Black Tennis Pros

American Ahsha Rolle moved through the first round of the WTA Hansol Korea Open with ease against the new British No. 1, Anne Keothavong. Unfortunately the same was not to be in Round 2.

In the second round, fifth-seeded and defending Seoul champion Eleni Daniilidou of Greece was very effective against Rolle.

The world no. 37 Daniilidou served well with a 76% first serve percentage and simply outplayed Rolle overall for a 6-3, 6-2 win.

SEOUL, South Korea -- Venus Williams coasted into the Korea Open quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn on Thursday.

Despite wearing strapping on her right leg, the top-seeded Williams made short work of Tanasugarn on an overcast afternoon before heavy rain forced a suspension of play at Olympic Park with two second-round matches remaining.

"It was a good game," Williams said. "It was good to finish when we did, it was about to rain. The rain blowing in different directions made it difficult, but it was a good experience."
The Wimbledon champion played down any problems with her leg.

"From yesterday, my right calf hasn't been feeling great but I was able to play and it's fine," she said.

The Wimbledon champion will meet Marta Domachowska of Poland in Thursday's quarterfinals after defeating Severine Bremond of France 7-5, 6-2.

Source -- AP

Despite warm conditions at Seoul's Olympic Park tennis arena, Venus Williams barely broke a sweat as she used her powerful serve to dominate the match. Fellow American Abigail Spears, whose right arm was heavily strapped, failed to win a single point from Williams' first serve in the opening set.

Venus took just 70 minutes to dispatch of the qualifier, firing eight aces on her way to the 6-2, 6-3 opening-round win.

In the second set, Venus broke again in the opening game and held off a late rally from Spears to complete a comfortable win.

"In a competition where there are few Americans, I don't know why I played against one in the first game,'' Williams said. "I was happy with my serve as it got me through some difficult moments at break points."

The USTA today announced the top American juniors who will represent the United States in the 2007 Junior Davis Cup & Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas Finals. The event features 32 teams (16 boys’ teams and 16 girls’ teams) composed of players 16-and-under from 24 nations across the world.

The Junior Davis Cup & Junior Fed Cup Finals will be held September 25-30 in Reggio Emilio, Italy. Both U.S. teams qualified for the finals in May at the North/Central America and Caribbean Regional Championships along with Mexico’s Junior Davis Cup team and Canada’s Junior Fed Cup team.

The United States is one of eight nations to send a boys’ and a girls’ team to the finals (Argentina, Australia, Chile, Czech Republic, Italy, Japan and South Africa).

Frank Carleton is the only returning member of the Junior Davis Cup team, which will again be coached by USTA National Coach Martin Van Daalen. Carleton, who led the team with a 5-0 overall record in May at the Regional Championships, will be joined in Italy by 2007 16-and-under Easter Bowl finalists Lawrence Formentera and James “Bo” Seal. (Formentera upset No. 1 seed Seal, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (4)).

Each member of the girls’ team competed in May at the Regional Championships. 2007 Florida State High School Singles Champion Lauren Embree led the team with an 8-1 record, while teammates Asia Muhammad and Coco Vandeweghe both posted a 4-0 overall record for the U.S. USTA National Coach Richard Ashby returns to lead the girls’ team.

The United States won the 1999 Junior Davis Cup title and reached the final on four other occasions, including a 1986 second-place finish by Jim Courier and Michael Chang. The United States was runner-up at the 1993 Junior Fed Cup to Australia.

Source - USTA

For the ninth time at the ninth time of asking, Andy Roddick saw the United States Davis Cup by BNP Paribas team into the next round – and this time the next round is the Final, and a home shot at the defending champions, Russia.

Roddick wasn’t quite at his best against Jonas Bjorkman, a late replacement for the originally nominated Thomas Johansson who was suffering from stomach problems, but he used all attributes of his game to beat the Swede 62 76(3) 64 and see off the Americans’ jinx at the Scandinavium.

The arena, scene of three previous US Davis Cup debacles, seemed to have given up hope of staging a fourth home upset, the rows of red seats much less full than they had been on Friday and Saturday when home hopes were high.


Roddick Maintains Davis Cup Record

One of the reasons for the absence of home hope on the final day was that Roddick’s reputation as a Davis Cup competitor precedes him. He has never lost when playing to see his country win the decisive point, and his devotion to tennis’s premier team competition was evident when he said afterwards: “If I don’t win another match between now and the final but we win the final, I’ll take that.”

“This is my No. 1 priority for the rest of the year, and I’ll be discussing my tournament schedule with Jimmy [Connors, his coach] and Patrick [McEnroe, his team captain] to make sure I look after my body and it’s right where it needs to be for the final.”

Only once was Roddick truly threatened, and that came in the fifth game of the second set. Bjorkman, at 35 still a very useful returner of serve, finally got a good connection on three of Roddick’s serves and earned himself two break points. In doing so, he caused Roddick to stumble and fall, so the American asked for the court to be wiped dry. The couple of minutes this took didn’t please either Bjorkman or the crowd, and Roddick was booed as he stepped up to serve at 15-40. Bad move!

Americans Celebrate Semifinal Victory

The booing merely geed up Roddick, he duly delivered four unreturnable serves, and the danger was over. Once Bjorkman had taken six points to get going in the tiebreak, and Roddick had broken in the fourth game of the third set, the match was over as a contest, and Roddick won in just over two hours. He sank to his knees on the carpet court that had been so much more preferable to the Americans than the clay the Russians chose for last year’s semifinal in Moscow.“It’s what you practise for,” said Roddick in an on-court interview. “It’s what you work for. I’m so proud to be part of this team, I’m so proud of my teammates, I wouldn’t trade this team for any in the world. I love these guys, and we get another shot at winning the Davis Cup, so I’m really happy right now.”The victory was a triumph for positive thinking among the Americans. Their jinx at the Scandinavium seemed to have reared its ugly head on Friday when all four players woke up with flu-like symptoms. But they came through, and ultimately with something to spare, as the Swedes were also struggling with their health.

First final in USA since 1992

Aside from Thomas Johansson’s temperature, Joachim Johansson was so sore after his three-setter against Roddick on Friday that he was replaced for the final singles by Simon Aspelin who had never played a tour-level singles match before. He got four games against James Blake, the American’s 61 63 victory making the final score 4-1.The Americans will host the final (30 November – 2 December) for the first time since 1992, when one of the greatest line-ups in the competition’s history featuring four past, present and future world No. 1s – Sampras, Courier, Agassi, McEnroe – beat Switzerland 3-1 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Source -- Davis Cup Official Website

Jon at Chemeric Day Dreams has tagged me with a 'Show Me Your Computer Desktop Meme', that's not too bad. The only thing it reveals is that I am a proud TREKKIE!! Check out my tribute desktop, all the captains with their respective ships. Cooooooool huh?!

This is an immediate capture, no clean up or anything. I don't keep a junkie desktop, I'm organized like that. I too auto-hide my task bar because I don't want anything on the screen other than what I'm working on, and the captains.

Jon also tagged:

Roland
Sharon
Joanne
Opal

Tag rules under the cut:

[TAG STARTS HERE]

My Desktop Free View Instruction:

A. Upon receiving this tag, immediately perform a screen capture of your desktop. It is best that no icons be deleted before the screen capture so as to add to the element of fun.

Over the years I've learned to accept the kindness and graciousness of others because I've learned that it's about them and what they want to give. So this morning, from one of the warmest and most giving persons that I have met since I began my blog, I accept the 'Nice Matters Award.' That person is Cyperpenguin at "Music Unbound: We Don't Need No Stinkin' Genres!" (Don't you just love that title?) Interestingly, something Cyperpenguin didn't know about me is my great love of music of all kinds, so the title of her blog truly suits me.

I like this award because I'm a firm believer that nice does matter and this award will serve as a constant reminder.

Thanks Cyberpenguin, have a blessed weekend!