Black Tennis Pros

On Friday, February 6, American Serena Williams pulled out of the Paris Open because of a leg injury. This injury and her inability to play comes as no surprise to anyone who watched her win her fifth Australian Open last month in spite of having her leg and other places heavily taped.

At the Paris Open on Wednesday, Russian Elena Dementieva spoke about Serena's absence.

"It's very disappointing for the tournament because she is a great player."

"We have had some great matches. I always like to play against her. It is a great experience. But you saw her in Australia with all that taping on her leg and she still produced a great win.

"So it is not surprising that she isn't here -- especially as she is always playing to win a tournament and pushing herself."

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SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA (TICKER) - At The SAP Open Blake injured his ankle on Friday in a quarterfinal win over Sam Querrey. The injury affected his effort against Fish. Fish defeated Blake 6-3, 6-2.

“I had no idea his ankle was that bad,” Fish said. “It’s just a testament to James. He’s never defaulted in a match in his career.”

Blake was down 1-2 in the first set when he asked for a trainer and had his ankle retaped. He had the process repeated at the end of the first set, but to no avail.

“It affected me more than I thought it would have when I did it,” Blake said. “I just iced it a few times yesterday and taped it up. I thought I’d be ready to go.”

The trainer told Blake that he would not do any more damage, so the third seed played on.

“I thought if I wasn’t going to hurt it any more, I could suck up the pain for 20 minutes, 30 minutes and make it a little better for the fans, hopefully, and better for Mardy to feel like he earned a victory, which he did,” Blake said.

PARIS (AP)— Elena Dementieva advanced to the final of the Open GDF Suez after top-ranked Serena Williams withdrew with a knee injury.

Williams said she hurt her right knee during Friday’s win against Emilie Loit and was in too much pain to play.

“My left knee always hurts, but this time it’s my right knee,” Williams said. “When I woke up this morning, it wasn’t feeling good. I wasn’t moving well at all in practice.

“Today I don’t feel like I could have gotten there. I wanted to make the fans extremely happy. It wouldn’t have been a good showing for me at all.”

"My knees have been really good, and I'm really optimistic. I think they'll continue to be really good," said Williams who is due to play in Dubai next week.

"I just have been playing a lot of tennis, so maybe it's just a sign that I'll need to take a day or two off and get ready for the next event."

Monfils, who struggled with illness in his quarter-final win over Julien Benneteau at the ABN AMRO World Tournament, cut a lethargic figure as he returned to court after an off-court medical time-out at the end of the first set and punishingly long rallies with World No. 1 Rafael Nadal. The 22-year-old Monfils showed great character as he continued to fight and produced some of his best tennis towards the end of the second set, when he forced break point opportunities in successive Nadal service games. However, the left-handed Nadal dominated on the important points to snuff out Monfils’ chances and confidently served out the victory to love at 5-4. He now improves to a 13-1 match record on the season.

Monfils was defeated 6-4, 6-4.

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PARIS (AP) — Top-ranked Serena Williams defeated Emilie Loit 6-4, 6-1 to set up a semifinal with Elena Dementieva for the third straight tournament at the Open GDF Suez on Friday.

Loit, only the second qualifier in tournament history to make the quarterfinals, broke Williams when she was serving for the first set at 5-3. Williams threw her racket on the ground but broke right back and cruised the rest of the way.

"Definitely a tricky match," said Williams, the Australian Open champion. "Definitely good to get through, you know? I don't play too many lefties.

"I definitely don't feel at my best," Williams added, "but I feel like I'm getting there."

Dementieva gave Williams her only loss of the year in the Sydney semifinals, but Williams avenged that in the Australian Open semifinals en route to her 10th Grand Slam singles title.


SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — James Blake beat fellow American Sam Querrey 7-6 (9), 6-3 on Friday to advance to the semifinals of the SAP Open, setting up an intriguing meeting with doubles teammate Mardy Fish.

Blake hung on to win despite rolling his ankle with two points to go. He reached the semis shortly after Fish, his close friend and teammate, beat Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 6-4, upsetting the world's seventh-ranked player.

After Fish and Blake meet in a semifinal match Saturday afternoon, they'll team up for a doubles match late that night. They won the doubles title at San Jose in 2004, and both say their games improve when they're working together.

"There won't be any hard feelings," Blake said with a grin. "There better not be any hard feelings, or there might be a serve to the back of the head. ... Hopefully, we can go out to dinner tonight, play each other tomorrow, and then go out to dinner again."

Frenchman Gael Monfils defeated fellow Frenchman Julien Benneteau 7-6(4), 6-1 in an all-French quarter-final at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Next up for Monfils is World No. 1 Rafael Nadal. Monfils handed Nadal his only loss thus far of the 2009 ATP World Tour tennis season, posting a quarter-final win at the ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament in Doha in the first week of the year. The Spaniard had won their first three meetings in straight sets.



Although Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga hit 26 aces, that's right count 'em 26 at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, he was still not able to topple Spaniard Rafael Nadal. Tsonga was defeated 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4.

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PARIS (AP) — Top-ranked Serena Williams showed no signs of the illness which kept her bedridden last week as she ousted Karolina Sprem 6-1, 6-2 to reach the Open GDF Suez quarterfinals on Thursday.

Williams, after winning the Australian Open, didn't practice until Monday, and was relieved to get through the first round of the indoor tournament she's won twice.

Her second-round match was easier, as Williams took less than an hour to beat the Croatian qualifier, converting her first match point with a forehand return winner down the line.

Next up will be French qualifier Emilie Loit, whom Williams hasn't met in six years.

"She's a lefty, she uses a lot of spins and slices," Williams said about Loit. "She's a very experienced player and tricky."

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Serena Williams joined the chorus of top tennis players who believe the new anti-doping measures on athletes are too strong, she called the rules implemented by the International Tennis Federation as “over the top.”

“It’s very invasive,” she said. “Basically, they show up at your house on any day.

Under the new rules, athletes must specify one hour each day when and where they can be located for testing. They also must tell anti-doping authorities where they will be over the next three months, but they can update this by e-mail or phone message.

Photo by AP

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