Black Tennis Pros

ATP Tour Players

James Blake, USA vs Stefan Koubek, AUT
Donald Young, USA vs Feliciano Lopez, ESP

For additional U. S. Open schedule information, click here.

The Young one got a walk over today from the withdrawal of Frenchman Richard Gasquet. Gasquet withdrew because of fever, sore throat and other viral implications. He said "looking at three sets was just too much and I didn't think that I could make it."

"Fastest match I've ever played.....I didn't believe it at first", so Young did the right then and consulted a tournament official. "Great luck."

It's not the way he wanted it, but hey, he's in the 3rd round of the U. S. Open -- he'll take it.

WTA Tour Players

Angela Haynes, USA and Ahsha Rolle, USA
vs
Vania King, USA and Emilie Loit, FRA


ATP Tour Players

James Blake, USA vs Fabrice Santoro, FRA (Evening Match)
Donald Young, USA vs Richard Gasquet, FRA

Scoville Jenkins, USA and Phillip Simmonds, USA
vs
Yves Allegro, SUI and Kristof Vliegen, BEL

Scoville Jenkins, USA and Alexa Glatch, USA
vs
Vania King, USA and Vincent Spadea, USA

Well folks, as great as it would have been to see both Donald Young and Scoville Jenkins try and make a deep run at the U. S. Open, alas, 'twas not to be.

On Saturday when I sat down and took a long look at the final main draw, I was floored when I saw what unfortunate luck Scoville Jenkins had in getting Roger Federer as his first round opponent. Yes, it is an honor to play Roger, but the likelihood is, you're not going to beat him. And Jenkins did not today. He did make a pretty good show, but Federer took him out in straight sets.

As for 18-year old Donald Young however, he put on a worthy performance in his 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Australian Chris Guccione.

Young's ATP Tour luck had not been running so good prior to the Pilot Pen Tournament. "Obviously that goes through your mind when you lose 11 in a row," Young said of his ATP losing streak. "But I felt like...I would definitely win at least one. I knew I would get one. Sooner or later you don't play all the top players, you get to play some of the lower ranked players also. It was definitely different (today). I had won my first match. I wasn't 0-for-anything. I had a win. It was a big confidence booster."

"You have to be able to put the ball away sometimes," Young said. "But it throws people off when you can slice, drop shot, get to a lot of balls, just make 'em play."

I've seen Young get a real frustrated look on his face after blowing a point, but he says that he's largely in control of his emotions, but it doesn't always appear so. "(I'm) like a perfectionist, but no one can be perfect," he said. "I don't like to miss anything, but that's not the way it goes. I'm happy, but maybe not showing it, because I don't want to show it too early and end up losing."

Against Guccione today Young had a 61% serve rate to 63%, he equally served 9 aces, and had 1 less service fault than Guccione at 3.

See ya in the second round Donald Young!

As for Scoville Jenkins, 21, he came into the match ranked No. 320, and even with that discrepancy in achievement level, acquitted himself well. He served big, hit hard and competed well. But he has many miles to go before he'll be able to do sufficient damage to beat a player the stature of Federer.

Jenkins had a higher service rate than Federer at 67% to 60%, he had 9 aces to Federer's 13, and 7 double faults to 2. Jenkins unforced errors were 31 to Fededer's 12 and the score of 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 showed it.

After 1 hour 32 minutes at least Jenkins still had a wonderful attitude about playing the world No. 1. I look forward to seeing more of Jenkins in play the rest of the year.

WTA Tour Players:

Serena Williams, USA (8) vs. Angelique Kerber, Germany
Venus Williams, USA (12) vs Kira Nagy, Hungary
Jamea Jackson, USA (WC) vs Nicole Pratt, Australia

Note: Angela Haynes attempted to enter the main draw through the qualifying rounds, but was defeated in the 1st round by Pauline Parmenter of France, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.


ATP Tour Players:

James Blake, USA (6) vs Michael Russell, USA
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, France vs Oscar Hernandez, Spain
Donald Young, USA (WC) vs Chris Guccione, Australia
Scoville Jenkins, USA (Q) vs Roger Federer

Note: Scoville Jenkins entered through the qualifying rounds. He defeated the following players:

Round 1: Oliver Patience, France 6-3, 5-7, 5-7
Round 2: Harel Levy, Israel, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3
Round 3: Aisam-UL-Haq Qureshi, Pakistan 6-7, 6-2, retired

Excellent work Scoville Jenkins! And your reward? Roger Federer as your first round opponent. I am already in prayer. Bless you son.

In tonight's match Donald Young went up against world No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko only to be stopped early in the tournament by a score of 6-2, 4-6, 7-5. As is evident though, the Young one put up a valiant fight to try and reach the third round. As a matter of fact, I'm rather impressed. I definitely did not expect this match to go three sets, nor the games to be so close. At 2-3 in the third set, Young broke Davydenko's serve with some beautiful shots, including a drop shot to go up 4-2. Unfortunately Davydenko broke right back. But good show Donald Young!

We all know that it's going to take some time to develop a consistent winning pattern, and that differs player to player (if at all), but the Young one is clearly sending out a message that he is now on the ATP Tour fellas. The apparent difference in the game was Davydenko's first serve percentage which was 66% over Young's 51%.

When asked what this match does for him, Young stated "it obvisously gives me a lot of confidence. It was awesome."



Gael Monfils Edged Out


First up, Gael Monfils. He found out that all the yelling in the world couldn't save him today. Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland defeated Monfils in a straight sets win by a score of 6-4, 7-6. Monfils had a 52% first serve rate, 6 aces and 0 double faults. With the exception of a modest difference in first serve points won, the stats were pretty even. I really wish that I had seen this game because it's difficult to know what the turning point was. Whatever they were, Monfils is out. He's so good. Monfils has really got to work on his consistency. Talk to Blake.

In action at the Pilot Pen Tournament today during the day matches will be American Donald Young vs. Nikolay Davydenko of Russia and Frenchman Gael Monfils vs. Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland. And in the evening singles match, American James Blake vs. Arnaud Clement of France. Fantastic action, can't wait!

Donald Young walked in the newness of life on Sunday, as he defeated Amer Delic in the first round of the Pilot Pen Tournament in New Haven, Connecticut. Young, who recently celebrated his 18th birthday, gave himself a belated birthday gift. This win is his first on the ATP Tour after 12 matches. Young is putting to good use the wildcard that he received into this tournament. He stated that this win is "a big relief."

The arrival of the Young one has been talked about for some time now. He's been coming up through the ranks with quite a bit of hype about his talent being bantered about. Of it, Young says, "I like the talk and the hype, but you don't really like it when it starts going negative. When it's all positive, it's awesome. But you've got to take the good with the bad." Good philosophy son, hold on to it. You'll need it.

Young's win over Delic today came in at 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. And for his reward, what does the Young one get? A second round match up with Nikolay Davydenko. That's cold. But he's in the big leagues now so the battle starts here. Good Luck! I'll be praying for you.



Tsonga Not Able to Sing Same Song as Young

Also in action at the Pilot Pen Tournament on Sunday was Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France. Tsonga was defeated by Juan Martin Del Portro of Argentina by a score of 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Tsonga served 10 aces but also had 6 double faults and a first serve rate of 54%. Del Portro's first serve percentage wasn't much better at 58%, but it was enough to pull out the win.