Black Tennis Pros

James Blake and Mark Knowles needed an astonishing 13 match points before finally upsetting second seeds Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett 7-5, 6-7(5), 12-10 (Match TB) in the semifinals of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel. In Sunday's final they will play top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan.

In the second set Blake and Knowles squandered three match points at 5-4 and two more at 6-5. In the third set Match TB they had six consecutive match points at 9-3 and another at 10-9 before converting their 13th at 11-10.

"Today was a fantastic, thrilling match," Knowles said. "We had a lot of match points early and it took us a long time to close it out but I think that's a credit to how good the other guys are under pressure.

"I've been playing for so long I figured that I'd seen everything. But that's definitely the most match points I've ever taken to close out a match. But the important thing is we won the last one and got the job done.

"I'm having so much fun playing with James and to play the No. 1 team in the world makes for an exciting final.

Source - ATP

Technorati Tags: Sports Tennis James Blake
Mark Knowles Paul HanleyKevin Ullyett
Davidoff Swiss Indoors Doubles

THE BAD NEWS FIRST: Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's winning ways were brought to a halt today by countryman Sebastien Grosjean. Earlier today in a semifinal match in the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon, Grosjean defeated Tsonga 6-1, 6-2.

THE GOOD NEWS: Tsonga and Grosjean are teammates in the doubles draw of this same event, and they defeated the doubles pairing of fellow Frenchmen Arnaud Clement and Nicolas Mahut 6-2, 6-7(4), 10-4.

Well, Halloween is coming, it's time for weird things.


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Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Sebastien GrosjeanDoubles
Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon

Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is doing just fine at home. After knocking fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet out of the competition yesterday, Tsonga returned today to further eliminate those in his path. This afternoon Olivier Rochus of Belgium was defeated by Tsonga 6-3, 6-2.

Next up in the quarterfinals for Tsonga will be the winner of the Grosjean, Benneteau Match.

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Tennis
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Olivier Rochus
Richard GasquetGrand Prix de Tennis de Lyon

American James Blake went down in defeat in the singles draw yesterday, but he and teammate Bahamian Mark Knowles are still alive in doubles. Today they defeated the doubles team of Swede Robert Lindstedt and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-4, 7-5.

Next up in the quarterfinals for the duo is Australian Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe.

Technorati Tags: Sports Tennis James Blake
Mark Knowles Robert Lindstedt
Paul HanleyKevin Ullyett
Davidoff Swiss Indoors
Jarkko Nieminen Doubles

Not that I didn't think that Tsonga didn't have the capability to dust up Gasquet, he just had not displayed that level of consistency yet. So it caught me off guard.

Richard Gasquet's title defence at the $965,000 Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon is over.

The fourth-seeded Frenchman was upset, 6-4 6-4, by compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Thursday at the indoor carpet event.

Playing in front of the home crowd, Gasquet steamrolled through the draw here last year, dropping just two sets en route to the fourth of his five career titles. However, his six match winning streak here was ended by an unlikely adversary.

Ranked 65th in the world, this was Tsonga's first career win against a top 15 player as Gasquet currently ranks 11th in the world. The 22-year-old never faced a break point and was strong with his first serve, winning 32 of 40 points, including 10 aces.

Tsonga also reached the quarter-finals in Metz earlier this month before falling to world number 16 Andy Murray. He can reach his first ATP semi-final with a win against Oliver Rochus on Friday.

Source - The Press Association

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Tennis

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Richard Gasquet

Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon

Tree-top Croatian Ivo Karlovic, the tallest man in tennis, rained down 24 aces on American James Blake to drive the fourth seed out of the Swiss Indoors 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 on Thursday.

The second-round setback against the 6'10" Karlovic leaves Blake with all to play for next week at the concluding Paris Masters, where final positions for the eight-man Masters Cup in Shanghai will be determined.

Blake, last year's losing finalist in China against Roger Federer, stands provisional tenth in the race for the eight-man season wrap up.

Against this month's Stockholm champion Karlovic, Blake got off to a good start as he lifted the opening set.

But the huge serves of the 6'10" Croatian began to tell, with Blake's baseline game unable to make an impression.

Blake, who last played Basel in 2003 found himself facing three Karlovic match points, saving one before going down in defeat with a return into the net after just shy of two hours.

Source - Sports Plus

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Ivo Karlovic Davidoff Swiss Indoors

James Blake led a parade of seeds to first-round Swiss Indoor wins on Wednesday as a handful players keep up the fight for one of three spots still open for next month's season wrap up.

Blake, who played the final of the season-ending Masters Cup a year ago against Roger Federer, perked up his qualifying campaign for event from November 11 in Shanghai with a Basle victory.

His 6-3, 6-4 dispatch of Spaniard Oscar Hernandez made up for an opening loss at Madrid a week ago after starting his indoor season with a Stockholm semi-final this month.

The fourth seed stands provisional tenth in the race for one of three remaining spots in the eight-strong China field.

But up to 20 contenders for the places are so tightly bunched that the American is just two points shy of current number eight Tommy Haas - 327 to 329 points.

Source - Sports Plus

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Oscar Hernandez Davidoff Swiss Indoors