, but not on the iron will of Americans Venus and Serena Williams. The sisters walked away winners on Monday, as well as quarterfinalists at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.

Up first was Venus against Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, the two battled it out for over two hours. Radwanska was able to take advantage of Venus getting a slow start and took the first set. As she has done time and time again, Venus pulled it together and took the next two sets, defeating Radwanska 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Post match Venus said, "Every now and then everybody has those kinds of matches. I was hitting really well in the practice. Came out, and things weren't going the way I imagined they would, but that's tennis.

"I just had a lot of errors. Seemed like when I had the winner it became an error. On days like that, you just kind of have to let the errors go behind you and still continue to play aggressively and not pull back. Fortunately I've had experiences like that before, and thankfully I know how to get through it."

Venus will next face Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic.

Venus Williams, USA

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Sunday was neither a day of rest or salvation for top players Dinara Safina, Ana Ivanovic, Vera Zvonareva or Nadia Petrova. Each player was knocked out in the third round of the Sony Ericsson Open.

Americans Venus and Serena Williams did not fall victim to the Sunday blues of the other ladies. Both Venus and Serena displayed convincing wins as they moved into the round of 16.

German Anna-Lena Groenefeld fell in straight sets to Venus 7-5, 6-3, and China's Shuai Peng did likewise to Serena 7-5, 6-2.


Up next for Venus is Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska and Serena will play China's Jie Zheng.





In a fairly routine victory, Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga knocked out American qualifier Robert Kendrick 7-5, 6-4.

Tsonga will confront fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon in the round of 16.

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A blur of winners and aces coming across the net from American Venus Williams was all that Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko saw in the Arthur Ashe Stadium at the U.S. Open today. Venus knocked Bondarenko out to the tune of 6-2, 6-1.

Poor Bondarenko looked so disheartened as the second set came to a close. She managed to get in a couple of winners, but her effort was a moot point. Unless the Ukrainian received some celestial assistance, she was going down in a very few minutes. And she did.

Post match Venus was asked about her next opponent Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, who has previously defeated her. Venus smiled and said, "I'm looking forward to 'even-ing' the score. She played well that time. I am looking forward to serving well and moving well and enjoying myself out here in front of everybody."

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