Black Tennis Pros

Round 1 - Singles

James Blake, USA vs. BYE
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA vs. BYE
Gael Monfils, FRA vs. Mario Ancic, CRO
Donald Young, USA vs. Qualifier


Round 1 - Doubles

Draw Not Released

Round 1 - Qualifying Singles

Scoville Jenkins, USA vs. Mischa Zverev, GER*
*(Jenkins defeated Zverev 4-6, 6-3, 6-2)

Round 1 - Singles

Angela Haynes vs. Sara Errani, ITA
Ahsha Rolle, USA vs. Madison Brengle, USA


Round 1 - Doubles

Angela Haynes, USA and Mashona Washington, USA
vs.
Tatiana Poutchek, BLR and Anastasia Rodionova, RUS

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA and Christina Fusano, USA
vs.
Anabel Medina Garrigues, ESP and Ma. Emilia Salerni, ARG


Round 1 - Qualifying Singles

Alexandra Stevenson, USA vs. Julie Ditty, USA*
(*Ditty defeated Stevenson 7-6, 5-2)

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA vs. Sabine Lasicki, GER*
(*Lisicki defeated Kops-Jones 6-2, 6-3)

Americans Angela Haynes, Ahsha Rolle and Vania King are seen here enjoying themselves in Indian Wells, California where each of them has received a wild card into the Pacific Life Open Tournament.

ONE MORE ACE: Tennis star Serena Williams (centre), along with Satjiv Chahil (left), Senior Vice President and Ravi Swaminathan, President, Personal System Group, Hawlett Packard Company launching the HP’s latest Notebook in New Delhi on Monday.

NEW DELHI: Hewlett-Packard (HP) on Monday unveiled three new notebooks, priced between Rs. 46,990 ($1,163 USD) and Rs. 54,990 ($1,361 USD). The three HP Pavilion notebooks, launched by HP’s worldwide brand ambassador and leading tennis player Serena Williams, have been designed keeping in mind consumers’ personal styles and design preferences.

The two limited edition HP Pavilion entertainment notebooks, ‘dv2700’ and ‘dv6700,’ have been priced at Rs. 46,990 ($1,163 USD) and Rs. 54,990 ($1,361 USD), respectively, while the ‘dv2800’ Artist edition notebook will cost Rs. 53.990 ($1,337 USD).

Addressing a press conference here, HP India President (Personal Systems Group) Ravi Swaminathan said: “HP was the first notebook manufacturer to offer a signature in-mould HP imprint design for its consumer notebook PCs.

The HP Imprint designs are a reflection of HP’s commitment to consumers’ personal styles and design preferences. They are also a reflection of how style and personal expression are a part of today’s consumers’ digital lifestyle.”

To further strengthen the leadership with an aggressive ‘Go-to-Market’ strategy, HP India would expand its retail footprint across 600 cities and expand the retail partner network to over 6,000 by the end of 2008.

The main draw for the Pacific Life Open will be released today and I will post the players as soon as it's up.

An impressive group of American players, including veterans Mardy Fish and Robby Ginepri and rising stars Donald Young, John Isner, Vania King, Ahsha Rolle, Bethanie Mattek, Angela Haynes, Madison Brengle and Melanie Oudin have been granted wild cards for the 2008 Pacific Life Open, to be held March 10-23 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, it was announced today by tournament director Steve Simon.

The lights are still shining bright in Las Vegas, Nevada, but they dimmed, just a bit on the game of one of its daughters, American Asia Muhammad.

Asia waged a beautiful tournament. She was given a wildcard and she made the most of it. Today Asia's run at the Las Vegas Hilton Cup was stopped by Frenchwoman Camille Pin. Camille defeated Asia 6-4, 6-1.

In the first set Asia fought as hard as she could, and she gave as good as she got from Pin. With quite a bit more experience on her side, Pin was able to prevail. Unfortunately it was down hill from there. Asia very simply ran out of steam. She wasn't able to put up the fight that had been serving her so well all week.

It's just a matter of time, she'll get her sea legs.

Asia's mom and dad, Ron and Faye Muhammad sat in the stands alongside her coach, and not too far from her mentor, the great Andre Agassi.

When asked whether she realized that Andre Agassi was in attendance today, Asia said "I did not, I wasn't trying to look into the stands, especially in the second set."

"Watch out for women power, that's what you saw ..." Great words from a woman Indian dignitary spoken during the presentation ceremony. Prior to that, there was a fight to the finish.

With dad Richard Williams, sisters Venus and Isha supporting her from the stands, American Serena Williams brought the 2008 Canara Bank Bangalore Open to a conclusion with her first title of 2008. Serena defeated Swede Patty Schynder 7-5, 6-3.

To reach this title Serena had to get by big sister Venus the day before. It wasn't an easy task, but Serena prevailed. While neither of the sisters was in tip top form, Serena seemed to have just a bit more fighting spirit.

The same was true of today's match against Switzerland's own Patty Schynder. Neither Patty or Serena played remarkably well, but Serena's fight game was on as usual. The more errors she made, the harder she battled to get the next point, classic Serena.

The first set was literally whomever could get to that crucial point, it consisted of service break after service break. Fortunately for Serena, she was able to hang in there and come out on top.

The second set was more of the same until Serena saw blood in the water after being down a break then bringing the set to 3-3, she devoured the balance of Schynder's game straight to the finish.

As proud dad Richard took lots of pictures as usual, and Venus signed autographs in the stands, former ATP Tour player Indian Vijay Amritraj spoke very fondly of Serena and the Williams family as he prepared to bring Serena up to receive her trophy.

"She comes from a remarkable family, and you've heard me on the television many many years talking about Richard and Venus and what they've done for tennis worldwide."

"It is a great pleasure to have all of them, the entire family here with us in India for the first time, and making their first visit to Bangalore. And rightly, the winner of this years tournament, the former world no. 1 and grand slam champion, ladies and gentlemen Serena Williams."

Amritraj stated, "Serena, first time in India and you win the tournament, feel good?" "I definitely feel good, it's my first time in India, everyone here is so nice and the crowd was great, it was fun out here.

When asked about the match being so tight Serena said, "Yeah you know, I've got to give thanks to my God Jehovah because, I mean, a couple of weeks ago I just wasn't even sure if I would be able to play here.

Serena was asked whether it was very tough playing Venus on Saturday, "Yeah it was really tough because you know to me, she's the best player on the tour, so, I hate to see my name next to hers (laughing).