Black Tennis Pros

Even though both Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils have been having a pretty good go of it lately, Thursday morning presented all manner of issues for both of them at the Shanghai ATP Masters.

First up was Big Jo-Willie, whose forehand was an obstacle in and of itself. In falling to Swede Robin Soderling, Tsonga was all over the place. He couldn't seem to get his game organized in his head or on the court. I've rarely seen Tsonga so frustrated on court. He demolished one of his uncooperative racquets after an errant forehand. He may have killed that stupid racquet, but it didn't improve his game.

Soderling was playing much better and took advantage of the out of sorts Tsonga. He went on to defeat the number five seed 6-3, 6-3.

The same seemed to be true for fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils who went up against Croatian Ivan Ljubicic after the Tsonga vs. Soderling match. After losing the first set and continuing to play very poorly, down 6-3, 3-0, Monfils came to net, shook Ljubicic's hand, then retired.

I didn't catch the nature of the injury, but I'm sure we'll be hearing about it at some point today.

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