Black Tennis Pros

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. (AP) — Six-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams will be sidelined indefinitely, though she did not say why she will be out of action.

"I've just been having some issues that I need to resolve, so I'm working on that at the moment and I'm hoping to be back playing as soon as possible," Williams said Tuesday at the Bausch & Lomb Championships. "I'm not going to get any further into it, but of course I love the sport."

Williams said last week she was dealing with a medical issue when she announced her withdrawal from the Bausch & Lomb tournament. She played last week in the Sony Ericsson Open, losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals.

Williams will not play for the United States in the Fed Cup semifinal against Russia on April 26-27, but did not rule out any other tournaments and said she still wants to play in the French Open beginning in late May.

"Of course I want to be there (in France)," Williams said. "I don't want to be at home watching on TV. Watching this week will be enough on TV, so hopefully not too many more weeks."

QuickStart Tennis is a new format to help kids ten and under learn and play the game. To make it easier for them, a few things have been changed. The court sizes. The racquet sizes. The balls. The scoring system. Even the net height.

Now any child between ages five and ten can start playing tennis almost immediately-even if he or she has never picked up a racquet before.

Like other popular youth sports, QuickStart stresses the importance of play and team competition. It's also now part of the USTA Jr. Team Tennis league and can be part of your existing programs as well. Which means that even more kids will have the opportunity to experience this new format, have fun playing with their friends and develop skills that will become the foundation of their game.

After spending the past two weeks in Miami at the Sony Ericsson Open, members of the United States Davis Cup team might not have enjoyed Winston-Salem’s chilly weather yesterday.

But they’re glad to be here nonetheless as they prepare for this weekend’s World Group quarterfinal against France at Joel Coliseum.

Captain Patrick McEnroe, James Blake, and Bob and Mike Bryan attended the Davis Cup Block Party at Hanes Park, and they made it clear that they were happy to be back where they have enjoyed much success.

The U.S. beat Spain in front of sellout crowds at Joel Coliseum last April in a 2007 quarterfinal, and went on to win the Davis Cup for the first time since 1995.

“There’s great fan support in Winston-Salem,” Bob Bryan said. “This is the most passionate crowd we’ve ever played in front of. Last year the fans really brought it. They helped us so much, it was just a great scene. So when we had a chance to play a home match, w e recommended to Pat and to the USTA that we come back here.”

The U.S. drew an away tie in the first round, beating Austria in Vienna in February. So this will be the team’s first home tie as the defending Davis Cup champions - and the way that the brackets set up, it could be the only home tie in 2008 even if the U.S. makes it all the way to the final.

The draw for the first U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships at River Oaks will be determined Friday, and then it will be possible for Van Barry, the club's tennis director, to set his first-round schedule.

But Barry already has locked in one match, hoping to create an early buzz at the ticket window. Presumptive top seed James Blake will be on the Tuesday, April 15, evening card, no matter whom he faces.

Blake, a two-time champion of the River Oaks International exhibition tournament, is competing with the U.S. Davis Cup team this weekend in its quarterfinal match against France at Winston-Salem, N.C. The 28-year-old American is coming off consecutive quarterfinal appearances in the season's first two Master Series tournaments at Indian Wells and Miami, which have lifted him a notch in the rankings to No. 8.

He won at River Oaks in 2003 and 2005. The latter title help spur a comeback from injury and illness that saw him climb from below 200 to as high as No. 4 at the end of 2006.

Raquel Kops-Jones fed Rosana De Los Rios a steady diet of heavy groundstrokes and beat the top seed 6-3, 6-4 in the final of the Pelham Racquet Club USTA $25,000 Pro Circuit Challenger.

Sunday turned out to be bonus day for nearly 100 fans who turned out to watch at least part of seven matches. Rain Saturday washed out all action on the clay courts and forced tournament officials to squeeze two days of play into one.

Kops-Jones and De Los Rios each showed signs of fatigue from having played a semifinal earlier Sunday. Each struggled to hold serve with De Los Rios losing hers three times and Kops-Jones twice in the first seven games.

Kops-Jones, who hyphenates her name to honor her father and mother, said she tried to stay away from the top seed's strong forehand.

"I was trying to hit mostly heavy balls to her backhand and open up the court for my forehand," she said. "I served mostly to her backhand and tried to get it up to her backhand."

Kops-Jones broke De Los Rios in the fourth game of the second set only to be broken herself at 15 in the next game. De Los Rios couldn't capitalize, however, as she went down love-40 on her next serve and lost her serve on the third break point of that game.

"She put a lot of topspin on the ball," De Los Rios said of Kops-Jones' attacking style. "I think that's why she beat me today."

From the beginning, it became apparent that De Los Rios couldn't get many shots beyond the reach of the No.7 seed. Kops-Jones sprinted from sideline to sideline and punctuated her play with winning shots.

"I'm tired so I don't know where I got the energy," Kops-Jones said. "I could tell she was tired as well. A lot of what I work on with my coach is a lot of footwork and making sure you're there for the ball and set up."

Kops-Jones received $2,940 for winning her second Pro Circuit event. De Los Rios got $1,666 as the runner-up.

Ahsha Rolle and Michaela Pastikova had never played doubles together before. Sunday, they looked like longtime teammates as they beat Ye-Ra Lee and Remi Tezuka 7-5, 6-2.

Pastikova is a former Australian Open doubles semifinalist who was No.32 in the world in doubles two years ago. The player from the Czech Republic said groundstrokes nicely complimented Rolle's net play.

The victors split $1,176 while the runners-up split $686.

Source

Qualifying Rounds

Angela Haynes, USA vs. Meng Yuan, CHN*
*Angela was defeated 7-5, 6-2


Round 1

Milagros Sequera, VEN vs. Elena Vesnina, RUS

Venus Williams - Withdrew*

*Venus withdrew from the Bausch & Lomb Championships on Saturday because she will be receiving treatment this week to resolve a medical issue.

"I have had great experiences at the Bausch & Lomb Championships and regret that I will not be participating this year," Williams said in a statement. "I look forward to being back on tour soon."

Quarterfinal

USA vs. France
April 11-13, 2008

Title number five came at the expense of one shattered racquet, and the elongated conversion of I don't know how many match points, but it was great to watch. Seeing American Serena Williams fight to the finish is always a win in and of itself.

At the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami on Saturday afternoon, Serena defended her title against Serbian Jelena Jankovic, defeating her 6-1, 5-7, 6-3. Earning the 30th title of her career, Serena became one of an elite party of two to hold this title for a whopping five times. She joins the great Steffi Graf in that honor.

The match was a wicked roller coaster ride. Serena came out in the first set and it was strictly business. She very thoughtfully, professionally and clinically kicked ass, it was a sight to see. From her serve, to her return of serve, to the rallies, nothing was missing or off, it was rich.

"I was definitely up and on my way to glory within an hour, but I started making a lot of mistakes, and Jelena obviously started playing better, too," Williams said. "Players who have nothing to lose are the most dangerous people in life on the court."

Second set, the first set in reverse, the fantastic one deconstructed and allowed Jelena back into the match. It was like you were watching a tennis video of 'how to,' and 'how not to' play a final at the same time. Serena's entire game and cool seemed to unravel and major frustration began to build.

Third set, the comeback. Serena began collecting herself, all of her tennis talents and began to bring the title home. She soared to 5-0 and then, and then, brain cramp! Once again, Jelena was back into the match. After several unsuccessful attempts to serve for the match, even Serena's racquet turned on her. She wasn't having that though, she killed it.



Now that the bad racquet was dead, Serena was able to compose herself and try to close this thing out again.

When asked about the murdered racquet post match, Serena said, “I smashed a racket? My hand must have been really oily and sweaty. That's just not me.”

“I thought I had like 15 match points. I'm glad to know it wasn't,” Williams said. “I got tight. I guess you can classify that as nervous. ... It's me just feeling like, 'I'm almost there. I would hate to lose this match after being up so much.'”