Black Tennis Pros

American Taylor Townsend, Day 6 of 2019 Oracle Challenger Series-Houston.

On Friday, November 15th, the 2019 Oracle Challenger Series returned to action on the courts of the George R. Brown Tennis Center at Rice University in Houston, Texas.  The rain and cold weather that began to take shape on Wednesday afternoon, came in full force on Thursday causing the shutdown of all court activity, leading into a very match laden Friday.  The schedule had all third-round winners playing two singles matches – and some even had to play a third match of doubles.

One of the first matches of the day was contested by two Americans, No. 2 seeded Taylor Townsend and 14th seed Caroline Dolehide.  While the weather was still a bit cold, Dolehide hit the court very competitively and took the first set.  In the second and third sets Townsend met, then superseded Dolehide's game, taking the match 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.

One court over, American Sekou Bangoura was up against the towering Croatian Ivo Karlovic. Bangoura has displayed very impressive athleticism and strategy throughout the tournament, and while he continued his gameplay, even taking the second set, Karlovic's powerful tree line serve alone wreaks havoc on most of his opponents, as it did Bangoura. Karlovic took the match 7-6, 2-6, 6-4

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Friday, Delray Beach, Fla. (AP) — Second-seeded Ivo Karlovic of Croatia advanced to the semifinals of the Delray Beach International Tennis Championship on Friday, overpowering seventh-seeded James Blake in the third set for a 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1 victory.

The 6-foot-10 Karlovic served 23 aces in improving to 5-3 against Blake and reaching his first semifinal in four quarterfinal appearances this year.

Blake broke the 33rd-ranked Croat once, the fourth game of the second set at love.

In the third set, Karlovic lost only three points in four service games. He won two service games in the final set at love — two of the four points in the first game were aces, and three of the four service points in the fifth game were aces.

Blake, a two-time finalist at Delray Beach, questioned whether Karlovic's backhand was in on the point that cost the American his serve for the second time in the final set, but he lost the argument.

“To miss a call that’s clearly out when you can overrule a 140 mile-an-hour first serve seems a little strange to me, but that’s going to happen,” said Blake.

Later, Blake teamed with fellow American Robert Kendrick in a doubles losing effort against Slovakia's Igor Zelenay and Germany's Philipp Marx, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, [10-6].

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At the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships on Thursday, American James Blake, who has reached the finals here twice, advanced to the quarterfinal round after a 6-3, 6-1 defeat of Robin Haase of The Netherlands. Blake's next opponent is Croatia's Ivo Karlovic.

After his win over Haase, the 30-year-old American hit the main stadium court for a first-round evening doubles match, teaming with Robert Kendrick to defeat fellow Americans Eric Butorac and David Martin 6-3, 6-4 on a chilly night in South Florida. They next meet Philipp Marx and Igor Zelenay, who earlier upset the No. 3-seeded team of Ross Hutchins and Jordan Kerr in three sets.

In his first round match, Blake defeated fellow American Taylor Dent 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.


Atlanta Tennis Championships Inaugural Tournament

Committed to playing in the inaugural Atlanta Tennis Championships is James Blake, the long-time American tennis star who has been ranked as high as No. 4 in the world. Blake has won 10 ATP titles, including the 2006 Indianapolis tournament, which the Atlanta tournament is replacing. He started his career in 2000 and has been a Davis Cup stalwart for the American team.

The Atlanta event, owned and operated by USTA Southern, will serve as the kick-off to the 2010 Olympus US Open Series.


Caesars Tennis Classic Inaugural Tournament

A match between Pete Sampras and James Blake has been added to the inaugural Caesars Tennis Classic at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on April 10.

The event, being hosted by Venus Williams, has three matches in a team format.

The first features Ivan Lendl, in his first match since his 1994 retirement, against Mats Wilander in a one-set no-ad scoring match.

The second match has Andy Roddick, currently the top-ranked American men's player, facing Marat Safin in a best-of-three-set match. This match will also be no-ad scoring and will be decided by a super tiebreaker (first to 10 must win by two) if necessary.

The third match has Sampras, 14-time Grand Slam champion, against Blake in a best-of-three-set match. This match will also be no-ad scoring and will also be decided by the super tiebreaker, if necessary.

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POREC, Croatia – Now that the sting of losing Davis Cup stalwart Andy Roddick is out of the way, the United States has re-grouped, come together as a team and begun its preparations to play in the 2009 Davis Cup Quarterfinals against Croatia.

The match-up took a dramatic turn on Monday when Roddick was replaced by Mardy Fish in the U.S. lineup. Roddick suffered an injured right hip flexor during his five-set loss to Roger Federer in the Wimbledon men’s singles final.

Fish, who had just returned home from England to Tampa, Fla., following the Wimbledon doubles semifinals with partner James Blake, received the news late on Sunday from U.S. Captain Patrick McEnroe that he was needed to play against Croatia.

“We are certainly disappointed that Roddick could not come to play,” said McEnroe at the team press conference on Tuesday. “He’s been a Davis Cup stalwart for many, many years, so we’ll miss him. We are certainly very happy and confident with the team that we have that we have a good chance to get a win this week.”

Last year, playing in his first Davis Cup match since the 2004 final, Fish filled in for an injured Bob Bryan and partnered with Mike Bryan to win the doubles, keeping the U.S. alive against Spain in the 2008 semifinals.

“Part of Davis Cup is being able to have other players step in,” said McEnroe. “That is what Croatia is doing in some way, and we’re doing the same. We have guys that have a lot of experience and have played a lot of big matches for us in Davis Cup.

“It is a great opportunity for these guys to do it without Andy. It’s a big challenge for us, but we’re excited about the challenge. We’re all a team. Everyone is going to pull their weight. They’re going to have to pull a little more weight this time.”

The 2009 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas quarterfinal tie between the United States and Croatia will take place from Friday, July 10, to Sunday, July 12, in Porec, Croatia, at the Zatika Sports Hall on a temporary indoor clay court.

Croatia is 2-0 against the United States in Davis Cup, making it the only country that the United States has not beaten and also the only country to have a winning record against the U.S. Davis Cup team.

Roddick had played in 18 consecutive Davis Cup matches, tied for the second longest streak in U.S. Davis Cup history with current teammate Mike Bryan.

“Andy has had a very tough recovery from Wimbledon,” said McEnroe. “He injured his right hip flexor a little bit during the match. He is pretty spent physically and emotionally.”

Coincidentally, the only other tie Roddick has missed since joining the U.S. Davis Cup team was the 2003 first round at Croatia after suffering a wrist injury during his epic five-set win over Younes El Aynaoui en route to the Australian Open semifinals.

Without Roddick, the U.S. will look to Blake to fill in as its No. 1 singles player. In a recent playing slump, including a first-round loss at Wimbledon, Blake is looking to rebound against the Croatians and carry that momentum into the Olympus US Open Series and US Open.

“I feel good about it now,” said the 17^th-ranked Blake. “I put that first-round loss way behind me. Luckily I have had a couple of weeks to distance myself from that. Hopefully here will get me going on the right track going into the summer.”

Also missing one of their key players, former top 10-ranked player Mario Ancic, the Croatians will be led by Marin Cilic and Ivo Karlovic, both coming off excellent performances at Wimbledon.

“Mario Ancic is not here, and he is very important for us as a team leader,” said Croatian Captain Goran Prpic. “We will try as much as possible to take advantage of Roddick not being here, but I don't agree that we are favorites right now. It seems that many people now think we only have to walk on the court, and that's it. It is an open tie. We have quality, there's no doubt about it, but so does the U.S. team. We can win all four singles matches, and we can lose all four."

“Croatia has a great team,” said McEnroe. “(Marin) Cilic and (Ivo) Karlovic are very, very good players. Obviously, them playing at home, the home team always has a slight advantage. But we have a lot of experience playing Davis Cup and playing against their players. I think it is a pretty even match.”

Blake is a career 2-3 against Karlovic and 2-0 against Cilic. Fish lost to Cilic in the 2008 Pilot Pen Tennis final, their only meeting, and is a career 1-4 against Karlovic.

The order of play will be determined on Thursday at the draw ceremony, scheduled to be held at 1 p.m. local time at the Istrian Council House in Porec.

The weekend schedule consists of two singles matches on Friday (10 a.m. ET), the doubles match on Saturday (9:30 a.m. ET), and two reverse singles matches on Sunday (10 a.m. ET).

Tennis Channel will air live daily coverage of Friday’s and Sunday’s singles matches at 10 a.m. ET. Saturday’s doubles match will air live at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Tennis Channel will continue its Davis Cup primetime tradition and rebroadcast matches nightly at 8 p.m. ET.

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At the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open today, all 6'10" of Croatian Ivo Karlovic descended upon American James Blake and bombed him with 26 - that's right - 26 aces. Although that's pretty much the norm for Karlovic, it has got to suck to be the recipient thereof.

Even with that much fire power coming his way, and Blake answering only four of those aces with an ace, he still managed to bring Karlovic down.

In three very tight sets Blake prevailed, winning the match 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(4).

Blake will now meet Roger Federer in the third round.

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Just A few days after succeeding to the final of the Estoril Open, American James Blake, who is seeded 14^th, has advanced to the round of 32 at the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open. Blake defeated Romanian Victor Hanescu 6-2, 6-4.

Afterwards Blake said, "My curse was broken and all it took was moving to my least favorite surface."

"I just started playing my game instead of just trying to be a clay courter. I've got to play my style and play aggressive when I get the chance."

Next up for Blake is Croatian Ivo Karlovic.

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