Black Tennis Pros

After some very complicated early rounds, both Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils of France and the lone American female Venus Williams, have all advanced to the third round of the 2011 Australian Open.

Seven-time grand slam winner Venus Williams literally survived the onset of an injury during her second round match against Sandra Zahlavova of the Czech Republic. After losing the first set and in obvious severe pain that caused her to scream several times, Venus continued with the second and third sets of the match digging deep into her mental and physical tennis reservoirs to not only survive, but to actually eventually thrive and win the match 6⁶-7⁸, 6-0, 6-4. It was definitely a nail biter to watch.

Post match Venus stated, "I wasn't very happy, to say the least ... I mean, with an injury like that, you just don't know what to expect. I think what keeps me going is knowing that when I'm healthy I play really, really well and knowing that I have so much good tennis in my body keeps me motivated."

The two Frenchman had to take five to win their first round matches. Tsonga and Monfils both lost the first two sets of their first round matches, and though they had to battle it out to prevail in the remaining three sets, both gentlemen rose to the occasion.

Tsonga and Monfils opted for a lot less drama in their second round matches against Italy's Andreas Seppi and Portugal's Frederico Gil. Tsonga greatly shortened his match time and defeated Seppi in close straight sets, 6-3, 7⁷-6¹, 7⁷-6⁵. Monfils shortened his match by one set to defeat Gil in four, 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2.

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ESTORIL, Portugal (AFP) — America's James Blake booked his first claycourt quarter-final in more than a year with a 7-6 (8/6), 6-2 defeat of France's Marc Gicquel at the Estoril Open on Thursday.

Blake, now 2-2 on the surface which has traditionally been his downfall, claimed his second victory in as many days at the Estadio Nacional as his game springs to life with the French Open approaching in just over a fortnight.

The 29-year-old has not appeared in a last-eight lineup on clay since May last year when he lost in Rome to Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka.

"It's a good feeling, I really like the way I'm playing," said Blake, 11-8 on the season. "I'm now playing my style and it feels great.

"Even if I'd not won two in a row, I would have been satisfied with my game. I was really going for my shots."

The American is playing in his third clay event of the season after losing openers in both Houston and Rome. But his Wednesday first-round win over Portuguese number one Frederico Gil gave him the boost he needed.

Fourth seed Blake overcame nine aces off Gicquel's racquet, producing five of his own and saving the only break point that he faced.

Blake broke twice in the 79-minute contest which puts him into a quarter-final against French eighth seed Florent Serra who defeated Argentine Juan Monaco 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.

"He beat me pretty bad on clay (Rome, 2006)," said the American. "He's a tough competitor and I certainly don't expect him to roll over - but that won't happen with me either.

"I'm confident in my game and I like my chances if I keep playing like this."

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OEIRAS, Portugal -- James Blake recovered from a poor start to defeat Frederico Gil 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 Wednesday in the first round of the Estoril Open.

Blake struggled with his serve in the first set, while Gil won three of his service games at love and broke the American in the 11th game.

Blake improved in the second, but had to save a break point in the fifth game and looked uncomfortable in long baseline rallies. In the third, Blake broke the 68th-ranked Gil in the second game and withstood three break points chances in the next game.

"It was very tough," said the 16th-ranked Blake. "I just hung in, I've got a lot of experience, and things started going my way."

I thought that we were going to have to have alter call on this brother, we may still have to, but not today.

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Top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga eased past Frederico Gil 6-3, 6-4 at the SA Tennis Open on Saturday to set up an all-French final at the ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament at the Montecasino in northern Johannesburg. Earlier, fifth seed Jeremy Chardy (pictured) had saved three match points as he defeated World No. 13 David Ferrer 1-6, 7-6(9), 7-6(4).

It is the first all-French final on the ATP World Tour since Gilles Simon defeated Julien Benneteau in the Casablanca final in May 2008. It will be the first meeting between Tsonga and Chardy.

World No. 14 Tsonga advanced to his fourth ATP World Tour final after breaking serve three times from four opportunities in his 64-minute victory over first-time semi-finalist Gil. The right-hander, who has yet to drop a set this week, reached his first ATP World Tour final at the 2008 Australian Open (l. to Djokovic) and later that year captured his first two ATP World Tour titles at Bangkok (d. Djokovic) and the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis event in Paris (d. Nalbandian).

Despite missing three months of the 2008 ATP World Tour season with a knee injury, the Le Mans native finished inside the Top 10 at No. 6 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings and qualified for Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai (now re-named the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals to be held at London’s O2 Arena in November).

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