Black Tennis Pros

In a real display of mind over matter, the heavily bandaged and obviously fatigued World No. 1 Serena Williams pressed on to a straight sets victory in Thursday's semifinal match against Li Na of China. Talk about the walking wounded!

The hallmark of this champion is without question fortitude. Clearly bandaged, admittedly not in her best form and playing doubles with sister Venus as well, has presented a challenge to the younger Williams sister that few could meet. Yet Serena continues to not only show up and press on... she's winning.

One day after a hard-fought comeback win that sent Belarusian Victoria Azarenka home, Serena steadied herself and her game sufficient to dismiss the woman who defeated sister Venus the previous day.

Taking the match 7-6(4), 7-6(1), Serena toiled against the very fit shot making Li Na who should have won the match given her opponents limitations. As the match went on Serena seemed to be encouraged and strengthened by her ability to hang into the match. By the end she was pumped and ready for whatever came across the net.

After her inspiring performance Serena said, "I am happy I was able to pull it out, it was really close. I wasn't at my best today but I'm still here, which is shocking, and I'm just going to do whatever I can to stay."

A few hours afterwards Serena joined sister Venus for their doubles semifinal match against American Lisa Raymond and Australian Rennae Stubbs. The sisters defeated the ladies 6-3, 7-6(8/6) and set up a final against American Liezel Huber and Zimbabwe's Cara Black, the same team they met in 2009's final.

Read the rest of this post...........

Let's start with one of my favorite Americans, Venus Williams... it was such a rough day at the office, to say the least, for her and her fans. Venus came out and whipped all kinds of tennis beat down on China's Li Na in the first set, to the tune of 6-2, it was merciless.

At the end of that set it pretty much became a foregone conclusion that Venus would more than likely be headed for a meeting with younger sis Serena in the semifinals. Then, the very weird and strange occurred, the second set.

Somehow, someway... Venus managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, it was an unbelievable spectacle. Not only did her game fall apart right before our very eyes, Li Na was playing like she had just discovered tennis also. And yet she... won? With a score of 2-6, 7-6(7/4), 6-2 Li Na joined the elite of the grand slam semifinal.

There was truly no real winner of this match, only an outcome, it was depressing. Somebody please cue up the song "Mama said there'll be days like this..."

It was so difficult to watch Venus so out of sorts in an element of her life where she knows such perfection.

Post match Venus said that it was a bit early to really make a determination of what went wrong, but when asked about returning she stated, “Absolutely [I’ll be back]. I really love this tournament ... Like I said so many times before, if I would have, you know, kind of gotten involved in what people said I would have never left the ghetto. So here I am playing pro tennis, playing well. The sky's the limit in this sport.”



Next up was American Serena Williams who very unfortunately appeared to be continuing what big sister Venus started, defeat. Although there was a very distinct difference in the matches. Serena's opponent, Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, came to play. Unlike Li Na, Azarenka's game was on point and taken to Serena with everything necessary from the onset. Azarenka was a real force in the first and second sets, so long as Serena didn't utilize her super powers.

Down a set at 4-6 and 0-4 in the second set as well, it looked as if the Williams sisters were history at the 2010 Australian Open. And then, unfortunately for Azarenka, Serena opted to use her super powers: conviction, iron will and absolute refusal to go down without a fight.

Once invoked, we saw Serena turn Azarenka's well-earned lead slowly chipped away until Serena had taken the second set in a tie-break. We all knew that it all over for Azarenka at that point. Primarly because we've seen Serena do this time and time and time again. It was a thing of beauty.

In the post match interview Serena said, “I’m surprised. I’m just happy to still be here. I didn’t expect to win when it was 0-4. I was like, ‘oh well, at least I’m still in the doubles’.”

When asked about Venus's loss she said, "Yeah, I just try not to think about it too much. It was obviously on my mind. Just tried to do what I could ... obviously I was incredibly disappointed. Yeah, just try not to deal with it."


What can you say, what can you say, what can you say? Tsongaaaaaaaaaaa!

Wow... what a performance, and boy did we need it after the first three quarterfinal matches. This lived up to every expectation and more. Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Serbian Novak Djokovic provided a well contested, great shot making, fabulous rallies, down to the wire match - great stuff.

In a re-match of the Australian Open 2008 final – which Djokovic won in four sets – Tsonga recovered from a disastrous third set before gaining confidence against his increasingly ragged opponent, triumphing in five sets for the second match in a row by a scoreline of 7-6(8), 6-7(5) 1-6, 6-3, 6-1.


Speaking on court after the match, Tsonga said that he felt like he could keep going. “I think I was just in a good form, I might be better than him (in the end). He played unbelievable in three first sets, he was amazing. Finally I won, and I am happy with that.”

Tsonga will take on world No. 1 Roger Federer in the semi-finals after the Swiss champion ousted No. 6 seed Nikolay Davydenko in four sets earlier on Wednesday. Tsonga said he was hoping to use the crowd’s energy to assist him during the daunting assignment.

“Yeah, I will be ready, I hope you (the crowd) will cheer for me a bit,” he joked.

“It’s going to be tough, because he’s the best player ever.”

Read the rest of this post...........

SYDNEY — World number one Serena Williams called on all her signature fighting spirit to overhaul French opponent Aravane Rezai and reach her first Sydney International final on Thursday.

The American 11-time Grand Slam champion clawed back from a set and 2-5 down to defeat 27th-ranked Rezai 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 and will play defending champion Elena Dementieva in Friday's final.

Fifth seed Dementieva, who downed Williams at this stage in last year's tournament, was too strong for sixth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in the other semi, marching to a 6-3, 6-1 victory.

Williams will be bidding for her 36th title, while Dementieva will be after her 15th. Williams leads 7-4 in their career matches.

For much of the two-hour contest, Williams looked consigned to losing her fourth Sydney semi-final, before she raised her level to claim 11 of the last 15 games.

"I was lucky to get through today, for sure," Williams said.

"I was just trying to play my game and do the best that I could. I didn't do so well.

"I hit I don't know how many errors today, but I finally made a couple of shots."

Faced with a chastening defeat just days ahead of the defence of her Australian Open crown, Williams dug deep and turned the tide against the impressive Rezai.

"I don't think she lost her way at all," Williams said. "I just think at that point I lifted my game.

"I thought she did really well. I felt like I literally lifted my game at that point because I knew I was going be headed to Melbourne (for the Australian Open) if I didn't.

"I kept thinking, 'I want to get a little more practice and I'd hate for it to end now'."

Rezai said she had learnt from the defeat.

"I was probably scared to win the match," she said. "But I realise I have the game and I can win, so I learn one more thing today: It's just to fight until the end of the match."

Dementieva went on from her impressive straight-sets win over world number two Dinara Safina late Wednesday to ease past Azarenka.

"I was trying to be very aggressive from the beginning of the match," Dementieva said.

"I didn't want it to go to three sets because I need to save some energy for the final."

Dementieva said she was looking forward to facing Williams ahead of next week's Australian Open.

"I'm sure it's going to be a tough one. I think playing her in early rounds it's a completely different game," she said.

"So to play her in the final, it's going to be a tough challenge for me.

"It looks like she's in very good shape right now. It's going to be a tough battle."

Read the rest of this post...........

Read the rest of this post...........

SYDNEY — Serena Williams stormed into the semi-finals of the Sydney International on Wednesday, cranking up the heat on her opponents ahead of next week's Australian Open.

The American world number one tossed aside Russian Vera Dushevina 6-2, 6-2, making it just seven games she has dropped on her way to the last four of the Sydney tournament.

Williams, strong favourite to lift her fifth Australian Open crown and her 12th Grand Slam, takes on world number 27 Aravane Rezai of France in Thursday's semi-finals.


Rezai won her third match of the tournament against Italian Flavia Pennetta, 6-3, 6-0 on Wednesday.

In the bottom half of the draw, Belarus sixth seed Victoria Azarenka is through to the semi-finals after beating Slovak Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 7-5, while defending champion Elena Dementieva was due to face world number two Dinara Safina later Wednesday.

"I definitely enjoy playing in the heat," Williams said of steamy Melbourne, home to the Open. "I usually enjoy playing in the heat. I live in Florida, so it's all about hot weather there.

"So I think maybe that's one of the reasons why I do so well down here.

"The past couple of times I won it's been extremely hot, so I expect the same temperatures again."

Asked during her post-match press conference how close she was to her best form, Williams said: "I always try to get there usually around the semi-finals and finals of the Grand Slams.

"I'm just doing the best that I can now to get there. Hopefully I have a long way to go, which I think is always good."

Williams said she was expecting her toughest match of the week against Rezai.

"I haven't played her, but I know her game," she said. "I played her in doubles and (sister) Venus has played her before.

"She's a good player and she's really young. She has a lot of drive. I think she can be really good. It'll definitely be my toughest match yet."

Azarenka had to again work hard to stay alive in the tournament, taking two hours 20 minutes to extinguish the challenge of the 24th-ranked Cibulkova.

So far Azarenka has been taken to three sets in all her three matches at the tournament.

Read the rest of this post...........

HONG KONG — American champion Venus Williams beat teenaged Danish sensation Caroline Wozniacki in a Hong Kong exhibition match Thursday which was shortened to one set because of rain.

Williams, 29, got off to a slow start, trailing the 19-year-old Wozniacki 3-1 before a series of aces and blistering groundstrokes helped her pull ahead, winning the set 6-4.

Williams, a seven time Grand Slam winner, said she was happy with her performance against the Dane, who is ranked fourth in the world.

"I felt pretty good playing against such a competitive player," Williams told reporters.

"She plays so well."

The American struggled for much of 2009, losing her Wimbledon crown to sister Serena and then crashing out of the Beijing Open in October.

Earlier Thursday, Belarussian Victoria Azarenka, 20, beat Argentine Gisela Dulko, 24, by a 6-1 margin.


The Hong Kong tournament features four teams with three players each -- representing Russia, Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific -- in singles and mixed doubles play. The tournament wraps up Saturday.

On Wednesday, former world number one Russian Maria Sharapova pulled off a comeback win against China's Zheng Jie 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, while Russia's Vera Zvonareva easily overpowered Japanese newcomer Ayumi Morita, beating her 6-2, 6-2 in just over an hour.

Read the rest of this post...........

Read the rest of this post...........

Read the rest of this post...........

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Defending champion Serena Williams has withdrawn from the Family Circle Cup because of an injury to her left leg.

The world's No. 1 player announced in a statement Tuesday that she still plans to attend some tournament events.

Williams said she originally hurt her leg at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, where she lost to Victoria Azarenka earlier this month.

Azarenka withdrew from the Family Circle Cup on Tuesday because of an injured right shoulder.

Williams' sister Venus and No. 3-ranked Elena Dementieva are among those slated to play in the tournament.

Qualifying play begins Saturday.

Read the rest of this post...........

World No. 1 American Serena Williams gets major cool points from me for her efforts today.

With a heavily strapped left thigh, injured Serena did not default because of the injury that she appeared to have aggravated while playing sister Venus in the semifinals; she came out, competed as best she could and let the chips fall where they may. They fell in her defeat.

Belarusian Victoria Azarenka did what she should have done, take advantage of the fact that she had the World No. 1 player in a position of limited mobility - it's all in the game.

Azarenka placed shots far beyond Serena's restricted reach and attempted to move her around the rest of the time. That had to be Azarenka's game plan because Serena was definitely in no danger of losing based upon Azarenka's serve. Serena responded where she could, but in a lot of instances she simply allowed the balls to fly by.

Azarenka eventually "won" the match 6-3, 6-1.

Victoria Azarenka, Belarus, Serena Williams, USA

Seeing how badly Serena began to yield to her injured leg on Thursday, I didn't anticipate a vibrant Serena coming out for the final, so I wasn't disappointed. Hopefully she will heal soon.

Photos by Getty Images

Read the rest of this post...........

On Thursday evening American sisters Venus and Serena Williams provided scintillating rallies as the two battled for a slot in the Sony Ericsson Open Women's Final on Saturday, April 4.

Maintaining her World No. 1 status while securing her place in the championship match, Serena defeated World No. 6 Venus 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. The sisters now stand at an even 10-10 in their 20 meetings.


Of the sister's record Serena said, "I definitely knew about it. It's definitely good to even it up. I would love to be in the lead again."

While moderately entertaining, this match was filled with errors. Venus suffered six double faults and the biggest serving players in women's tennis served just above average (for them of course). Additionally, somewhere in the midst of the second set Serena began to have a slight limp, which by mid third set was very apparent. Nonetheless, she soldiered on and ran down every ball that came back across the net.

"Venus never gives up," said Serena. "She gets a lot of balls back and has a massive serve. Just when you get her down she gets an extra umph and plays extra hard. You can't lose focus at all, especially when you're up. You have to actually play better when you're in the lead."

"It was a well fought match," said Venus. "I definitely would have liked to get a few more points off my serve. I think my serve wasn't going as well as I wanted today. But she brought a lot have balls back and played tough. I did the best I could today. I'm just looking to do better always."

"I'm excited because I was thinking that I would love to remain No. 1, so obviously I was really excited about that," said Serena. "I mean, I think I was more happy about that than winning the match at the end."

Serena will meet Victoria Azarenka in the final. The two last played one another in January at the Australian Open at which time Azarenka retired. With regard to meeting Azarenka again Serena said, "She played me really, really tough in Australia. She was not feeling great, but I thought she did a pretty good job."

Read the rest of this post...........

Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga continues to prove that he's the man with the plan. Tsonga came out on fire and ready to go toe-to-toe with American James Blake. Blake got in some impressive shots throughout the three sets, but never really had Tsonga in any danger.

Tsonga showed visions of the impressive play that took him to the final of the Australian Open in '08. This straight set 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (3) win places Tsonga into the quarterfinals.


American James Blake attempted to figure out what to do to defeat the Frenchman, but it was not to be. Although Blake was hitting terrific shots throughout, he never really seemed to be sufficiently motivated to bring Tsonga down. So, he went down.


This was retirement Sunday, and one of the retirements occurred during the Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus match. Azarenka had won the first set 6-3, and at 2-4 in the second set, Azarenka began experiencing dizziness and called for the trainer. Serena also called for the trainer to look at her ankle. Azarenka was taken off court and treated.

The two resumed the match but Azarenka's health continued to worsen. After a really weak swing at the ball she began to cry, covered her face, walked to the net and retired from the match. Serena seemed to be very concerned and supportive as she spoke with Azarenka.

Serena said, “honestly, I got worried. I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness.’ Because she started like walking really slow. The last thing she would want to do, to me, would be fall. It was just weird.”

“Hopefully she’ll be okay. She’s young, so she will have plenty of opportunity to do better.”

This retirement win places Serena into the quarterfinals.


I'm not quite sure what happened during Frenchman Gael Monfils' match with his friend and fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon. Monfils seemed to be playing just fine, but at 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, Simon leading, Monfils retired with a wrist injury. The two Frenchmen came to the net with Simon showing a lot of concern for his friend.

Simon said, "well, you never want to win like this. It's already strange when it's another player, but when it's a friend like Gael it's more difficult."

Read the rest of this post...........