Black Tennis Pros

Naomi Osaka's title defense ended with a trouncing from the No. 23 seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.  In 65 minutes, Bencic blew through the match taking Naomi out at 6-3, 6-1... WHOA!!

This is the second event that lead Bencic to defeating a World No. 1. In 2015 Bencic defeated Serena Williams and went on to win the Toronto Rogers Cup.

With today's loss Naomi will continue to retain her World No. 1 ranking through Miami.

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Donald Young, Jr. In 2019 Oracle Challenger Series

 (Oracle Challenger Series) In a three-set tiebreak victory over World No. 267 Thai-Son Kwiatowski, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4), World No. 214 Donald Young kepts his wild card hopes very much alive. By securing a second round appearance at Oracle Challenger Series Indian Wells, Young is guaranteed at least 5 ranking points which, when added to his current total of 70, places him even with fellow Americans Roy Smith and Reilly Opelka, neither of whom are playing the Indian Wells event.

A seasoned player who has spent 15 years on the ATP Tour, Young, who was once ranked as high as World No. 38, is no stranger to the BNP Paribas Open and hopes to capitalize on Oracle’s unique tournament format to earn himself a wild card.

Up next for Young is number 10 seed and World No. 122, Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland.

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2012 US Open Junior Girls' Doubles Champions (L-R) Taylor Townsend and Gabrielle Andrews

American girls Gabrielle Andrews and Taylor Townsend avenged their loss in the final of last year’s US Open on Saturday by defeating Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and Petra Uberalova of Slovakia, 6-4, 6-3, to raise the 2012 trophy.

The win finishes off an incredible year for the American duo, who now have two Grand Slam junior titles to their name, adding the US Open title to their 2012 Australian Open championship they won as doubles partners in January. This also marks the third girls' doubles Grand Slam win and fourth Grand Slam finals appearance for Townsend, who won the Australian Open and made it to the French Open final with Canadian Eugenie Bouchard earlier this year.

In the first set of their match on Court 13 Saturday, it was an even contest, with both teams holding serve throughout. Serving at 4-4, Townsend was pushed to deuce, but after Bencic sent a return sailing long, the Americans held serve. Andrews and Taylor used that momentum to get a timely break in the following game and won the set, 6-4.

Neither team could hold serve to start the second set, exchanging breaks, until the U.S. girls regrouped and played lights-out tennis to finish the match off.

Meanwhile, on Court 11, the boys doubles final was pushed to a tiebreak, with Kyle Edmund of Great Britain and Frederico Ferreira Silva of Portugal overcoming the all-Australian team of Nick Kyrgios and Jordan Thompson, 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (6). After battling it out for over an hour and a half, Edmund and Ferreira Silva hoisted the winner's trophy.

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Q.  What do you think about playing James Blake next?

ROGER FEDERER: Fun.  I’m really looking forward to it.  He’s a good friend of mine, and it’s been hard seeing him go through challenges and surgeries and injuries and so forth.  He’s back on the big stage where he belongs, especially here in the States.  It’s going to be a tricky, tough match.

I don’t know if the last match we played against each other was the Olympic match, but that was obviously a pretty big match for me to lose as well.  May be getting a chance for some revenge.  I’m looking forward to it.

Seems like he’s playing well.  Definitely going to be ready for it.  Had a great finals here years ago, and hope we can make something similar happen.

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Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga celebrates after taking out Switzerland's Roger Federer in the 2011 Wimbledon Championships Men's Quarterfinals.

Roger Federer

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga became the first player ever to overturn a two-set deficit and beat Roger Federer in a Grand Slam match in the Wimbledon quarter-finals on Wednesday. The Frenchman demonstrated all his flair and power as he rallied to defeat the six-time champion 3-6, 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on Centre Court.

"For me it's just amazing," said Tsonga. "The feeling is like maybe beating
[Rafael] Nadal in Roland Garros, so it's just amazing. And for me it will be, for sure, one of the best memories in my career anyway."

"I felt so good on the court. I was quick. I was just perfect today. Every time I was feeling like a dream. Even at two sets down, because I was in the quarter-finals again Roger Federer. The stadium was full. I was not ridiculous. I was in my match. I'm the kind of player who likes these big moments. So I hope I will have some more."

Federer had commanded a 178-0 record when winning the first two sets in a Grand Slam match, and had only previously lost a two-set lead in five-set matches twice before in his career. The first instance came against Lleyton Hewitt in the 2003 Davis Cup semi-finals, before David Nalbandia repeated the feat in the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai final.

World No. 19 Tsonga is through to the semi-finals at Wimbledon for the first time, having fallen to Andy Murray in the 2010 quarter-finals at the All England Club. The Frenchman made his major breakthrough at the 2008 Australian Open, where he beat Rafael Nadal to reach his first final before finishing runner-up to Novak Djokovic. Two years later he reached the semi-finals in Melbourne for the second time, when he was beaten by Federer in straight sets.



For a place in the final, Tsonga will face World No. 2 Novak Djokovic, who ended Australian qualifier Bernard Tomic's dream run with a four-set win.

Tsonga takes a 5-2 career lead into his eighth clash with Djokovic. Their last meeting came in the 2010 Australian Open quarter-finals, when Tsonga prevailed in five sets.

The Le Mans native had advanced to the last eight for the loss of just one set, against Grigor Dimitrov in the second round, but suffered from nerves in the early stages against Federer and paid the price as too many unforced errors saw him surrender his serve in the second game. Federer did not relinquish the lead, saving one break point in the fifth game but was otherwise dominant on serve as he closed out the opener.

Both players settled into a high level in the 47-minute second set, in which neither player was able to break serve. In the subsequent tie-break, Federer seized the initiative, racing to a 5-0 advantage before closing out the seemingly commanding two-set lead with a forehand winner.

The coach-less Tsonga did not let his head go down, though. Instead, the Frenchman stepped in to attack Federer and broke the Swiss’ serve for the first time in the match in the third game after converting his third opportunity with a forehand winner on the run that caught the edge of the line. Federer looked to repair the damage in the latter stages of the set, twice holding a 0/30 advantage on the Tsonga serve in the eighth and 10th games. He was unable to build further, though, and Tsonga’s comeback began as he clinched his third set point with an unreturned serve.




The 12th-seeded Tsonga swiftly built on his momentum, going after a Federer second serve in the third game of the fourth set and breaking down the Swiss’ defences with a blistering forehand winner. Solid on serve, Tsonga coolly went on to level the match with a love service hold in the 10th game.

With Federer reeling, Tsonga took full advantage, bullying the 16-time Grand Slam champion with his booming forehand and drawing a crucial error in the first game of the fifth set to gain an early service break. Federer would earn no chances to regain the break, and Tsonga went on to close out victory in three hours and eight minutes.

"I served just unbelievable," assessed Tsonga. "I feel really confident on this shot. I hope it will continue. It is difficult to play against him because you don't know exactly what he's thinking, what's happening in his head. He has all the time the same behaviour, and it's difficult because he plays so fast. You don't know if he's scared or not, and it's really difficult. I didn't look at him. I was just focused on me, on my serve, and that's it."

Tsonga is the fifth Frenchman to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals in the Open Era, following Henri Leconte (1986), Cedric Pioline (1997), Sebastien Grosjean (2003-2004) and Richard Gasquet(2007). Pioline went on to become the only Frenchman in the Open Era to reach the final (l. to Sampras). The last Frenchman to win the title was Yvon Petra in 1946.

"It's always a tough match to lose today," said Federer, who also lost in the quarter-finals last year (l. to Berdych). "But I think Jo played great. Really from start to finish I don't remember seeing a break point after I broke him in the first game. But I was close. I had all my chances. He came up with some good stuff. So it was tough. I'm actually pretty pleased with my performance today. It's kind of hard going out of the tournament that way, but unfortunately it does happen sometimes."

The 29-year-old Swiss was looking to win his first major title since the 2010 Australian Open, and claim a record-tying seventh Wimbledon crown.

“It's the second year running that the talk has been about me equalling Pete's seven Wimbledons. I didn't feel that makes it particularly special. I love equalling any record Pete has made, but it's not the driving force behind my motivation really. I love Pete. It's always nice doing stuff that he did. But at the end of the day I'm trying to win a tournament.”

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Frenchman Gael Monfils walks off court after losing quarterfinal match to Roger Federer.

Just one day after the French Open's No. 9 seed, Frenchman Gael Monfils put on an incredible display of tennis in his defeat of  Spaniard David Ferrer, the beat was turned around and Monfils was made to dance... to the tune of Roger Federer. Switzerland's tennis wonder put on a clinic for which Monfils could not find a response.

Roger Federer celebrates QF win.

Monfils had chances in the match, but could never get enough distance between him and Federer in set or seize any type of real momentum in the match on a windy day on Philippe Chatrier. He did lead 3-1 in the first set and the crowd pulled for him with all their worth, but he was inconsistent with his serve and off the ground, barely winning over 51 % of his service points and committing a whopping 53 unforced errors while nailing only 24 winners.

"My biggest weak point was I couldn't serve at all. It was serious handicap," Monfils said. "With more serves I would have been more dangerous."
The 2009 Roland Garros champion had chances to steamroll through the third set, but Monfils hung tough and forced it into a tiebreaker. But there, Federer committed only one unforced error. He whacked two forehand winners to open sudden death and then closed Monfils out with a big serve and a forehand down the line.

"He changes the pace, and he changes the pace so quickly," Monfils said. "This hurts. He's the only one almost to hurt you that much, that quickly. All of a sudden he strikes the ball."

"Roger is always present and has a lot of ambitions still," Monfils said. "But Novak plays so well, it's going to be an incredible match. I'll be the first one to watch it."

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American super twins Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan got the job done in Birmingham, Alabama today by chalking up a 6-3 6-4 3-6 7-6(2) win over the Swiss doubles team of Yves Allegro and Stanislas Wawrinka. The USA takes a 2-1 lead over Switzerland.

This win gives the Bryans their 15th out of 17 Davis Cup match wins. They now become the most winning doubles team in US Davis Cup history.

Mike Bryan said, “obviously it feels very good to be considered one of the best US doubles teams. We have a lot of respect for teams like McEnroe-Fleming and Flach-Seguso, guys like that, but we just do what we do and treat every match like a grand slam final and put everything into it and here we are six years later, we have 15 wins and being considered one of the best teams.”

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The United States and Switzerland draw even at 1-1 in the first round of 2009 Davis Cup play.

In the first rubber, after an impressive first set, James Blake was defeated by Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 6-7(3).

The second rubber paired Andy Roddick against Marco Chiudinelli whom Roddick defeated 6-1, 6-3, 7-6(5). This win brought Roddick his 30th Davis Cup victory, tying him in total wins with Andre Agassi in sixth place in American Davis Cup history.

Tomorrow’s doubles line-up will feature Bob and Mike Bryan against Yves Allegro and Wawrinka. The USA is favored against the team even with Wawrinka having won the Olympic gold medal in doubles with Roger Federer, beating the Bryan brothers in route to the final.

On Sunday in reverse rubbers, Roddick will face Wawrinka in the opening singles followed by Blake against Chiudinelli.

Photos by AP/Getty Images

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Venus Williams advanced to the final of the Zurich Open on Saturday with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over second seed Ana Ivanovic.

It marks a long awaited return to the final of this tournament for Williams - she has not played here on the final day since 1999 when - at the age of 19 - she topped then-number one Martina Hingis to claim the ninth of her 37 career titles.

The two-time reigning Wimbledon champion will go for another on Sunday when she faces Italy's Flavia Pennetta, a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) winner over Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain in Saturday's other semi-final.

Williams ranked ninth in the world and seeded third here, has now won five of her six meetings against Ivanovic, who has not played well during the second half of this season.

"Winning close matches are rewarding, and especially at the end I think we were both competing very well," said Williams. "I think that sometimes it's tough to get a rhythm against her because when she plays me she's just going for everything.

"She plays aggressive to try and take the match away from me and to try and force the issue."

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