Black Tennis Pros

As if he had done it a hundred times before, Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga walked into Rod Laver arena and pummeled Spaniard Rafael Nadal into submission to win the 2008
Australian Open semifinal 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.

After sprinting to the back of his side of the tennis court subsequent to the coin toss, nothing else looked familiar to Nadal. As opposed to running his opponent's tongue out with the left-handed spin he usually puts on the ball, Nadal was the one chasing blazing shots from the other side of the court.

France's latest delicacy commanded last night's semifinal match with the prowess and calm of a seasoned veteran. The difference is that this is the first time Tsonga has ever played this deep into a grand slam event. The 22-year old world no. 38, which he obviously won't be after this event, came into Australia totally under the radar and took out experienced opponents round after round after round. And today, he awaits the winner of the Roger Federer Novak Djokovic semifinal match to set up the final.

"It's unbelievable, three sets, it's just amazing," Tsonga said.

"I don't know what to say. Today I played unbelievable, and nothing can stop me and I am just happy.

"It's like a dream. Every day, this like a dream. I can't believe it's true, just amazing."

South Africa's Jeff Coetzee and his compatriot doubles partner Wesley Moodie were knocked out of the doubles semifinal by the French team of Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra. The score was 6-3, 7-6(11/9).

Well folks, it is done. American James Blake has had his eighth shellacking by Swede Roger Federer and must try again to get to the top of a grand-slam tournament. Federer defeated Blake 7-5, 7-6(7/5), 6-4.

It wasn't ugly though, Blake did what few are able to do, he pushed Federer hard throughout the match. Federer has been pushed before during the Australian Open, and nearly toppled by Serbian Janko Tipsaravic. But only the elite few have had the ability to bring the man of steel down.

"He seems like one of the guys in the locker room," Blake said. "Then you go out there, he beats you. You come back in the locker room and he's one of the guys."

"Playing against James, it's always great fun," said Federer, dressed in all-black again for a night match. "He's dangerous when he's even behind in the game. He made some incredible shots."

I really like Roger Federer and honestly want to see how far he can ride this bullet train. At the same time, when someone like James Blake is having such a great tournament, I really wanted to see him at the finish.

"I really went in thinking I had a good chance to win," Blake said. "I thought I played pretty well. But he came up with some of his best at the right times, and that was the difference."

Ah, c'est la vie!

What the French Toast was that?! American Venus Williams and Serbian Ana Ivanovic put on one of the worst grand-slam tournament matches I've ever seen in my life! I felt like I was moving in slow motion. It was terrible. By the time that match was over I didn't care who won, just make it stop....please!

There is a reality to it and that reality is, after a total of nine double faults, 69 unforced errors and nine breaks of serve, Ana Ivanovic "won" the match, "defeating" Venus 7-6(7/3), 6/4.

Good Grief! Skee Stylus, I'll gladly take the hit for this call.

"I have to give a lot of credit to her," Williams said. "She played really well, made a lot of good shots. She's definitely improved on everything in her game. That's really what it takes at this level. You want to keep improving and playing, because we're all improving."

"And I think Serena and I, we don't have anything to prove. We get out there and we play our best ... I don't get too caught up in what the next person thinks."

Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has just BLOWN by everybody and is sitting pretty in his first career grand-slam semifinal.....YAY!!!

Tsonga is playing effortlessly and looking better in his matches than most of the seeds that I've seen, some of which have already gone home.

Even though Tsonga has been playing well and had made it to the quarterfinals, none of the commentators would give him any kind of edge over Russian Mikhail Youhzny, but it has come to pass. Tsonga defeated Youzhny in straight sets 7-5, 6-0, 7-6.

I am just so thrilled for him. His reward for making it to the semifinals? Spaniard Rafael Nadal.

Welcome to the bigs Tsonga!

Defending champion American Serena Williams simply could not pull her game together sufficient to move into the semifinals today. She looked tired and lackadaisical throughout the entire match. Serena appeared to try to modify and control her game to fit whatever may have been ailing her, but it did not work. That big booming serve of Serena's couldn't even save her today.

At one point both ladies were receiving medical treatment.

Serbian Jelena Jankovic, who had all kinds of issues in her initial match, played just well enough, and benefited greatly from Serena's errors, to pull out the win and move into the semis. Serena was defeated 6-3, 6-4.

In the post match interview Serena said, "I'm not going to sit here and make excuses, I lost because Jelena played better than me and I made too many errors..... I think regardless, the match was on my racquet, and I gave it away.

"I didn't move the way I traditionally want to move, and I wasn't feeling 100 percent. But as an athlete you know not every day you're going to feel 100 percent, and some days you have to win feeling 30 percent."