Black Tennis Pros

Round 3 - Men's Singles

Gael Monfils, FRA defeated Jurgen Melzer, AUT
4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-0, 6-2


Round 3 - Women's Singles

Venus Williams USA defeated by Flavia Pennetta, ITA
5-7, 3-6


DOUBLES

Round 1 - Men's

Jeff Coetzee, RSA and Wesley Moodie, RSA
defeated
Jurgen Melzer, AUT and Alexander Peya, AUT
7-5, 6-4


Round 2 - Men's

Jeff Coetzee, RSA and Wesley Moodie, RSA
defeated by
Janko Tipsarevic, SRB and Viktor Troicki, SRB
2-6, 4-6


Round 1 - Women's

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA and Natalie Grandin, RSA
defeated
Iveta Benesova, CZE and Janette Husarova, SVK
1-6, 7-5, 7-5

Stephanie Foretz, FRA and Olga Savchuk, UKR
defeated by
Dinara Safina, RUS and Agnes Szavay, HUN
4-6, 1-6


MIXED DOUBLES

Round 1

Jeff Coetzee, RSA and Elena Vesnina, RUS
defeated by
Nenad Zimonjic, SRB and Katarina Srebotnik, SLO
1-6, 2-6

Gael Monfils, FRA and Dominika Cibulkova, SVK
defeated
Andy Ram, ISR and Natalie Dechy, FRA
6-4, 6-4

Stephanie Foretz, FRA and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, FRA
defeated by
Bethanie Mattek, USA and Kevin Ullyett, ZIM
1-6, 6-4, 0-1(7/10)

I'm shocked too Gael! And very pleased at the same time.

It's a new day and I'm refocused after Friday's debacle. There is some light at the tournament and a lot of shouting factor remains.

Frenchman Gael Monfils and American Robby Ginepri are two of my favorites on the tour. They have hung in there, gotten the job done and I shall begin supporting and celebrating accordingly. Yesterday is gone.

Both gentlemen are into the fourth round and that is definitely something to shout about. So YAAAAAAY!!!

Robby Ginepri defeated Frenchman Florent Serra 6-4, 6-4, 6-4; Gael Monfils defeated Austrian Jurgen Melzer 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-0, 6-2.

Work it out guys, work it out!

I have nothing to say.

WHERE YOU AT JUAN, WHERE YOU AT WITH YOURS?

JUST GIVE IT TO ME FULL FORCE, I'M TAKING IT TODAY!!

Well, I saw it this morning, so I KNOW that it did indeed happen. Yet, I am at a loss to accurately describe what happened. Suffice it to say that it appeared that Serena had no game plan, was asleep fifty percent of the time, and couldn't hit the side of a barn with all of the racquets in her bag. Yeah, that's about it.

Our lil' miss fashion plate will either sit in the stands or return to the good old U.S. of A., but she will not be pursuing the French Open title any further. A short while ago Serena Williams handed the fourth round of play to Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik on a silver racquet. Srebotnik's win came in at 6-4, 6-4.

That's not to say that Srebotnik did not play well, she did. However, Serena played so poorly that Srebotnik could have stood there with her racquet held out and won the match.

What does Serena's mom and coach have to say about it? “She was edgy. Her head just wasn't there and I can't explain why."

"She's been like that since she got here. She wasn't confident. She has been in a funk for a couple of weeks.”

Round 1 - Men's Singles

Donald Young, USA defeated by Robby Ginepri, USA
2-6, 6-3, 6-7(4-7), 2-6

Gael Monfils, FRA defeated Arnaud Clement, FRA
7-5, 6-3, 6-1

Scoville Jenkins, USA defeated by Luis Horna, PER
4-6, 7-5, 3-6, 0-6


Round 2 - Men's Singles

Gael Monfils, FRA defeated Luis Horna, PER
7-6(7/5), 6-4, 7-5

James Blake, USA defeated by Ernests Gulbis, LAT
6-7(2/7), 6-3, 5-7, 3-6


Round 1 - Women's Singles

Stephanie Foretz, FRA defeated by Vera Zvonareva
2-6, 1-6


Round 2 Women's Singles

Venus Williams, USA defeated Selima Sfar, TUN
6-3, 4-6, 6-2

Serena Williams, USA defeated Mathilde Johansson, FRA
6-2, 7-5


Round 3 - Women's Singles

Serena Williams, USA defeated by Katarina Srebotnik, SLO
4-6, 4-6

Yeowwwches! That is absolutely too much male fineness occupying a single space, DAMN! Alrighty then, moving right along...

French hope Jo-Wilfried Tsonga may be sidelined from Roland Garros, but the Australian Open finalist remains the great new hope of French tennis, which has not had a Grand Slam champion for 25 years.

Deuce Magazine has put together a few words on this rise of Tsonga.

France had more Top 100 players last year than any other country, yet on the 25th anniversary of Yannick Noah's celebrated Roland Garros victory in 1983, the nation still awaits its next Grand Slam champion. Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has emerged from the shadows of countrymen Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils to become France's great new hope.

It was 6 a.m. on a January morning. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's plane began its descent towards the runway at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, at last concluding its 10,400-mile journey from Melbourne, Australia. There had been many such flights in Tsonga's life, but none could quite prepare him for what was to come this morning.

As Tsonga exited the plane, more than 100 people lined the corridors of the airport to greet him. Immediately, Tsonga was driven to the center of the French tennis universe - Roland Garros - for a press conference, where he charmed dozens of print and broadcast journalists.

In conversation, the 6' 2", 200-pound Tsonga is a gentle man, at times almost pensive, at others even cheeky, his small brown eyes kindly taking in what's around him, a sensitive quality that's a pleasing contrast with the equally charismatic and physical firepower of his game. His subdued speaking voice is the sign of reflection, an activity he engages in often when enjoying one of his favorite off-court passions, fishing.

Tsonga kicked off 2008 in grand style. In only the fifth Grand Slam of his career, he had splashed himself into history by reaching the finals of the Australian Open. Moreover, Tsonga had done it in an arresting manner, playing brilliant attacking tennis in beating such rough customers as Andy Murray, Richard Gasquet, Mikhail Youzhny and Rafael Nadal before losing a tight four-setter to Novak Djokovic. Over the span of a fortnight, Tsonga earned more prize money than he had in his entire career. "I was impressed with the way he plays," said Djokovic in Australia. "He's just living the dream. For him it's a great achievement."

Is Technorati showing me a particular brand of love, or are others suffering too? I just want to know.

Blake baby, Blake baby, Blake baby, ya' killin' me.

I declare this man is going to put me in an early grave supporting him. And yes, I will continue to support him. He thinks that "he" became frustrated today, what about me?

I don't completely know how to call this one though. Blake has the goods, and was making the effort, but world no. 80 Ernests Gulbis of Latvia also had the goods, made the effort and advanced to the next round to the tune of a 7-6(2), 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory over Blake.

Now, clearly I realize that our American men haven't progressed particularly well over the years on clay, but it's a new year and a lot has happened in between. Yes, I know, I'm being a tad overly optimistic, but I'm not one to wallow in defeat unnecessarily or prematurely.

During his press conference, a very disheartened and visibly disappointed Blake said, "I haven't seen the stats yet, but I think that I was just poorly not within my game. I think I played the way ahhh, too many commentators think I should play." (Who? Patrick McEnroe? Cliff Drysdale? Chris Fowler? Why are you giving these people free real estate in your head when you have a coach that you pay?)

"Saying, you know, I probably didn't make very many errors and I didn't hit that many winners, and that's the way a lot of them think I should play, and I think today was a pretty good indication that's not the way that wins matches for me."

"I lost to a guy ranked 80 in the world that hit a lot more winners. Granted, he didn't play like he was 80 in the world, he played a lot better than that, but there's a lot of guys out there that can dictate play against me if I try to play like that, and that's just real frustrating for me to play a match like that when I know my game, I know what works best for me and I didn't necessarily do it effectively today."

Oh James, I'm going to leave you alone right now, as you really seem to require more support than admonishment. But as soon as I think that you're feeling better? Oh, it's on.