Black Tennis Pros

A wonderfully resurgent James Blake has found his footing and a seemingly new attitude - actually his old one - in Estoril, Portugal at the Estoril Open. Blake knocked Frenchman Florent Serra out of the tournament 6-4, 6-1.

With very little fanfare after quite a few recent early round loses, Blake has moved through this tournament as if previous court failings did not exist. It can't be easy to suffer so many loses and maintain the fortitude that originally took him to the top ten.

Whatever has or has not occurred, Blake is an exciting player that lifts the heat level of any tournament when he plays like he has this week. It is a pleasure to see.

This is a high for Blake, getting past the quarterfinal round on European clay. This effort has granted him a meeting with Russian Nikolay Davydenko whom Blake has a winning record against.

Post match Blake said, "This was a good match but I hope to continue that. Davydenko is a great player and he's especially dangerous on clay. But I feel I'm ready for this match."

"My game has gotten better and better all week and I'm really dictating like I want to on court."

In his interview Davydenko said, "Physically I'm not as strong as I can be but mentally I'm very tough. I've never had such a long time away from tennis in my career.

"But since I've come back I've been playing well. Everything's not about tennis anymore for me, I have family and other interests.

"Now, I hardly think about my matches, I just go out and play relaxed. For me, it doesn't matter how you are playing, it's your mental state. It's always in your head."

These two gentlemen set up the makings of what could be a tremendous match, I hope it turns out that way.

American Venus Williams and Russian Dinara Safina

In Rome at the Internazionali BNL D'Italia, American Venus Williams successfully toiled her way to the semifinals where she was defeated today by Russian Dinara Safina 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-4.

Throughout this tournament Venus has shown the tough metal that we have come to know her for over the years. While it wasn't sufficient to pull out the championship in Rome, it should signal that she will be a tough competitor as the clay court season further heats up.

Post match Venus said, "She played well, continued to fight for every point. That's what you have to do on this surface," she said. "I congratulate her on playing good tennis the whole match."

Another aspect of Venus that we've come to know and expect - dignity.

Photos by:
Francisco Leong/AFP/Getty Images (James Blake)
Ryan Pierse/Getty Images (Venus Williams)

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After today's victory over Radwanska, Venus Williams said in an interview with Ubaldo Scanagatta's Tennis (UBI Tennis) that she deals with FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

Q. You had a comfortable win today. How do you assess your performance, also comparing to previous matches which were longer and tougher?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, you know, it's just, like I said when I came the other day, it's just important to play a lot points and to hit a lot of balls and to find a rhythm.

Of course, I'm still playing my aggressive game, but I'm also patient, more patient than the other matches. Just learning from my mistakes. You know, talk to my coaches after, and then trying to apply after the match, you know, apply it in the next match.

So, you know, when I play a match and it's not exactly how I want it, I stop getting crazy about it and realize I know how to play and I just have to play, try the next time to play better.
So that's what I'm doing.

Q. The problem was the clay? It was to move well on clay? It was light? Or it was because it was cold? Which was it?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Yesterday?

Q. Yesterday.
VENUS WILLIAMS: You know, I think I'm moving better every match. You know, it helps when you feel good physically. I really am feeling good.

You know, I've had time to think about mistakes I made and try to correct them.

Q. The mistake was how you was moving?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Because I was moving better today.

Q. But the biggest mistake was?
VENUS WILLIAMS: There were a lot of mistakes. You know, my toss on my serve; footwork; rushing; a lot of things.
So just try to play one shot at a time, especially for an aggressive player like me, because I can mistake a lot happen. It's not always necessary to make so much happen. Just slowing down. It's important to slow down.

Q. How much is difficult to don't be too much upset about yourself when you're not able to play good?
VENUS WILLIAMS: You know, I've always been like a pretty calm player, so for me naturally usually I don't get too upset.

Sometimes I do because I expect a lot from myself, but I try to leave the past in the past. Not always easy, but I try to.

Q. Now you can feel very confident for tomorrow?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah. Obviously to have a great match in the quarterfinals and going into the semifinals, I mean, do feel great about tomorrow. So I'll do more of the same thing as today. Just really keep trying to be better and keep trying to come in and really work on my game.
Really just, you know, swing freely, just to feel free on the court.

Q. In the past you beat Dinara in two matches, but on another surface. Do you think tomorrow will change anything on the clay?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, it's always great to play players on different surfaces and use different strategies. So, you know, like I said, tomorrow I'll be controlling on my side of the court and playing my shots.

Whoever is across the net, for me, it's not about that. It's about really like getting my game together at this point.

Q. What of those elements that you were talking about earlier, being aggressive and also patient, going into a match with a player like Safina, will you go in playing very aggressively? Will be you patient at first?
VENUS WILLIAMS: I play the ball. So the ball lands short, I come in. If the ball goes deep, I move back. So doesn't matter who I play, I'm going to play the ball.
If the ball says play aggressive, I play aggressive.

Q. You and Kuznetsova maybe have the same attitude. Does not depends about your opponent, depends most of what is in your mind, if you are in the right mood or not. Do you an agree that Kuznetsova is the biggest opponent you can have in general after Serena?
VENUS WILLIAMS: I don't think so much about my opponents. I really never thought about her like that, to be honest. I mean, for this tournament, I mean, we could meet in the final if we can play well tomorrow. That would be great.

I mean, I don't have like have like moods and stuff. I don't know what she has. She never told me. (Laughter.) So, yeah.

Q. How did you assess your clay court preparation at this point? Are you at the point where you want it to be?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah. Who is where they want to be? No one. So I can always can ask for more. What's happening now is okay, so it's important sometimes not to ask for too much.

Q. What do you at 11:00 in the night now in Rome?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Well, you see, I have this thing called FOMO, and it's called fear of missing out. I hate going to bed. I feel like I'm missing out. I need to read and I need to get a lot of things done. I can organize my room.

I don't like to go to bed, so I have to focus on going to sleep. It's hard, because I feel like I'm going miss out on something.

So I'm going to try really hard to go to sleep. (Laughter.) FOMO is a really big problem for a lot of people.

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Obviously hoping to repeat her past victory in Rome (1999), American Venus Williams more than compensated for her slow tournament start today.

At the Internazionali BNL D'Italia Venus pulled it all together and took a much more polished game to Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, letting up only when the match was over. At the end of the assault Radwanska was defeated 6-1, 6-2.

Post match Venus said, "With every match I'm improving and learning from my mistakes."

Venus will now face World No. 1 Dinara Safina of Russia in the semifinals.

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At the Internazionali BNL D'Italia today American Venus Williams grimaced, chewed her finger nail, grunted, fell down and more; but most importantly, she won.

The third round match against Russian Anna Chakvetadze was no less involved than Venus' second round match against the Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova. It took Venus nearly 2 1/2 hours to defeat Chakvetadze 6-0, 6-7(8/10), 6-4.



At the end of the first set I was positive that Venus would probably relinquish maybe one or two games in the second set, but it would be over quickly - not so. Venus' double faults and errors increased and Chakvetadze did what she could to take advantage. It was not the best looking match I've ever seen.

Nonetheless, Venus prevailed, and no matter how you break it down, victory is all that really matters.

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Well, there's really not a whole lot to be said here - American Serena Williams came to Rome, re-crowned herself the "real" world no. 1 and found herself on the losing end of a clay-court smackdown - it's all in the game.

In case you missed it, which I highly doubt, during her press conference on Monday at the Internazionali BNL D'Italia Serena stated, "We all know who the real No. 1 is. Quite frankly, I'm the best in the world."

I still don't have any trouble with that statement even after Tuesday's loss. The problem is, when you trash talk before a game, it always looks better if you win ... then the trash talking isn't quite so trashy.

Swiss Miss Patty Schnyder took her clay-court game to Serena with much less fanfare prior to the match and defeated her 6-2, 2-6, 6-1.

Although Serena made no mention of her recent injury, she was either still hampered by it, or she's really got to get her clay-court legs together.

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In a battle of the Frenchmen, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet played a first round match held over from Tuesday because of rain at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia/ATP World Tour Masters 1000, Rome, Italy.

In close to two hours, Gasquet defeated Tsonga 7-6(2), 6-4.

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