Black Tennis Pros

ROUND 1

Singles

Venus Williams, USA defeated Mathilde Johansson, FRA
6-2, 6-3

Doubles

Mashona Washington, USA and Sharon Fichman, CAN
vs.
Edina Gallovitts, ROU and Mariya Koryttseva, UKR


ROUND 2

Singles

Venus Williams, USA vs. Kaia Kanepi, EST

Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

Angela Haynes, USA


ROUND 1

Doubles

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA and Sarah Borwell, GBR
vs.
Darija Jurak, CRO and Katalin Marosi, HUN

Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA


ROUND 1

Singles

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA defeated Michael Llodra, FRA
7-6(9), Ret'd


ROUND 2

Singles

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA vs. Ivan Ljubicic, CRO


ROUND 1

Singles

James Blake, USA vs. Taylor Dent, USA

Doubles

Jeff Coetzee, RSA and Scott Lipsky, USA
vs.
Jarkko Nieminen, FIN and Bobby Reynolds, USA

James Blake, USA and Ryan Kendrick, USA
vs.
Eric Butorac, USA and David Martin, USA

Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

(6)Donald Young, USA


ROUND 1

Singles

Phillip Simmonds, USA, vs. Artem Sitak, RUS
Nicholas Monroe, USA vs. Blake Strode, USA

Doubles

Phillip Simmonds, USA and Andrew Anderson, RSA
vs.
Arnau Brugues-Davi, ESP and Victor Estrella, DOM

Nicholas Monroe, USA and Gregory Ouellette, USA
vs.
Javier Herrera-Equiluz, MEX and Daniel Kosakowski, USA

Read the rest of this post...........

DUBAI (AFP) — Venus Williams became the most successful active woman player on the WTA Tour when she secured her 42nd title by successfully defending the Dubai Open here on Saturday.

Williams, who beat Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 7-5 in an absorbing final, thus overtook Justine Henin's record of 41 titles, only two months after achieving another notable statistic -- a career total of 25 million dollars in prize money.

She and her sister Serena are the only two women to have achieved this feat, but both Venus's resilient performance and her optimistic words suggested that further remarkable statistics are in the pipeline.

Asked if she now hoped to add to her tally of Grand Slam titles, the five-time Wimbledon champion replied: "Absolutely. I am so happy to have added to my collection here. And I am keen to keep adding every time."

Venus also made reference to the diplomatic success of a tournament which accommodated the first Israeli woman, Shahar Peer, ever to compete in the United Arab Emirates.

"It was a great tournament to have everyone included," she said.

Later she added: "Obviously we had issues with everyone getting included," referring to the refusal of Peer's UAE visa in 2009. "But this year it was great to show a spirit of inclusion and equality."

Venus went on: "I definitely think her playing has an influence on things outside the tennis. We need government to do the right thing like they did here and people of courage to come here and play, to play so well with focus."

Venus felt her good form was in significant measure due to having found a way of managing her long-lasting fitness problems, especially with a knee, and she delighted, she said, in being able to throw away the bandages she had to wear for much of last year.

The match was full of noisily powerful rallies -- Azarenka usually trying to work an initiative, Venus more likely to win the rally with one blow, Azarenka accompanying everything with a loud coo, Venus with an ominous roar.

The first set hinged on the pressure Venus placed on her opponent's second serves, which brought an Azarenka double fault on game point at 2-3 -- though it required Venus to make a successful appeal to Hawkeye to prove that the second serve was too long.

Having closed out the first set, Venus's momentum accelerated. She struck the ball with even more confidence, broke again immediately, and the feeling of the contest changed dramatically as she hurtled to 3-1.

However, as against Anastasia Pavluchenkova and Shahar Peer, Venus's serve wobbled a little with the end in sight. A creaky double fault at 3-2 gave Azarenka a break back point, and a moderate second serve allowed the fourth seed to make a return which converted that chance immediately.

But Venus broke again for 6-5, courtesy of an ill-timed foray to the net by the 20-year-old Azarenka, and closed out the match in the next game at the third attempt.

"I'm definitely starting to feel better," Venus concluded.

"It's been a learning curve in managing the playing and keep the swelling (of the knee) down. I don't usually talk about my injuries this much, but I am excited about what is happening."

Read the rest of this post...........

In a fast 57 minutes, American Venus Williams polished off her first opponent to begin her run at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. After firing off seven aces and never facing a break point, Venus sent Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova off to consider her next tournament. The win came in at 6-0, 6-1.

Venus is scheduled to play Frenchwoman Alize Cornet in the next round.

Since arriving in Dubai, Venus has been asked about her thoughts on the state of drug testing in tennis, and in particular, whether she thinks the regulation which requires players to make it known where they will be available for one hour of every day places too much of a demand on the players.

Venus said, "if your match goes to one o'clock at night you don't know what's going to happen if you are focusing on recovery for the next day."

"You are not focusing on where you are going to be. You are trying to do what you have to do - even at home. First thing you do is wake up and go to play.

"There are some things in the system which need to be looked at. We want a system which works and then it's fair."

And then there was Serena... yes, she won her match too, but very differently. Serena's first opponent was Italy's Sara Errani who took the first set 4-6. In typical Serena fashion, she regrouped between sets and was then merciless to Errani, defeating her 6-2, 6-0.

When asked how her knee was holding up Serena said, "it held up well. I got off to a slow start ... just trying to get used to the conditions, and I did not really like the ball being used here.

"But I never doubted that I will win. Even when I was 4-0 down in the first set, I told myself I am just two breaks down and I can still win the set."

Therein lies the problem for anyone who stands across the net from Serena.


Photos of Venus and Serena In Dubai

Photos by Getty Images

Read the rest of this post...........