Black Tennis Pros

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga set up a last 16 meeting with Novak Djokovic as he dismissed last year’s Wimbledon semi-finalist Jerzy Janowicz in front of a roaring Suzanne Lenglen crowd. What he lacked in perfect accuracy, the Frenchman more than made up for with bravura – it was the kind of day he relishes, galloping about the court in front of the home faithful. He beat the No.22 seed 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.


The two traded breaks at the start of the third as Tsonga’s concentration wandered a little. But halfway through the set the Frenchman breached Janowicz’s defences again – and this time it stuck. He closed out the match with a smash, to leave the crowd recalling memories of his epic quarter-final with Novak Djokovic two years ago when Tsonga somehow saw four match points go by. His ranking now is not as high as it was then, and the Serb is hungrier than ever for the title – but their fourth-round match this coming Sunday is an intriguing prospect, just the same.

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Talk about a painful match to watch!

Both American Serena Williams and the Czech Republic's Klara Zakopalova agonized throughout their match on the Suzanne Lenglen Court at the French Open today, with Serena taking the bigger brunt of the pain even though she went on to win the three-set match 6-3, 6⁵-7⁷, 6-4.

"I was just desperate for a win," the second-seeded Williams said, "and I think it pretty much showed in my game."

Serena described today's performance as "horrendous." She then added, "I just played junior tennis — or even worse."

Throughout the error laden match Serena looked to gain more pain with each error.

After the 2^1/2 hour match was finally won, she joined sister Venus for a round of doubles. That match is currently suspended because of darkness until Wednesday.

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Given that he was highly doubtful about his ability to play in the 2009 Roland Garros because of a knee injury, Frenchman Gaël Monfils has begun the tournament very impressively.

“I’m not thinking too much about my injury,” said Monfils. I decided to play. I’m going to stop talking about being hurt or not hurt. I’m in the tournament, and for once, I started at a high level. Now it’s a question of how I can build on it.”

Monfils’s impressed the crowd in the Suzanne-Lenglen court with his 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 defeat of Bobby Reynolds.

“I feel strong, and I was hitting strong,” said Monfils. “After a few more matches and with a bit more confidence, I’ll be hitting even harder. And I tell myself, why not take things further?”

“I didn’t have to dig too far into my reserves today,” Monfils said. “But I could see in the rallies we had that I was there and I hadn’t lost too much of my game.”

In the next round, he faces the Romanian Victor Crivoi.

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