Black Tennis Pros

Ahsha Rolle, Angela Haynes, Tiya Rolle - M&F Bank Women's Pro Challenger of Jackson, Mississippi

Marcus Fugate, Phillip Simmonds, Josselin Ouanna and Jarmaine Jenkins - 2008 Newton Cox USTA Men's Professional Tennis Classic, Mobile, Alabama

Scoville Jenkins - Puerto Rico Challenger Tennis Event, Humacao, Puerto Rico

In a stunning development that tips the competitive balance in favor of the United States, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France dropped out of the 2008 Davis Cup Quarterfinal, suffering from a lateral meniscus injury to his right knee.

Captain Guy Forget replaced the French star with veteran Arnaud Clement, who had traveled with the team to Winston-Salem as an alternate.

The 22-year-old Tsonga flew back to France on Wednesday for treatment. The news was made official Wednesday afternoon by Davis Cup Tournament Referee Wayne McKewen.

It was initially believed by the Americans that the inclusion of Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu was a smokescreen for Clement's inclusion in the doubles rubber.

Michael Llodra’s steady doubles partner, Clement and Llodra defeated the Bryans this year at the Australian Open and two years ago at Wimbledon.

“I will expect the unexpected,” said McEnroe on Tuesday. “They have a lot of versatility in their players. I certainly don't go in really wondering or worrying about it. As I said, we've got our four guys. If we play well and play at the top of our game, we feel good about our chances.”

“Certainly I think Guy (Forget) has more options available, maybe depending on how the guys look and adjust to the court, it being as quick as it is. It would not surprise me if there's some changes.”

With Tsonga out of the picture, the French will likely nominate Mathieu, ranked No. 12 in the world, to play second singles behind Richard Gasquet.

A career 4-6 in Davis Cup competition, Mathieu last played in the 2007 quarterfinals against Russia. Mathieu is 1-2 against Andy Roddick and 0-1 against James Blake.

Clement, 29, an eight-year Davis Cup veteran, is accomplished in both singles and doubles. In the first round against Romania, Clement partnered with Llodra in the clinching match.

Tsonga made his debut on the French Davis Cup team in the first round, winning his only match over Romania’s Andrei Pavel.

The official draw ceremony, which determines the official order of play, will be held Thursday at the Joel Coliseum.

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."