Black Tennis Pros

Frenchman Gael Monfils at the 2019 Sofia Open after defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece.

ATP TOUR - Gael Monfils recorded his biggest win for four months on Friday to book his place in the Sofia Open semi-finals. The seventh-seeded Frenchman beat World No. 12 Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals champion, 6-3, 7-6(5). It was his biggest win since October 2018, when Monfils beat then No. 9-ranked John Isner at the Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna.

"Stefanos is a great player. There's no doubt," Monfils said. "Today I think it was just a few points. He's a real champion and he will become a big champion."

 Monfils broke Tsitsipas in the opening game and clinched his third set point in the 35-minute opener. Solid on serve throughout — winning 93 per cent of his first-service points — the Frenchman recovered from 4/5 down in the second-set tie-break for his fourth win of the season. Tsitsipas, who had beaten Monfils in October 2018 at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, came into the match in strong form having reached the recent Australian Open semi-finals (l. to Nadal).

Alive to thrive!

🇫🇷 🙌@Gael_Monfils rallies past second-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3 7-6(5) to reach the semis at #SofiaOpen pic.twitter.com/gh4cCmv74B

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 8, 2019

Monfils will now challenge Daniil Medvedev, who struck nine aces and lost only six of his service points to cruise past Martin Klizan of Slovakia 6-4, 6-1. The third-seeded Russian, who broke serve four times for victory in 70 minutes, improved to 9-2 on the season, which includes a runner-up finish at last month’s Brisbane International (l. to Nishikori).

"It's going to be a tough one as well. Daniil is coming on strong, won a lot of matches this year already," Monfils said. "It's going to be another battle. I think [I need to use] another gameplan because he's a different player. The ball stays very low, he serves big. I will have to adapt myself again, I guess be aggressive as well and also try to serve as big as I can."

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A Frenchman and an American serving one another into oblivion as the sun sets over the All England Club; it all sounds a little too familiar, doesn’t it? Yet here we are again, trading John Isner and Nicolas Mahut for Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Sam Querrey. The duo will resume their second-round showdown on Thursday after play was suspended with proceedings all square at 9.21pm and the score teetering at 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-7(4), 6-3, 9-9. Some matches are destined to go the distance.

The umpire announced the suspension of play at 8-8, but both the players and the crowd refused to budge. New balls were called for, and Tsonga attempted to finish the job before the ball disappeared in the twilight. He came close, bringing up break point, but Querrey stood firm, forcing a forehand error before serving his way out of trouble. The Frenchman also negotiated a dicey service game, which seemed enough to convince both player the time was right to call it a night.


source: wimbledon.org

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As the curtain goes up on the BB&T Atlanta Open, the questions that come rushing forward seem too numerous to count..First there is a tournament field that includes the top ranked American Mens players in the world, four of which will head back to the All-England Club for the Olympics in two weeks.

The early commitment from Andy Roddick was big for the image of this event. Roddick won his first career ATP title in Atlanta and remains popular despite a recent drop in rankings. A-Rod is looking to ramp up his game before heading back to England.

Mardy Fish is two-time defending champion of this event, and after dealing with health matters in the Spring, looks to be ready to go for a threepeat. Fish passed on a spot on the Olympic team and is expected to play at Washington instead. Atlanta will be he most talented field he will face until after the Olympics.

Then there is John Isner.The UGA alum and two-time runner up here is coming to town on the heels of a strong showing at Newport. A great week in front of a supportive crowd could give him the boosted he needs headed back to the scene of a disappointing early exit at Wimbledon.

There are still more questions than answers about players like Ryan Harrison. The first time Olympian is coming off a semi-final run at Newport.. Donald Young is bound for London too, but is in the throws of a 13 match losing streak. Perhaps playing before the home crowd will help he regain the form that made him a hit at the US Open last year. The more interesting story coming to the Atlanta tournament for me has to be Brian Baker, who at this time last year was ranked #752 in the world. The one time junior phenom is now an overnight sensation at age 27 and ranked 76 in the world.Look for a few folks to drive down from Music City to see Baker play in Hotlanta.

But the biggest question may be the new venue for Atlanta's ATP event. Atlantic Station is a shopping, entertainment and residential development in the heart of the city. It is an idea that is so fresh and outside of the box that some are wondering how the traditional tennis community will treat it.With over 150 thousand card carrying league tennis players in the metro Atlanta area, this is a city that has long been know for choosing to play rather than watch. Let's see if they will accept and embrace a new approach to professional tennis, not just for Atlanta but for the entire nation. Instead of Tennis Anyone it time to say Tennis Everyone...Enjoy the tournament Ya'll !!!!

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WASHINGTON (AFP) — French top seed Gael Monfils saved a match point and edged John Isner 6-4, 3-6 7-5 (8/6) in a rain-disrupted match early Sunday to reach the final of the $1.4 million ATP Washington Classic.

Big-serving American Isner and fleet-footed showman Monfils staged a classic despite a rain delay at the start and two interruptions that pushed the end to 1:15 in the morning, when Isner netted a forehand after a Monfils lob winner.

After a split with Australian coach Roger Rasheed last month following three years together and a left wrist injury that kept him out for six weeks early in the season, seventh-ranked Monfils was thrilled to reach his first US final.

"I'm very happy," Monfils said. "It's not finished, but almost a great achievement. I have had a tough year. I had an injury and a new coach. To come up strong again, it feels good."

Monfils will play for his fourth career title in Sunday's championship match at the hardcourt event against 54th-ranked Czech Radek Stepanek, who ousted American Donald Young 6-3, 6-3, in the other semi-final.

"It will be a tough match," Monfils said. "He will be aggressive. I will have to be strong from the start because it won't be easy."

Stepanek has dropped five of seven meetings with Monfils, including their most recent clash two weeks ago on Hamburg clay.

"He's moving incredibly well," Stepanek said. "He's a great shotmaker."

Isner denied Monfils on two match points in the 10th game of the third set, smashing a forehand volley winner and a 130-mph ace that Monfils appealed to video replay only to find the system had failed.

"It's frustrating because on match point, the machine goes down," Monfils said. "That's the first time that has happened to me."

In the tie-breaker, neither player took a point off the other's serve until the decider. Isner blasted a 127-mph ace to reach his lone match point at 6-5, but Monfils answered with a 110-mph ace, setting up the drama-ending shots.

"The 6-all point he hit a huge second serve, put it on the line and lobbed me," Isner said. "It was a risky shot and then I cracked on match point."

Monfils reached his first ATP final since last November at the Paris Masters event and only his second outdoor hardcourt final since 2006, the other coming last year at Tokyo. His most recent title came last October at Montpellier.

Monfils, 24, must win five matches in four days to claim a fourth career ATP crown due to rain that forced him to play twice Thursday.

Isner, ranked 35th, had won 11 of his prior 12 matches but saw his career rivalry with the Frenchman leveled at 3-3. Isner, 26, won their first meeting in a 2007 Washington semi-final that went to three tie-breakers.

Rain dogged Monfils and Isner, delaying their start, returning after they had played only seven points and striking again after Isner held to lead 5-2 in the second set, sending Monfils to talk with new coach Patrick Chamagne.

"I had the feel of his game and his serve," Monfils said. "I discussed with my coach and released all the frustration I had."

Monfils took the only break of the first set to lead 5-4 when Isner smacked a forehand wide and the Frenchman held serve with a 109-mph ace to win the set.

But Monfils netted a forehand drop volley in the second game of the second set and Isner rode the break to claim the set, the only disruption coming during a pause after a 107-mph Isner serve hit a spectator in the face.

Stepanek, the oldest player in the world's top 100 and oldest ATP finalist of the year at age 32, seeks his fifth career title in his first final since last year at Brisbane.

Stepanek, whose most recent ATP title came in 2009 at San Jose, could crack the top 30 with what he said would be the biggest title of his career.

"This tournament can give me a kick for the rest of the season," Stepanek said. "If I can make it to the US Open and be seeded, that would be great for me."

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Davis Cup teammates Andy Roddick John Isner will face off in the third round after they posted back-to-back wins on Stadium One, Sunday afternoon at the BNP Paribas Open.

World No. 8 Roddick, who dropped serve once during the one-hour, 30-minute match, broke James Blake to go up 6-5 in the second set and proceeded to clinch the 6-3, 7-5 victory with his 13th ace.

“I thought it was okay,” he said. “It was tough to get a gauge on how I was playing because James was playing so aggressively. From the first game I realized his strategy was any time; he didn't want to let me get a rhythm. I felt like he was coming out of his shoes. It was tough, but the numbers looked good afterwards. I felt like I was hitting the ball okay, so it worked out.”

It was Roddick’s eighth win in 11 matches against Blake, a former World No. 4 who has dropped to a No. 158 ranking after an injury-plagued 2010 season.

“I definitely think we've gotten closer over the course of our careers,” he said of their relationship. “Spending so many weeks early on when we were the only two young U.S. guys who were at tournaments, so we naturally, I guess kind of gravitated towards each other. And then being on the team together for so long, he's one of my favorite people. He's someone who I always cheer for.”

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Catch them while you can. Wave your flags. Root, root, root for Andy Roddick and the Williams sisters. Do it now. Love 'em or not, take a snapshot because they're the last of a breed, the endangered species of American tennis champions.

After them, extinct. Gone. Done. Think dodo birds.

Or so it seems right now.

Roddick has won only a single Grand Slam, and it was so long ago (U.S Open, '03) we still thought housing prices could only go up and few people outside of Hyde Park had heard of Barack Obama. But Roddick remains the No. 8-ranked player in the world, and is still a threat to boom his way to a Slam, and he's married to a supermodel.

After Roddick, the highest-ranked American men are John Isner (No. 19), someone named Sam Querrey (No. 22) and German-born Tommy Haas (No. 23), who became a U.S. citizen this year. From there you won't find another American man in the rankings until Mike Russell (No. 82) and the still popular but fading James Blake (No. 83). Isner, Querrey, Russell and Blake have won 15 singles titles (none of them Grand Slams), but 10 of them belong to Blake.

Venus and Serena? They're history in the flesh (literally, at times). Baby and Big Sister, straight outta Compton, are the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the world, the first siblings to achieve such a distinction since, well, Venus and Serena did it in May 2003. They have won 79 singles titles (19 of which are Slams), plus doubles and mixed doubles Slam titles. Most importantly, they've defined this generation of women's tennis. Since 2002 when Venus first reached No. 1, seven women not named Williams have been No. 1, and yet here Venus and Serena are, still thriving, lingerie outfits and whatnot, still at the summit of the game.

Which Americans behind them might reach such a pinnacle some day? Please. No one I see carrying the red, white and blue right now. The next-highest-ranked American woman is U.S. Open darling Melanie Oudin, at No. 37. Yet we've heard nary a peep since her coming out at Flushing Meadows last fall, when she became the youngest player since Serena to reach the quarterfinals, defeating fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva and Maria Sharapova en route.

Then comes Vania King at No. 69. Neither survived the first round at Roland Garros.

Among the "next" American men, only Isner reached the second round. Querrey and Russell lost in the opening round, and Blake didn't play in the tournament. (Taylor Dent, Robby Ginepri and Mardy Fish, a trio of players with lower expectations and approaching 30, also won opening matches.)

So catch The Contenders now. Roddick is just 27; Serena is a year older. Venus turns 30 in June. Physically, they should be around for at least a few more years. But fatigue and other, sexier endeavors may tug them away sooner than you know, and when it happens, tennis in the U.S. will become, well, soccer.

No, it will be worse.

As soccer, the world's most popular sport, prepares for its quadrennial global orgy, it continues to gain steady footing in the U.S. among sports fans. American Landon Donovan is certainly higher on the buzz meter than any American male tennis player not named Roddick (did I tell you he was married to a super-swimsuit model?).

Meanwhile, save for a couple of torrid weeks in the fall, and the weekends when we watch the finals of the French and Wimbledon, tennis doesn't even register a blip on our radar anymore. Interestingly, grass-roots participation in the sport has never been higher. The 2009 TIA/USTA Tennis Participation study shows that total tennis participation tops 30 million players for the first time in the 22-year history of the survey.

On the flip side, television ratings are tumbling, even for the biggest events. When Americans Andre Agassi and Serena Williams won the 1999 U.S. Open men's and women's singles titles, an average of 3.5 million television viewers watched each telecast. Three years ago, when Sweden's Roger Federer and Belgium's Justine Henin won the titles, that average had slumped to just 1.9 million viewers. (Viewership was up last year.)

The impact of an American champion is perhaps most stark at Wimbledon, which no American man has won since Pete Sampras in 2000. That year, more than 4 million U.S. viewers watched the event. By 2006, that number had plummeted to 2 million. Even with a slight uptick since, the audience has remained below 3 million. Interestingly, American women (or rather, a Williams) have won eight of the past 10 Wimbledon singles titles, though it has not been enough to stem the overall decline in viewership.

Clearly, without Roddick and the Williamses to at least make us care, tennis stands poised to fall behind soccer in popularity in the U.S.

Oh, sure, someone could always have a moment of greatness. Any of our upstarts could snatch a magic carpet and ride it to a Slam final, maybe even a title. But who's the next Roddick, who won his Grand Slam at age 21 or the next Williams, who captured their first Slam singles titles at 20 (Venus) and 18 (Serena)?No one.

Why?

Let's face it, we stink at tennis. Really stink. Despite the USTA's best efforts (or worst, depending upon whom you're talking to) to discover and nurture the next generation of tennis stars, officials simply cannot manufacture greatness. Not when the sport has become more niche than even golf, which has Tiger Woods (don't laugh), Phil Mickelson, Anthony Kim and other Americans who are a threat to be in the final pairing on any given Sunday.

Just recently, tennis icon John McEnroe announced he was opening an academy in New York. He shuns the "total immersion" model used by most of the more noted academies and is modeling his program after the one in Port Washington, N.Y., that helped build his game. Gifted players play regularly, but attend school independently from the academy. In other words, they have a life. He also hopes to draw kids from areas of the city, such as Harlem and Brooklyn, that have not traditionally been sown for tennis stars.

"People feel, put the kids in the middle of nowhere, isolate them, so all they can do is live and breathe tennis," McEnroe told The New York Times. "Me, I went to Florida with Harry Hopman, at 15 or 16, for one day and said, 'I've got to get out of here.' Never would I have made it if I had to do that. It would have been a form of torture."

I know the argument that our best athletes are playing other sports -- even relatively minor but booming ones like lacrosse. But can't we find, say, 10 kids (five boys, five girls) who can play this game at the highest level?

Sadly, no. The only kids picking up tennis racquets these days are kids whose parents play, and that's just not enough to produce champions.

And without champions -- or even potential champions -- our interest in the sport will continue to wane, especially as even the popular top foreign players like Federer, Rafael Nadal and Sharapova begin to fade due to time or injury.

Too bad. With names such as Arthur Ashe, Billie Jean King, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, Don Budge, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras, Chris Evert and others so much a part of America's past glory, it's sad that tennis no longer gives us a thrill. But it happens.

It's happening. Faster than we know. Roy S. Johnson, a veteran sports journalist and media consultant, is the editor-in-chief of Men's Fitness. His blog is Ballers, Gamers and Scoundrels.

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At the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, third seeded powerhouse Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was defeated in his second round match against American John Isner 4-6, 7-6, 7-6.

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At the Legg Mason Classic in Washington D.C. on Tuesday evening, wildcard entrant American Donald Young made his second ATP World Tour main draw appearance of the season and was attempting to post his first match win since last year’s Washington opener (defeated Luis Horna, lost to John Isner).

Unfortunately Young went down to Former World No. 1 Australian Lleyton Hewett in a compelling center court match 7-5, 6-2. Hewitt saved eight break points throughout the 1 hour 34 minute match to secure his place in the second round of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.

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At the Movie Gallery Pro Classic tennis tournament in Dothan, Alabama at the Westgate Tennis Center on Saturday, American Shenay Perry advanced to the event's final when her opponent Austrian Patricia Mayr retired at 6-3, 2-1, Perry leading.

When asked about the win Perry said, “I will take anything , I felt like I was playing pretty good.”

In the other semifinal American Carly Gullickson defeated Russian Evgeniya Rodina 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. Gullickson and Perry are good friends and have played together on occasion as doubles partners. The two have played each other in singles competition twice — each winning once.

“Playing each other in the finals would be fun,” Gullickson said before the second semifinal match began.

Sunday's final will be the first championship match of the year for both players.

“I’ve never done well here before,” Perry said. “I always hate to play a friend, but playing against Gullickson will be fun.”




At the USTA Tallahassee Tennis Challenger Presented by Comcast at Forestmeadows in Tallahassee, Florida on Saturday, Donald Young, who defeated Robert Kendrick 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the semifinals, met John Isner in the championship match.

The first set went back and forth, with both players holding serve until 5-5. On Young’s serve, Isner was able to capitalize on his second break chance to take the lead 6-5. Young was able to save one set point, but Isner’s serve proved to be too much, as the former Bulldog pulled out the set 7-5.

“Donald had some chances to break me because I started off a little slow,” Isner said. “I was fortunate to get out of some jams on my serve, and that helped me gain momentum. Once I got a look at a break point, I played a pretty good point and converted.”

Young was defeated by the former Georgia Bulldog 7-5, 6-4.

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Wow... I totally didn't see this coming.

In second round play at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California today, world no. 9 Gael Monfils of France was ousted by American John Isner, currently ranked at world no. 147. Isner defeated Monfils 7-6(5), 6-1, 6-4.

Monfils did not muster much defense or offense as Isner did not face any break points on serve, and broke Monfils three times in the one hour, 58 minute match.

This is the first time that Isner will advance to the third round of the BNP Paribas Open.

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