Black Tennis Pros

Andy Murray pocketed £50,000 by winning the inaugural Betfair Turbo Tennis tournament at the O2 Arena.



The 20-year-old beat surprise finalist Goran Ivanisevic 7-4 to claim the winner-takes-all prize pot. He said, "It was awesome. I really enjoyed myself and the crowd were unbelievable. It was a lot of fun playing a tennis match like this."

With no time remaining, Blake held service to bring the scores level at 8-8 but then put the sudden death match point into the net.

Qualifier and world no. 151 Victor Hanescu of Romania will play Gilles Simon of France in Sunday's final as he was able to very quickly dispose of Gilles countryman, world no. 48 Gael Monfils, in their semi-final match today. Hanescu beat Monfils 6-2, 6-3 in little more than than an hour.

The 26-year-old Bucharest native improved his career record to 12-4 in his hometown tournament and he is the first Romanian to reach the final since the event began in 1993.

Once again a fellow blogger has looked upon this blog, hence me, and deemed it worthy of praise. For that honour I am so very grateful. And I owe those thanks to Poetess, author of "A Day In The Life Of A Sista."

I personally enjoy visiting blogs of others who I consider to be like minded, those who like to look on the upside of things, even when it's hard to find. You know, "the flesh may be weak but the spirit is willing" type of blogger -- people who breathe the air of good will. Well Poetess is just such a blogger and that has always been enough for me. For her to honour me with this nomination is truly rewarding. Stop by her blog sometimes, you'll see what I mean.

Many blessings Poetess!

Today at 12:00 p.m. (Romanian time) on the Central Court at the BCR Open in Bucharest, Romania, world no. 48 Gael Monfils of France will be playing in the semi-finals. Just last month he had to withdraw from the U. S. Open because of a right hamstring injury, and a few weeks later he's in the semi-finals of another event. Additionally, he had to qualify for this event! Work it out Monfils!

In the quaterfinals Monfils played his French compatriot Marc Gicquel whom he defeated 6-4, 6-2. Monfils served up 12 aces against Gicquel during the 74 minute match yesterday. At 21 years of age this was his 21st ATP-level victory and the third occasion he has reached the last four at a tournament this year. Monfils will try to reach his second ATP final of the year after finishing runner-up in Poertschach (l. to Monaco) in May.

At the same time, it looks like Monfils will have a tall order to fill. His semi-final opponent will be 6'6" Victor Hanescu of Bucharest, Romania. The cheering will NOT be for Monfils at this one.

World No. 60 and seventh-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was upset by wild card entrant Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, 6-3 6-4.

As I told you all a couple of days ago, once I acquired additional information on Turbo Tennis I would share it with you. Well it appears that Black Tennis Pro's has been fortunate to have Andrew Briggs himself stop by and properly inform us on this format. And while young, it's not quite as new as I originally thought. In a comment left yesterday, he stated:

"I am the chairman of Superset, which owns the intellectual property to this tennis format. Actually this is an evolution of an event that appeared in 2003 in Portland- the first Superset event. The second being at Wembley Arena in 2004, which featured, amonst others, John McEnroe against a very young Andy Murray. Shame that one passed you by. The Portland event featured James Blake, by the way. I hope you make it to this one, if not it is live on Channel 4 from 4.10pm."

Andrew Briggs Homepage 09.14.07 - 6:40 pm #

The Superset site is an exciting and informative one. Stop by when you get the opportunity, I guarantee that you will learn something new about tennis -- I did.

Serena Williams with a slight change up on yesterday's outfit by adding a trench coat and fashion icon Tommy Hilfiger.

Girrrrrl, you are workin' *snapping fingers* this look something fierce! Put that one in your "do this look again" part of your closet. You look absolutely sensational -- hair, makeup, jewelry, of course outfit, it's a lock!

At the BCR Open in Bucharest, Romania, Frenchman Gael Monfils defeated Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina 6-4, 6-4.

Monfils is now scheduledto play fellow countryman Marc Gicquel in the quarterfinals on Friday.