Black Tennis Pros

American Serena Williams couldn't seem to keep up the powerful momentum she had been building in the Australian Open Series Medibank International. After her elongated quarterfinal match against Caroline Wozniacki, there just wasn't much left in the tank

World no. 12 Russian Elena Dementieva was up to the challenge and engaged Serena in a number of power rallies that at least made some of the match worthy of watching. Dementieva defeated Serena 6-3, 6-1. Ouuuuuch.

"I gave it away more than anything. I made a lot of errors and made her look like a champ, really. I just pretty much gave her the match," said Serena.

"It was good to have a few matches under my belt getting ready for Melbourne." I feel like I'm going play a lot better than what I did this week. My main goal, obviously, is to go to Melbourne and do the best that I can do."

SINGLES

Round 1

Serena Williams, USA defeated Samantha Stosur, AUS
6-3, 6-7(4), 7-5

Round 2

Serena Williams, USA defeated Sara Errani, ITA
6-1, 6-2

Quarterfinal Round

Serena Williams defeated Caroline Wozniacki, DEN
6-7(6), 6-3, 7-6(3)


DOUBLES

Round 1

Racquel Kops-Jones, USA and Vladimira Uhlirova, CZE
defeated by
Jill Craybas, USA and Galina Voskoboeva, KAZ
4-6, 6-2, [10/4]


SINGLES

Round 1

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA vs. BYE


DOUBLES

Round 1

Jeff Coetzee, RSA vs. Rohan Bopanna, IND
defeated by
Nicolas Almagro, ESP and Ivan Navarro, ESP
3-6, 6-3, [10/6]




WOMEN'S SINGLES

Round 1

Angela Haynes, USA vs. Ajla Tomljanovic, CRO

Ahsha Rolle, USA vs. Alexandra Anghelescu, USA


WOMEN'S DOUBLES

Round 1

Ahsha Rolle, USA and Tiya Rolle, USA
defeated
Sabrina Capannolo, USA and Christian Thompson, USA
2-6, 6-4, [10/8]

Mashona Washington, USA and Maria-Fernanda Alves, BRA
defeated
Simona Dobra, CZE and Monika Kochanova, SVK
6-4, 6-1

Angela Haynes, USA and Christina Fusano, USA
defeated
Alexandra Anghelescu, USA and Hsu Chieh-Yu, USA
6-1, 6-0


Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

Tiya Rolle, USA
Whitney Jones, USA
Jennifer Elie, USA


MEN'S SINGLES

Round 1

Nicholas Monroe, USA defeated by Michael McClune, USA
0-6, 6-3, 7-6(6)

Phillip Simmonds, USA vs. Todd Paul, USA


DOUBLES

Round 1

Nicholas Monroe, USA and Phillip Simmonds, USA
defeated by
Uladzimir Ignatik, BLR and Tigran Martirosyan, ARM
3-6, 6-4, [10/3]

Paul Todd, USA vs. Gregory Ouellette, USA
defeated
Rhyne Williams, USA vs. Dennis Zivkovic, USA
1-6, 6-4 [11/9]

Marcus Fugate, USA and Andreas Siljestrom, SWE
defeated by
Tihomir Grozdanov, BUL and Simeon Ivanov, BUL
1-6, 6-3, [10/8]

Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

Marcus Fugate, USA

World No. 38 Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has cast the first big blow in the men's singles draw. Tsonga has dispatched world no. 9 Brit Andy Murray from the 2008 Australian Open in the first round, Ouch!

Tsonga and his powerful shots won the first two sets 7-5, 6-4. At the beginning of the third set it appeared that he was having some sort of foot problem. Murray was able to capitalize on whatever the problem was and took the set 6-0. This obviously appeared as if the rest of the match was going to be a wash for Tsonga. Not so. It was a back and forth match for both of the players and Tsonga continued to hobble around. In the end, Tsonga took the fourth set 7-5 It was great!

Tsonga may still be riding high on that doubles win that he and fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet recently had over Bob and Mike Bryan. The French pair defeated the world no. 1 American twin brothers 4-6, 6-4, 11-9.

If the last couple of matches are any indication of Tsonga's season for 2008, it appears he'll have a pretty sweet year!

I'm glad that Wordless Wednesday is coming up, because the fellas are getting knocked out of first rounds left and right. First it was American James Blake, and now it's Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who was defeated 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 by Italian Andreas Seppi at the Medibank International. Tsonga racked up seven aces, but it really didn't seem to matter.

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Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Medibank International
Australian Open Series

James Blake's attempt to win his third successive Sydney International ended Monday after just one match.

France's Fabrice Santoro beat the third-seeded American 7-6 (4), 6-2, taking a 5-0 lead in the second set before Blake came back to win a pair of games. Blake broke Santoro with the Frenchman serving for the match, but then lost it on his own service two games later.

Blake won the Sydney International in 2006 and 2007, beating Carlos Moya in last year's final. He was trying to become the first man since Australian John Bromwich in 1940 to win the title three times in a row.

Blake, who helped the United States win the Davis Cup in November over Russia, said he had some problems adjusting to the new plexicushion surface - the same surface that will be used in Melbourne at the Australian Open.

"Maybe it was him, maybe it was the court, but it seemed so slow it was tough for me to put balls away," Blake said. "I think I got a bit ahead of myself."

Blake admitted to being a little sluggish after his late 2007 season due to the Davis Cup.

"I would have loved to have had a longer offseason, but I'll trade that for a Davis Cup win anytime," he said.

Sports

Tennis

James Blake

Australian Open Series

Medibank International

Round 1 - Singles

James Blake, USA vs Fabrice Santoro FRA
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA vs Andreas Seppi, ITA

Round 1 - Doubles

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA and Richard Gasquet, FRA
vs
Chris Guccione, AUS and Robert Smeets, AUS

Technorati Tags: Sports Tennis
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga James Blake
Australian Open Series Medibank International