Black Tennis Pros

American Venus Williams had her foot on the throat of the game of Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki. At 6-2, 4-1 play was suspended due to rain. The two will continue their match on Thursday.

The Swedes may have treated James Blake like a play cousin during Davis Cup, but Blake eased his pain a bit today. At the end of a serious challenge from Swede Jonas Bjorkman, Blake came out the victor 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-3. Now I must tell you that in the second set at 5-5, I almost had a heart attack. I sometimes think that Blake is on a personal mission to give me a coronary!.

Blake is the reigning champion at the Stockholm Open. He is also attempting to become the first man to win this title three straight times. He currently sits level with Thomas Enqvist (1995-1996) and Boris Becker (1990-1991) as the last two men to claim the title twice.

Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga fell to a man seeking to defend his title, Russian Nikolay Davydenko. The top seed has been paying attention to Tsonga, and it paid off. Davydenko took Tsongo out 7-6(0), 6-2.

After trading breaks early in the first set, the defending champion won the tiebreaker without his French opponent scoring a point. Fourth-ranked Davydenko twice broke Tsonga in the second set to close the indoor carpet match.

"I was preparing myself for his style of playing, however, he was not playing this way, making life much easier for me today."




Tsonga And Grosjean Prevail In Doubles

Tsonga may have been bounced out of the singles, but he and fellow Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean defeated the German team of Philipp Kohlschreiber and Michael Berrer 6-3, 5-7, 10-4.

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