Black Tennis Pros

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Which player would you choose…


To share a good bottle of wine with?
(Thinks for a while) Mika Llodra, he knows his stuff.

To take to your favourite restaurant?
Kei Nishikori, because my favourite restaurant is Minori in Paris. It's a great Japanese restaurant. I'll show him that French sushi is better than Japanese sushi (laughs).


To accompany you to the Cannes film festival?
Ana Ivanovic. She would be great arm candy.


To play in a film with?
David Ferrer. He'd play Forrest in Forrest Gump, and I'd play Bubba, his shrimp fishing friend.

To go out on the town with in Las Vegas?
La Monf' (Gaël Monfils), no question about it.


To play in a band with?
Dustin Brown, that would be great. We'd make beautiful reggae.

As master of ceremonies for your wedding?
Novak Djokovic, he would be great at that.


To take to a football match?
Jurgen Melzer. I played football with him in the United States, and he's really good. He loves it.

To go and see stand-up comedy with?
Andy Roddick.


To take fishing?
Rafael Nadal.


To open a bar with?
Marat Safin. Once night falls he's the guy to hang around with.

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Gael, which player would you choose…


To share a good bottle of wine with?
I don't drink, so that puts a damper on things. But if it was to share a Magnum of Fanta with, I'd choose Jo (Tsonga).

To take to your favourite restaurant?
Can I say Jo again? No? Well then, I'll say Juan Monaco. He's such a cool guy, and so generous I'd be sure to have a good time.


To accompany you to the Cannes film festival?
I need a girl! Or multiple girls! I think the best would be to show up on the red carpet with five of them.


To go out on the town with in Las Vegas?
Dustin Brown. I love that guy, he's so cool. It would be incredible to go wild in Vegas with him.

As master of ceremonies for your wedding?
Well, if it's a wedding along the same lines as this interview, Mike Llodra, of course.


Never to train with?
I can't think of anybody. Lopez said Karlovic? No, I think it's good to train with someone who has a big serve. It's always useful to work on your return.


To take to a football match?
Richard Gasquet. He's a fan of Paris Saint German, so it'd be at their home stadium, the Parc des Princes.

To interview if you were a journalist?
(He thinks for a while). The Williams sisters. I know them a bit, but I'm sure they're really interesting. They're quite mysterious, so it would be good to ask them a few questions.


To take fishing?
Jo (Tsonga).

To take to see your favourite band?
Hmmm…I really wouldn't mind going to see some rap with Svetlana (Kutznetsova). She's a great chick, she's fantastic. I love her.

To play mixed doubles with?
Too much choice! I prefer to leave that one open.

To go and see stand-up comedy with?
Andrea Petkovic. She's a really nice girl, she's always smiling and laughing.

To open a bar with?
France's Davis Cup team.


To be your spokesperson?
Gilles Simon, he never stops talking.

To hit on girls with?
Jo, again. He's not the biggest flirt but we have an excellent track record (he laughs).

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An nearly perfect day for French players turned a little cloudy when Stanislas Wawrinka came back from two sets down to stun Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 4-6, 6-7)(3), 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-3.

Before that, Gael Monfils had crushed Steve Darcis 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 and Richard Gasquet dispatched Thomaz Bellucci 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Those two wins bookmarked a fantastic effort by their WTA counterpart Marion Bartoli, who edged Julia Goerges in three sets.

Unfortunately for the partisan home crowd, it was not to be for Tsonga, who played so well in the first two sets against the flying Swiss, controlling the match with a booming serve down the tee, a big forehand and effective net approaches. Wawrinka began to play more inside the court from the third set onwards however, cutting off hard balls to his one-handed backhand, serving big himself and staying strong in forehand rallies.


He broke Tsonga to 5-3 in the final set when the Frenchman erred on a forehand, and then he won the contest on his third match point with a screaming inside-out forehand winner. Tsonga said that Wawrinka simply zoned on him in the last three sets. "I felt that he was making no mistakes at all. If I wasn't hitting the ball very strong and putting it in the corner, I would not win a single point," the no.17 seed said. "And then the ball didn't bounce anymore, so I hit the ball as hard as I could. I couldn't make any winning points. The one who loses the third set is in a much more difficult situation. I put everything in the battle in the third set to try and close the match. That's what tennis is about. It's a mental thing, and today he clearly was stronger than I was throughout the match… He simply played a superb match."

2008 semi-finalist Monfils played a near-faultless match against Darcis, despite the fact that, as is often the case at his home tournament, he is coming in lacking in match practice due to illness and injury.

"It was not easy in terms of my game," said the no.9 seed. "And now this is a new week, a new tournament. Of course I'll play against stronger players. Otherwise, I'll perhaps change the way I play a little. I'll have to be much more aggressive, but apart from this, I'm happy."Monfils knows that against David Ferrer in the Round of 16, he faces a tussle against an accomplished clay courter. "I'll turn the page immediately, because as I told my coaches, I think I have survived. I've lived on what I know - how to defend myself on the court. But next week I'll have to go up a level and enhance my performance. Even today I was not totally relaxed when I was hitting the balls - I was not fluid enough in my forearms. The winning shots were not good enough. Too many of these little things that I don't have at present (if I want) to go further."

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ROUND 1


WOMEN

Singles

Stephanie Foretz Gacon, FRA defeated by Heather Watson, GBR

Sloane Stephens, USA defeated by Elena Baltacha, GBR
5-7, 2-6

Doubles


Raquel Kops-Jones, USA and Abigail Spears, USA
Kristina Barrois, GER and Johanna Larson, SWE


Stephanie Foretz Gacon, FRA and Claire Feuerstein, FRA
Yung-Jan Chan, TPE (13) and Monica Niculescu, ROU (13)
6-2, 4-6, 1-6



Singles

Gael Monfils(9), FRA defeated Bjorn Phau, GER

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga(17), FRA defeated Jan Hajek, CZK

Dustin Brown, GER defeated by Leonardo Mayer, ARG




MEN


Singles

Gael Monfils(9), FRA defeated Guillaume Rufin, FRA

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga(17), FRA defeated Igor Andreev, RUS



MEN


Singles

Gael Monfils(9), FRA defeated Steve Darcis, BEL
6-3, 6-4, 7-5

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga(17), FRA defeated by Stanislas Wawrinka(14), SUI


MEN


Singles

Gael Monfils(9), FRA vs. David Ferrer(7), ESP

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In a second consecutive effort, American wild card Sloane Stephens has qualified for the main draw, defeating Australian’s Sophie Ferguson. Stephens prevailed in the first set tie-break, 7-6(4), and ran away with the second set 6-1.

Last week Sloane came through qualifying to enter the main draw of the BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells, California, where she exited in the second round.

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