Black Tennis Pros

American James Blake came out tonight on FIRRRRREE!! Blake treated Nicolas Massu of Chile like he stole something from him. It was ugly. Especially since Blake had not previously even taken a set off of Massu in two previous meetings. Mind you, Massu wasn't sitting back just taking this beating, he was whipping shots all over the place similar to Blakes. Unfortunately for him, Blake just had it all tonight, serve, return, fierce scowl and well shaved head. Blake brought the match in at 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.

American Donald Young was dismissed so unceremoniously that I forgot to mention it yesterday! It didn't appear that Donald was really ready. He was competitive, but it was never enough to overcome German Michael Berrer's game. Berrer defeated Young 6-7(7/5), 7-6(7/4), 6-3, 7-6(7/5)

Courtesy of Black Tennis Pro's reader Marc Guillaume of France, I can now include eleven existing ATP Tour players and three WTA Tour players that I was not familiar with......thanks Marc!

The first player is 22-year-old Frenchman Josselin Ouanna, he is currently listed at #274.























The next player is 20-year-old Frenchman Boris Obama, he is currently listed at #1391.
















Next up is 23-year-old Jamaican Dustin Brown, who is currently listed at #456 singles and #445 doubles.





















Next up is 19-year-old Frenchman Alain Ntamag. He is currently listed at #1022.





















Next up is Valentin Sanon of the Ivory Coast. He is 27 years old and listed at #623 singles and #847 doubles.










Next up is 26-year-old Stephanie Foretz of France. She is currently listed at #129 singles and #64 doubles.























Next up is 28-year-old Julio Silva of Brazil. He is currently listed at #193 singles and #333 doubles.



Next up is 30- year-old Jeff Coetzee of South Africa. He is currently listed at #29 doubles.












Next up is 23-year-old Togolese Komlavi Loglo. He is currently listed at #345 singles and 429 doubles.






















Next up is 30-year old Dally Radriantefy of Madagascar.










Next up is Raven Klaasen of South Africa. He is currently listed at #717 singles and #863 doubles.











Next up is Phillip Simmonds of the USA. He is currently listed at #472 singles and #350 doubles.























Next up is Henry Adjei-Darko of Ghana. He is currently listed at #660 singles and #1211 doubles.








Last, but not least is Milagros Sequera of Venezuela. She is currently listed at #77 singles and #245 doubles.

World No. 38 Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has cast the first big blow in the men's singles draw. Tsonga has dispatched world no. 9 Brit Andy Murray from the 2008 Australian Open in the first round, Ouch!

Tsonga and his powerful shots won the first two sets 7-5, 6-4. At the beginning of the third set it appeared that he was having some sort of foot problem. Murray was able to capitalize on whatever the problem was and took the set 6-0. This obviously appeared as if the rest of the match was going to be a wash for Tsonga. Not so. It was a back and forth match for both of the players and Tsonga continued to hobble around. In the end, Tsonga took the fourth set 7-5 It was great!

Tsonga may still be riding high on that doubles win that he and fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet recently had over Bob and Mike Bryan. The French pair defeated the world no. 1 American twin brothers 4-6, 6-4, 11-9.

If the last couple of matches are any indication of Tsonga's season for 2008, it appears he'll have a pretty sweet year!

American Serena Williams, decked out in her white and fuschia ensemble, out muscled a very powerful player in Australian Jarmila Gajdosova. Serena started out playing a very organized strategic game, but Gajdosova was going for every shot full power, much to her detriment unfortunately. Players like Gajdosova who play with nothing to lose do end up hitting a number of winners against their opponent. At the same time, a lot of those hail marys end up outside of the court. If she ever organizes those shots and plays with a little more patience, she could be hell to beat. Oh, and exercise that tummy a lil' bit. She has quite a gut.

Technorati Tags: Sports Tennis Australian Open
Serena Williams Australian Open
Jarmila Gajdosova

Women's Singles - Round 1*

Venus Williams, USA vs Zi Yan, CHN
Serena Williams, USA vs Jarmila Gajdosova, AUS

*Ahsha Rolle entered the women's singles qualifying draw, she was eliminated in the first round.

Men's Singles - Round 1*

James Blake, USA vs Nicolas Massu CHI
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA vs Andy Murray GBR
Donald Young, USA vs Michael Berrer GER

*Scoville Jenkins entered the men's singles qualifying draw, he was eliminated in the third round.

Doubles Draw

Not posted at this time.

It all begins at 7 p.m. (eastern) tonight on ESPN2!

Melbourne hasn't been a happy hunting ground for reigning Wimbledon champion Venus Williams, but she approaches the Australian Open this year in prime form.

The six-time Grand Slam champion will be playing her ninth Australian Open, having made the final in 2003 and the semis in 2001.

But she has struggled here in recent times. She pulled out with a wrist injury last year, was sent packing in the first round in 2006, and failed to get beyond the fourth round in 2004 and 2005.

This, though, could be her breakthrough year after a solid 2007 when she bounced back from injury to win Wimbledon and power her way back into the world's top 10.

She got off to the best possible start this month by winning the JB Group Classic invitational event in Hong Kong this month, crushing Maria Sharapova in the final despite not playing a competitive game since Bangkok last October.

The American, 27, is one of the few players who seems able to win tournaments with minimum preparation and she feels ready for the Grand Slam challenge.

"It is very exciting, especially going into the Australian, playing so well against someone of her calibre," she said after beating Sharapova, who lost to Serena Williams in the Australian Open final last year.

"I knew I was playing well in practice, but a match is different ... to have that competition makes a huge difference," added the world number eight.

"I am so excited to be back playing tennis, this time last year I was not even on tour."

What could come back to haunt her are the injuries that wrecked her 2006 and cut short her 2007 campaign.

During the Hong Kong tournament she received treatement for back and hamstring problems as well as a recurrence of the persistent wrist injury which forced her to miss last year's trip to Melbourne.

But she is confident she can cope.

"I think every athlete has a certain tolerance for pain, I can't say mine is extremely high, but I felt good enough for the match (against Sharapova)," she said.

As well as Wimbledon, Williams won in Memphis and Seoul last year to take her tournament title tally to 36, the third most prolific winner among active players, behind only Lindsay Davenport and Justine Henin.

Ranked eight in the world, one behind sister and defending champion Serena, Williams' dominant serve, which twice reached 128mph last season, bettering her own Tour record of 127mph set in 1998, is her killer weapon.

When not playing tennis, she runs her own company, V Starr Interiors, in Florida, and graduated from design college late last year, one of the few current tennis players to have a degree.

As well as singles, she will team with sister Serena to play doubles here.

The pair have not played together at the Australian Open since they won the title for the second time in three years in 2003.

Organisers said because injuries have sidelined them from playing in doubles events for so long they now have a nominal ranking of 9999.

In all the sisters have won six majors (Wimbledon and Australian Open twice, US and French) and an Olympic gold medal in Sydney in 2000.

Technorati Tags: Sports Tennis Australian Open
Venus Williams

This is another post direct from Serena's diary at Serena Williams The Official Site. It seems that she's in a very contemplative mood right now, it's nice. She entitled it Dreams.