Black Tennis Pros

The Oracle Champions Cup Presented By RBC Wealth Management at the 2019 Oracle Challenger Series in Houston, Texas was definitely worth coming out for.  The four legendary players that competed in the event, James Blake, Andy Roddick, Tommy Haas and Juan Carlos Ferrero, provided a very high spirited competition drawing in the crowd and entertaining them all through the night.




At various points during the evening, whether the players were entering or exiting the stadium, the crowd members that so desired got autographs, photos and sheer pleasure from simply being in the midst of these guys.

James Blake and Juan Carlos Ferrero opened the competition against one another with Ferrero taking the win.  Next up, Tommy Haas and Andy Roddick hit the floor with Tommy Haas taking that win.  Both segments were exciting and highly challenging, keeping the crowd cheering.

The Final competition pitted Tommy Haas against Juan Carlos Ferrero in a single set of action that would clearly earn the winner the Champions Cup.  And that winner was...  Tommy Haas.

This win placed Tommy Haas in an undefeated season on the Invesco Series QQQ circuit and claim the season-long points title on the North American tennis circuit for champion tennis players over the age of 30.

Haas, the former world No. 2 and silver medalist at the 2000 Olympic Games, finished the 2019 Invesco Series QQQ season with a perfect 10-0 record, winning titles in Newport Beach, Calif, Maui, Hawaii, New Haven, Connecticut, Los Angeles and in the season finale in Houston Thursday played indoors at the Tudor Fieldhouse at Rice University. Haas is the first player in the 15-year history of the Invesco Series to be an undefeated year-end points champion.

“I didn’t really think about it,” said the 41-year-old Haas of his season-long effort finishing atop the Invesco Series QQQ rankings. “Every time I come out, I try to play as good as I can and I enjoy myself as well. If it ends up with a win, great. I try to just compete. If the other person is better than me then so be it. This year, it’s been working pretty good.”

Despite being retired from playing tennis full-time on the ATP Tour since 2017, Haas said that fitness is still important in his life, as he said it should be for all people to get out and exercise.

“Fitness, in general, is so important,” he said. “Even as you don’t play competitive sports anymore or whatever it is that you do, you have to keep doing something every day if you can. It’s easier said than done but even for me, I don’t go out and play tennis every day, but I try to do some kind of activity. The body just needs that otherwise you get stiff. You sit around all day; you don’t do anything. Especially when you want to come out here and try to move quite well. Line yourself up to the shot the right way and still try to have some core strength, and the leg strength, so you got to stay with it.”

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Catch them while you can. Wave your flags. Root, root, root for Andy Roddick and the Williams sisters. Do it now. Love 'em or not, take a snapshot because they're the last of a breed, the endangered species of American tennis champions.

After them, extinct. Gone. Done. Think dodo birds.

Or so it seems right now.

Roddick has won only a single Grand Slam, and it was so long ago (U.S Open, '03) we still thought housing prices could only go up and few people outside of Hyde Park had heard of Barack Obama. But Roddick remains the No. 8-ranked player in the world, and is still a threat to boom his way to a Slam, and he's married to a supermodel.

After Roddick, the highest-ranked American men are John Isner (No. 19), someone named Sam Querrey (No. 22) and German-born Tommy Haas (No. 23), who became a U.S. citizen this year. From there you won't find another American man in the rankings until Mike Russell (No. 82) and the still popular but fading James Blake (No. 83). Isner, Querrey, Russell and Blake have won 15 singles titles (none of them Grand Slams), but 10 of them belong to Blake.

Venus and Serena? They're history in the flesh (literally, at times). Baby and Big Sister, straight outta Compton, are the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the world, the first siblings to achieve such a distinction since, well, Venus and Serena did it in May 2003. They have won 79 singles titles (19 of which are Slams), plus doubles and mixed doubles Slam titles. Most importantly, they've defined this generation of women's tennis. Since 2002 when Venus first reached No. 1, seven women not named Williams have been No. 1, and yet here Venus and Serena are, still thriving, lingerie outfits and whatnot, still at the summit of the game.

Which Americans behind them might reach such a pinnacle some day? Please. No one I see carrying the red, white and blue right now. The next-highest-ranked American woman is U.S. Open darling Melanie Oudin, at No. 37. Yet we've heard nary a peep since her coming out at Flushing Meadows last fall, when she became the youngest player since Serena to reach the quarterfinals, defeating fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva and Maria Sharapova en route.

Then comes Vania King at No. 69. Neither survived the first round at Roland Garros.

Among the "next" American men, only Isner reached the second round. Querrey and Russell lost in the opening round, and Blake didn't play in the tournament. (Taylor Dent, Robby Ginepri and Mardy Fish, a trio of players with lower expectations and approaching 30, also won opening matches.)

So catch The Contenders now. Roddick is just 27; Serena is a year older. Venus turns 30 in June. Physically, they should be around for at least a few more years. But fatigue and other, sexier endeavors may tug them away sooner than you know, and when it happens, tennis in the U.S. will become, well, soccer.

No, it will be worse.

As soccer, the world's most popular sport, prepares for its quadrennial global orgy, it continues to gain steady footing in the U.S. among sports fans. American Landon Donovan is certainly higher on the buzz meter than any American male tennis player not named Roddick (did I tell you he was married to a super-swimsuit model?).

Meanwhile, save for a couple of torrid weeks in the fall, and the weekends when we watch the finals of the French and Wimbledon, tennis doesn't even register a blip on our radar anymore. Interestingly, grass-roots participation in the sport has never been higher. The 2009 TIA/USTA Tennis Participation study shows that total tennis participation tops 30 million players for the first time in the 22-year history of the survey.

On the flip side, television ratings are tumbling, even for the biggest events. When Americans Andre Agassi and Serena Williams won the 1999 U.S. Open men's and women's singles titles, an average of 3.5 million television viewers watched each telecast. Three years ago, when Sweden's Roger Federer and Belgium's Justine Henin won the titles, that average had slumped to just 1.9 million viewers. (Viewership was up last year.)

The impact of an American champion is perhaps most stark at Wimbledon, which no American man has won since Pete Sampras in 2000. That year, more than 4 million U.S. viewers watched the event. By 2006, that number had plummeted to 2 million. Even with a slight uptick since, the audience has remained below 3 million. Interestingly, American women (or rather, a Williams) have won eight of the past 10 Wimbledon singles titles, though it has not been enough to stem the overall decline in viewership.

Clearly, without Roddick and the Williamses to at least make us care, tennis stands poised to fall behind soccer in popularity in the U.S.

Oh, sure, someone could always have a moment of greatness. Any of our upstarts could snatch a magic carpet and ride it to a Slam final, maybe even a title. But who's the next Roddick, who won his Grand Slam at age 21 or the next Williams, who captured their first Slam singles titles at 20 (Venus) and 18 (Serena)?No one.

Why?

Let's face it, we stink at tennis. Really stink. Despite the USTA's best efforts (or worst, depending upon whom you're talking to) to discover and nurture the next generation of tennis stars, officials simply cannot manufacture greatness. Not when the sport has become more niche than even golf, which has Tiger Woods (don't laugh), Phil Mickelson, Anthony Kim and other Americans who are a threat to be in the final pairing on any given Sunday.

Just recently, tennis icon John McEnroe announced he was opening an academy in New York. He shuns the "total immersion" model used by most of the more noted academies and is modeling his program after the one in Port Washington, N.Y., that helped build his game. Gifted players play regularly, but attend school independently from the academy. In other words, they have a life. He also hopes to draw kids from areas of the city, such as Harlem and Brooklyn, that have not traditionally been sown for tennis stars.

"People feel, put the kids in the middle of nowhere, isolate them, so all they can do is live and breathe tennis," McEnroe told The New York Times. "Me, I went to Florida with Harry Hopman, at 15 or 16, for one day and said, 'I've got to get out of here.' Never would I have made it if I had to do that. It would have been a form of torture."

I know the argument that our best athletes are playing other sports -- even relatively minor but booming ones like lacrosse. But can't we find, say, 10 kids (five boys, five girls) who can play this game at the highest level?

Sadly, no. The only kids picking up tennis racquets these days are kids whose parents play, and that's just not enough to produce champions.

And without champions -- or even potential champions -- our interest in the sport will continue to wane, especially as even the popular top foreign players like Federer, Rafael Nadal and Sharapova begin to fade due to time or injury.

Too bad. With names such as Arthur Ashe, Billie Jean King, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, Don Budge, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras, Chris Evert and others so much a part of America's past glory, it's sad that tennis no longer gives us a thrill. But it happens.

It's happening. Faster than we know. Roy S. Johnson, a veteran sports journalist and media consultant, is the editor-in-chief of Men's Fitness. His blog is Ballers, Gamers and Scoundrels.

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The world’s top tennis players and chefs are set to participate in the US Open’s hottest pre-tournament action at the 10^th Annual BNP Paribas Taste of Tennis.

This year’s lineup includes tennis superstars Andy Roddick, Tommy Haas, Billie Jean King and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who will cook-up culinary aces alongside 23 star chefs including TV personality and natural food expert Bethenny Frankel.

Attendees will be able to smooze with some of tennis's top players while tasting dishes by talented chefs from New York City and beyond. Here is the rest of the impressive culinary line-up:

Carla Hall (Alchemy Caterers / Top Chef); Ariane Duarte (CulinAriane / Top Chef); Mario Pagàn (Chayote); Alfred Portale (Gotham Bar & Grill); Todd Mark Miller (STK) - a favorite Teri Hatcher spot; Kevin Harry (Heartbeat); Chris Santos (The Stanton Social); Pete Daversa (Hill Country BBQ); Wendy Israel & Angel Elon (Baking By Design); Sue Torres (Sueños); Michael White (Marea); Roberto Treviño (Aguavia); Sebastiann Zijp (Bar Blanc); Brad Farmerie (Public); Tim Love (The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro); Chris Rendell (Double Crown); Kerry Heffeman (South Gate); Michelle Park (Kyotofu); Martin Maginley (Restaurant at Round Hill); Chai Trivedi (Pranna); Joel Dennis (Adour at The St. Regis New York); Adrian Richardson (La Luna).

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It had more of a Harlem Globetrotters feel than a high-level match, but the crowd at HP Pavilion on Monday night didn't seem all that disappointed.

Not even news that James Blake, Sampras' scheduled opponent, couldn't play because of a bad back dampened the spirit. For the second consecutive year, Tommy Haas pinch hit for an injured player (Marat Safin withdrew last year) and this time got the better of the tennis legend.

Sampras, 37, called Haas a "class act" for "saving the night for the guys here." Haas had played his first-round match an hour earlier, defeating fellow German Lars Poerschke in straight sets.

"A lot of people came to see Pete tonight, so I don't think it was really about who he was going to play," Haas said. "I played him here last year, so I thought maybe I could give him a better show, a better match this time."

Blake, who suffered back spasms during a doubles match Monday, hasn't ruled out being ready for his first-round singles match Wednesday night against Vince Spadea. Shortly before Monday's exhibition, Blake walked onto the court with tournament director Bill Rapp and broke the news to the crowd.

"I'm sorry," Blake said. "I just can't go out there and give it my best. I'm going to go back and visit the trainer. I hope to be out there Wednesday."

Source

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Already low on marquee names because of the Olympics, the Countrywide Classic lost another one Tuesday as eighth-seeded Tommy Haas was beat by 19-year-old Donald Young, 6-2, 6-4, in the first round at UCLA.

It was the earliest Haas has lost at UCLA since 2002. He won the tournament in 2004 and 2006, something Haas said may not have helped him.

"There's always usually a feeling of coming back to a tournament you've won once or even more times like in this case," he said. "You always feel pretty good about your game, so in one way it is surprising for myself but on the other hand maybe you don't want it as bad as winning another title."

Young was the youngest player to finish in the top 100 at the end of 2007 and he rose to as high as 73rd on the ATP tour this year. However, he is coming off consecutive first-round exits at Cincinnati, Toronto and Indianapolis.

"The summer by my standards hasn't been going that well," Young said. "I felt I had a lot more expectations for myself and I wasn't doing that well. To get a win here [and] . . . to beat someone of his caliber is great."

After breezing through the first set, Young broke Haas to open up the second set. Haas responded by breaking Young at love to get back on serve and the two then held serve to 4-4.

"Later in the match, obviously I got really nervous," Young said. "A lot of double faults started to roll in. . . . I have been up on a player like that before, but I hadn't closed it before. It was just different territory for me."

At 4-4, Haas fell behind, 15-40, but rallied to deuce before Young hit a winner at the net to take the game and eventually the match.

Other matches Tuesday included fifth-seeded Marat Safin of Russia beating John Isner, 6-3, 6-4, and victories by Americans Vince Spadea over Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, and Amer Delic over Dudi Sela of Israel, 6-4, 6-4.

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