Black Tennis Pros

Entry #1 - Thursday, April 17
Entry #2 - Wednesday, April 23

Since we arrived in Russia, I think our team has had some of the best practices since I have been U.S. Fed Cup Captain in the respect that our “Future Fed Cuppers”, Coco Vandeweghe and Alison Riske, are also practicing with the players.

Liezel Huber has been amazing. Besides being a great player, she is like a coach on the court at the same time. Ahsha Rolle and Vania King have also had very good practices and it has been a really great team atmosphere. I think it helps that a lot of girls are the same age or around the same age and know each other.

My lineup for this weekend is pretty much set already. It's going to be Vania and Ahsha in singles and Vania and Liezel in doubles. Madison has already had a lot of great practices but Ahsha has more experience and Madison is still a little young. And I like the fact that I have made a decision on the lineup ahead of time.

Tomorrow we are practicing in the morning at the Luzhniki Sport Arena and then Liezel and Vania will play doubles in the afternoon. We will also play some singles and then we have the official dinner at night.

Frenchman Gael Monfils did not concede one ace against 6' 10'' Ivo Karlovic in a 7-6(8), 6-1 win over the Croatian. It was the first time in Karlovic's 225-match ATP career that he had failed to serve an ace in a match.

Monfils, who has not won a tournament since his first ATP title in Sopot almost three years ago, had won just two matches this season before arriving in Monte Carlo.

"I was stressed about Karlovic's game because I wanted to make him play as many balls as possible because I know he's not so good at that. But thinking about that stressed me, and I played too short."

I am truly touched. In my usual night owl surfing, I visited SjP at Sojourner's Place, and to my surprise she had passed on The Red Rose Award that she received from Ms. Marvalus at Opinionated Black Woman.

Thank you very much for thinking of me SjP. This single red rose serves its purpose in lifting my spirit.

Along with me, SjP passed The Red Rose Award to Coffee Stained News, Tinneka at 360 Degrees of Diversity, Mary at The Black Factor and Vanessa at Vanessa: Unplugged.

Cheers ladies!

I'm going to share this rose with Ada at Scramories, 2SweetNSaxy at Down Around L.A., and Celena at Strictly Fabulous Style.

Monte Carlo Masters Series

Round 2 - Singles

Gael Monfils, FRA defeated Ivo Karlovic, CRO
7-6(8), 6-1


Round 1 - Doubles

Jeff Coetzee, RSA and Wesley Moodie, RSA
defeated
Jose Acasuso, ARG and David Ferrer, ESP
6-3, 6-4


Baton Rouge Pro Tennis Classic, Baton Rouge, LA

Round 1 - Singles

Josselin Ouanna, FRA defeated Tim Smyczek, USA
1-6, 6-3, 6-4

Round 1 - Doubles

Phillip Simmonds, USA and Tim Smyczek, USA
defeated
Josselin Ouanna, FRA and Gary Lugassy, FRA
6-3, 7-5

Scoville Jenkins, USA and Colt Gaston, USA
defeated
Amer Delic, USA and Ryan Sweeting, USA
6-4, 7-5


Movie Gallery Pro Classic 2008

Round 1 - Singles

Alexandra Stevenson, USA defeated Maria-Fernanda Alves, BRA
6-1, 5-7, 6-1

Asia Muhammad, USA defeated Raquel Kops-Jones, USA
6-2, 6-2

Jamea Jackson, USA defeated Maria Torres-Sandoval, MEX
6-1, 6-2

Angela Haynes,USA defeated Kimberly Couts, USA
6-2, 6-3


Round 1 - Doubles

Shenay Perry, USA and Carly Gullickson, USA
defeated
Alexa Glatch, USA and Varvara Lepchenko
6-4, 6-3

Mashona Washington, USA and Angela Haynes, USA
defeated by
Courtney Nagle, USA and Robin Stephenson, USA
3-6, 6-2, 10/4

Asia Muhammad, USA and Julia Boserup, USA
defeated by
Tetiana Luzhanska, UKR and Michaela Pastikova, CZE
7-6(5), 5-7, 10/8

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA and Abigail Spears, USA
defeated by
Monique Adamczak and Chanelle Scheepers
6-2, 6-3

I have been tagged by Iriegal at Darkchild, to name 6 quirks I have. For those I tag or who want to join in just copy the rules below and leave a comment in the person you tag post.

1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules in your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag any amount following bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

Round 1 - Singles

Gael Monfils, FRA vs. Fernando Verdasco, ESP*
*Monfils defeated Verdasco 7-5, 6-4


Round 1 - Doubles

Jeff Coetzee, RSA and Wesley Moodie, RSA
vs.
Jose Acasuso, ARG and David Ferrer, ESP






























Baton Rouge Pro Tennis Classic, Baton Rouge, LA

Round 1 - Singles

Scoville Jenkins, USA vs. Kevin Kim, USA*
*Jenkins defeated by Kim 6-7(3), 7-6(4), 4-1 Retired

Josselin Ouanna, FRA vs. Tim Smyczek, USA


Round 1 - Doubles

Phillip Simmonds, USA and Tim Smyczek, USA
vs.
Josselin Ouanna, FRA and Gary Lugassy, FRA

River Oaks U. S. Men's Clay Court Championship, Houston, Texas

Final Round - Singles

James Blake, USA defeated by Marcel Granollers-Pujol, ESP
4-6, 6-1, 5-7


Estoril Open, Estoril Portugal

Final Round - Doubles

Jeff Coetzee, RSA and Wesley Moodie, RSA
defeated
Jamie Murry, GBR and Kevin Ullyett, ZIM
6-2, 4-6, 10-8


Family Circle Cup, Charleston, South Carolina

Final Round - Singles

Serena Williams, USA defeated Vera Zvonareva, RUS
6-4, 3-6, 6-3


USTA Pro Circuit

St. Vincent Auxillary Men's Professional Tennis Tournament, Little Rock, Arkansas

Semifinal Round - Singles

Marcus Fugate, USA defeated by Artem Sitak
6-7(1), 6-7(4)

Thanks to a good match, good food, and good friends (all of which were in different areas of the country), watching Serena Williams win the 2008 Family Circle Cup was a great time.

Joining me yesterday for a live blogging experience was BlogPassion of "We Need To Stop: Black Blog On African American Issues, News, Celebrity Gossip And More," Harlem Writer of "Harlem Writer", Dave of "Welcome Back Rosenthal," Aunk (The Cultural Health Guy) of The "Cultural Health News Blog," Cooper, of "Wonderland Or Not," and Hasheem.

Thank you all so much, it was such a fun time! We will be doing this periodically throughout the tennis season, I look forward to it.


"I feel like I have some momentum behind me and I just want to keep going." The words of the lady of the hour post match.

Serena Williams and her first Family Circle Cup Championship in five attempts. It was a rocky match for Serena. She had a very worthy opponent in Russian Vera Zvonareva, who came out with every intention of becoming the title holder too.

Serena seemed to be very unsure of herself and not present in the first set, although she can have a tendency to start slow. The problem was, Zvonareva was firing on all cylinders, and that reality could not be taken lightly. Nonetheless, Serena took the first set.

Into the second set, Serena's game took an even deeper lull, and enabled Zvonareva to get back into the match and take the set. Serena was suffering true struggles.

As she has done so many times before, Serena picked herself up, dusted herself off and got back into the groove in the third set. It wasn't perfect, but she did what she needed to do to pull out in front of Zvonareva and ride the winning set in at 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

"I just wanted to get that first set under my belt, and thank God I did because I lost the second. I've played her a few times, so I really know her game and she's a real fighter and she never stops."

"She never made a mistake when I was up," Zvonareva said. "I think I could have done a little better job about holding my serve, which I wasn't able to do."

"She always puts pressure on you, so you always have to go for a bigger serve and eventually your serve percentage goes down," said Zvonareva, who ended with eight double-faults. "I accepted I would have some double-faults today and I knew it was going to happen when I was coming into the match. It's just too bad to have two of them in a row."

Serena won $197,000 and a crystal cup at the $1.3 million tournament.