Black Tennis Pros

American Davis Cup teammates James Blake and Andy Roddick advanced to the doubles semifinal round of the Brisbane International after defeating the Brazilian doubles team of Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares 7-6(3), 6-4.

Blake and Roddick will now face Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy and Marc Giquel for a shot at the final.

Big Davis Cup news on theses two here...

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BRISBANE, Australia — Gael Monfils produced tennis of the highest quality to see off an equally impressive James Blake in the quarter-finals of the Brisbane International on Thursday.

Playing with his right shoulder heavily strapped, the mercurial Frenchman broke Blake at a crucial stage of the third set to clinch a thrilling match 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.


The two men duelled for one and three quarter hours, serving powerfully and producing some crunching groundstrokes, and for a long time it was hard to see who would finish on top.

But at 3-3 in the final set the 30-year-old Blake faltered slightly and with the game poised at 30-40, Monfils struck a beautiful backhand passing shot to leave the American stranded.

Blake refused to concede and he had a chance to break back immediately, but Monfils clung on and eventually wrapped up the quarter-final on his fourth match point, celebrating by beating his chest with his fist in sheer delight.

"He had a good start and was hitting the ball well," Monfils said.

"I started with the wrong tactic -- I was hitting the ball to his forehand and James just didn't miss.

"But I think James began to spray it more and he gave me a chance to get more aggressive and try a few more shots, and I think that was the key to the match."

He also said there was no problem with his shoulder, despite the heavy strapping.

"Today was a bit better (than in the second round) because I found a good way to tape it ... tomorrow will be a lot better for sure."


Monfils will now play Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic in the semi-finals after the second seed kept alive his hopes of defending his title with a 7-6 (7/2), 6-1 win over Wayne Odesnik of the U.S.

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Herald Sun (Australia) - Former world No. 4 James Blake today continued his tennis revival, fighting from three match points down to grab a quarter-final berth at the Brisbane International.

Blake, who finished out of the year-end top 25 for the first time in five years, escaped with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (10-8) win over France's Marc Gicquel in a second round match at Pat Rafter Arena.

The American will play another Frenchman for a place in the semi-finals, either third seed Gael Monfils or Florent Serra.

Blake, who is currently ranked 40 places lower than his career best, kept the match points against him in the third set tiebreak tight and Gicquel made errors on each of the three points.

Then the Frenchman made another groundstroke error when trying to keep the ball in play on Blake's first match point at 9-8.

"I was not going to let him beat me," Blake said afterwards. "You play your best when you have a clear mindset. I would prefer to win in two and two but it is good to get some tough match-ups in the lead up to a Grand Slam."




BRISBANE - Third seeded Frenchman Gael Monfils overcame a shoulder injury and a tenacious Florent Serra to make his way into the quarter-finals of the Brisbane International on Wednesday.

Serra played some inspired tennis to push Monfils right to the limit, before appearing to tire in the decider and allow his higher-ranked countryman to run away with the match 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/5), 6-1.

Monfils was forced to call for the trainer at the end of the first set and had his shoulder heavily strapped during the time-out.

The injury seemed to take its toll as Serra opened up a 3-0 lead at the start of the second, but Monfils fought back and took the set to a tiebreak, before running away with the third.

"I pulled my muscle a bit last week," he said of his shoulder injury.

"Last week I did a lot of weights and it's been hurting me for some time.

"I decided today to come on the court without tape and I think that was a mistake."

Monfils said he was happy with how he had served despite the pain.

"Two, three shots after the serve it hurt a little bit," he said.

"I will take some anti-inflammatories or painkillers, work on it, ice it, and hopefully tomorrow it will be much better.

He will now play American James Blake in the quarter-finals after the veteran American outlasted another Frenchman, Marc Gicquel, earlier in the day.

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American Serena Williams couldn't seem to keep up the powerful momentum she had been building in the Australian Open Series Medibank International. After her elongated quarterfinal match against Caroline Wozniacki, there just wasn't much left in the tank

World no. 12 Russian Elena Dementieva was up to the challenge and engaged Serena in a number of power rallies that at least made some of the match worthy of watching. Dementieva defeated Serena 6-3, 6-1. Ouuuuuch.

"I gave it away more than anything. I made a lot of errors and made her look like a champ, really. I just pretty much gave her the match," said Serena.

"It was good to have a few matches under my belt getting ready for Melbourne." I feel like I'm going play a lot better than what I did this week. My main goal, obviously, is to go to Melbourne and do the best that I can do."

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SINGLES

Round 1

Serena Williams, USA defeated Samantha Stosur, AUS
6-3, 6-7(4), 7-5

Round 2

Serena Williams, USA defeated Sara Errani, ITA
6-1, 6-2

Quarterfinal Round

Serena Williams defeated Caroline Wozniacki, DEN
6-7(6), 6-3, 7-6(3)


DOUBLES

Round 1

Racquel Kops-Jones, USA and Vladimira Uhlirova, CZE
defeated by
Jill Craybas, USA and Galina Voskoboeva, KAZ
4-6, 6-2, [10/4]


SINGLES

Round 1

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA vs. BYE


DOUBLES

Round 1

Jeff Coetzee, RSA vs. Rohan Bopanna, IND
defeated by
Nicolas Almagro, ESP and Ivan Navarro, ESP
3-6, 6-3, [10/6]




WOMEN'S SINGLES

Round 1

Angela Haynes, USA vs. Ajla Tomljanovic, CRO

Ahsha Rolle, USA vs. Alexandra Anghelescu, USA


WOMEN'S DOUBLES

Round 1

Ahsha Rolle, USA and Tiya Rolle, USA
defeated
Sabrina Capannolo, USA and Christian Thompson, USA
2-6, 6-4, [10/8]

Mashona Washington, USA and Maria-Fernanda Alves, BRA
defeated
Simona Dobra, CZE and Monika Kochanova, SVK
6-4, 6-1

Angela Haynes, USA and Christina Fusano, USA
defeated
Alexandra Anghelescu, USA and Hsu Chieh-Yu, USA
6-1, 6-0


Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

Tiya Rolle, USA
Whitney Jones, USA
Jennifer Elie, USA


MEN'S SINGLES

Round 1

Nicholas Monroe, USA defeated by Michael McClune, USA
0-6, 6-3, 7-6(6)

Phillip Simmonds, USA vs. Todd Paul, USA


DOUBLES

Round 1

Nicholas Monroe, USA and Phillip Simmonds, USA
defeated by
Uladzimir Ignatik, BLR and Tigran Martirosyan, ARM
3-6, 6-4, [10/3]

Paul Todd, USA vs. Gregory Ouellette, USA
defeated
Rhyne Williams, USA vs. Dennis Zivkovic, USA
1-6, 6-4 [11/9]

Marcus Fugate, USA and Andreas Siljestrom, SWE
defeated by
Tihomir Grozdanov, BUL and Simeon Ivanov, BUL
1-6, 6-3, [10/8]

Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

Marcus Fugate, USA

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BRISBANE, Australia: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga recovered from a disastrous start to overcome Finland's Jarkko Nieminen and lead a posse of Frenchmen into the quarter-finals of the Brisbane International on Wednesday.

Tsonga failed to win a game in the first set but came back to win the last two sets in tie-breaks to ensure four Frenchmen made the final eight.

He closed out the match 0-6, 7-6 (7/1), 7-6 (7/5) to join Richard Gasquet, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Florent Serra in the quarter-finals.



Rafael Nadal and Gael Monfils will square off in the Doha quarterfinals on Thursday. The winner will meet either Andy Roddick or Victor Hanescu in the semis.

Rafael Nadal and Gael Monfils will do battle for the fourth time in their careers on Thursday when they meet in the quarterfinals of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. Nadal holds a 3-0 edge in the head-to-head series, but only one of the victories came on hard courts. He won 6-3, 6-2 on the clay courts of Rome in 2005, 6-2, 6-2 on the Monte-Carlo dirt in 2006, and most recently 6-3, 6-2 at last season's Master Series Paris.

Monfils erased Jan Hernych in the first round but struggled with countryman Nicolas Devilder for two hours and seven minutes before outlasting him 7-5, 7-6(4).

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Round 1 - Singles

James Blake, USA vs Fabrice Santoro FRA
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA vs Andreas Seppi, ITA

Round 1 - Doubles

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA and Richard Gasquet, FRA
vs
Chris Guccione, AUS and Robert Smeets, AUS

Technorati Tags: Sports Tennis
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga James Blake
Australian Open Series Medibank International

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Frenchman and sixth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was defeated 6-2, 6-4 by the number three seed Finn Jarkko Niemenen during their semi-final match at the Adelaide International.

Nieminen seized his opportunities, winning three of his seven break points against Tsonga, who recorded five aces during the match.

In route to the semi-finals, Tsonga took out nasty Australian Lleyton Hewitt 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinal. (YES!)

Technorati Tags: Sports Tennis Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

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