Black Tennis Pros

Two of France's leading tennis players, world no. 44 Gael Monfils and world no. 18 Tatiana Golovin will team together to play the Hyundai Hopman Cup mixed doubles scheduled for December 29, 2007, through January 4, 2008, in the Burswood Dome, Perth, Western Australia.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Hello from Bangkok!

Let me continue where I left off... First of all, of course I was disappointed I lost in the Tokyo final, but you can always learn from your losses and fight for your next win. That's pretty much my attitude and so I'm just focused on playing my best here in Bangkok, and hopefully winning another title. That's the goal.

After the final, we all just went out and enjoyed Tokyo. Obviously we went to karaoke, and obviously I did "Call Me" by Blondie - I'm a huge Blondie fan. I didn't last too long that night because I was so tired from the final. I had a few songs and that was it for me. I guess we're making going to karaoke a tradition when we're in Asia... and there's some in this hotel, which could be dangerous! I have some pictures from the other night, and I've attached one of us in front of the Tokyo Tower; it looks pretty cool. We were typical tourists that night!

Sorry for leaving you guys hanging yesterday. We were travelling pretty much all day and I was sleeping quite a while. I even got mad at Isha because she woke me up asking if I wanted to eat. Everybody who knows me knows that I'd choose sleep over eating. Everybody's banging on my door, trying to get into my room. I think I'll be doing some of that back to them soon so they can see how it feels! I just don't answer the door. People can text or e-mail me, and if I'm not there I am not getting up. Even at home I don't answer my door. I like my sleep!

Oh, I do have to tell you all I switched books. It's called Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones. It's a little fairy tale - it's great, it's happy and a lot of fun things are happening. It's helping me recover from that Ruins book! I left that one in Tokyo - and the worst part is that when I left the hotel, they tried to bring it back to me! I just couldn't get away from it... but I ended up getting away... Anyway, the new one is great. Isha spotted it in the Tokyo airport. I've switched genres. And it's right up my alley. Oh and you may have noticed from the picture that I've switched hairdos - I just got tired of my old one. I've had the afro a few times this year in Fed Cup, and some people have been asking if I'd be doing it again. So for the moment, I'm in the '70s. And it's RIGHTEOUS.

I've been informed my blog was the most-read blog ever on the Tour website - and of course I'm really excited about that. I'm excited everybody was reading along, seeing what I was up to and hoping I was going to make it through or not. I fell short but I really appreciate the support from all of you. I'd love to do a blog again next year; hopefully I can come back and break my own record!

I've also been told Vania King is blogging from Bangkok this week, which will be great. I don't know her too well but we see each other in the locker room and we talk about different things. I do know she's really, really nice. She's got lots of things to say and she's very well-spoken, so it'll be a great blog, I'm sure of it.

I want to say thanks again for all of the support; playing the Tour can be tough and I appreciate it all. Right now I'm feeling great, though. I'm hoping to live it up here in Thailand and hopefully bring home another title.

I'll talk to you all again soon!!

xxx

Venus

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Round 1 - Singles

Serena Williams, USA vs Bye

Kremlin Cup site click here








Round 1 - Singles

Venus Williams, USA vs Caroline Wozniacki DEN

Bangkok Open site click here

Round 1 - Singles

James Blake, USA vs Jonas Borkman, SWE
















Round 1 - Singles

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA, vs Nikolay Davydenko, RUS

Round 1 - Doubles

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA and Sebastien Grosjean, FRA
vs
Michael Berrer, GER and Philipp Kolschreiber, GER

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Saturday, October 6, 2007

Hey everyone,

Unfortunately, I lost to Razzano in the final today. She managed to play really well at all the right moments, so congratulations to her. I wasn't tired - I was feeling pretty fit. It's a very good win. She's having a great year. I was having a problem with my right hip - it started in the first set, and finally in the third set I had to take a medical timeout to get taped or something. I kept playing though, because I really wanted to win. I fought hard. She was just playing really well.

Anyway it's past midnight and I really need to get some sleep, because I fly out to Bangkok in the morning. But I'll try my best to talk to you all from there...

xxx

Venus

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By virtue of trophy size, Japan definitely wants you to know who won and who lost don't they?

France's Virginie Razzano rallied from a set down and defied match points against her to defeat top-seeded Venus Williams 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4 and win the Japan Open.

Williams had three match points in the tiebreak of the second set but couldn't finish off the fifth-seeded Razzano, who won her second straight WTA tournament.

"I'm very happy to win," said Razzano, who won the Guangzhou International Open on Sunday for her first WTA Tour singles title. "Venus is a great champion, she's not in the top 10 by magic."

Williams, No. 8 in the WTA rankings, was down 5-2 in the second set but fought back to tie and then broke Razzano to take a 6-5 lead.

Razzano broke back to force a tiebreaker and then came back from being down 6-3 in the tiebreak to win it 9-7.

Williams won the first game of the third set but took a 10-minute injury timeout and came back with her right thigh wrapped.

"It started to hurt in the first set," said Williams. "I wanted to play because I wanted win, then in the third set I couldn't get my leg up on my serve so I had to get it taped."

Both players struggled with their serves in the final set. Williams broke Razzano to tie the set 4-4 and Razzano broke Williams to take a 5-4 lead.

Razzano held serve in the final game and won the match when Williams' forehand went into the net.

"I wasn't tired," said Williams, who won the Korea Open on Sunday. "She managed to play good at the right moments so congratulations to her, she's had a great year."

Razzano, who came into the match 33rd in the WTA rankings, said she was fatigued by the end of the match, which lasted 2 hours, 48 minutes.

"I'm very tired," said Razzano. "I've played a lot of tennis in the past week and this was a difficult match."

The above picture shows Marion Jones crying during her press conference subsequent to her plea to two counts of making false statements to federal agents a' la Lil' Kim. Marion Jones is one of those athletes who I had a bit of faith in, and honestly believed that she just happened to be caught up in a sting gone haywire.

As a person, Marion Jones's admission today does nothing toward how I feel about her, the woman, for we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. "He who goes without sin, let him cast the first stone." The greatest cost of Marion Jones's lie is to herself. She will pay in humiliation and dignity, and that's a high price to pay. Fortunately it appears that she has loved ones who love Marion, not Marion Jones the runner, and that kind of support is priceless. It will be the rock upon which she can stand throughout the days to come.

As a supporter of Ms. Jones, I'm definitely disappointed. She protested loudly and fervently that not only was she clean, but she also defied the agents to show one ounce of proof that she had been using steroids. Yet today she confesses with tears in her eyes. Why? Were the feds closing in on her lies? Or did they actually have the goods on her and she wanted to be the one to tell us before federal agents did?

Whatever brought Ms. Jones to this point today, at least it's over and she can begin to move on with the rest of her life. She retired from the sport of track and field in her press conference today, apologized and asked for forgiveness. I guess she did pretty much all that she could do in light of the situation.

I hope that her tomorrow is better than today.

Frenchman Jo Wilfried Tsonga assisted Briton Andy Murray in reaching his first ATP Tour semi-final since March. Murray defeated Tsonga 6-3 6-3 at the Moselle Open.

Murray has had a barren second half to the year after injuring his wrist in Hamburg in May, but he was near his best against Tsonga. Murray broke three times in the first set and a single break was enough to take a tighter second.

Murray will face second seed Guillermo Canas in the last four.