Black Tennis Pros

About the Day

June 27 is National HIV Testing Day. The National Association of People with AIDS is the lead for this day.

American Serena Williams is through to round 3 in the Championships at Wimbledon. On Wednesday she defeated Urszula Radwanska of Poland 6-4, 6-4 after being assigned to the "graveyard of champions." Fortunately for her, the effect was null and void.

"That did kind of cross my mind," she said. "I just didn't want to go out on Court Two, but I was just happy to get it over.

"It was windy too, the conditions weren't great."

I'm really liking her look this year. The hair, the outfits, the jackets, it's all working.

GENTLEMEN'S SINGLES*

Round 1

James Blake, USA
defeated
Christophe Rochus, BEL
3-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-4












Donald Young, USA
defeated by
Jesse Levine, USA
6-4, 2-6, 3-6, 4-6





GENTLEMEN'S DOUBLES

Round 1

Jeff Coetzee, RSA and Wesley Moodie, RSA
defeated
Simone Bolelli, ITA and Andreas Seppi, ITA
6-1, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2




LADIES' SINGLES*

Round 1

Venus Williams, USA
defeated
Naomi Cavaday, GBR
7-6(7/5), 6-1













Stephanie Foretz, FRA
defeated by
Maria Sharapova, RUS
1-6, 4-6






The Mixed Doubles Draw will be available on June 27.
The Juniors Draw will be available on June 27.

You see those two very sweet looking ladies below in white? Well don't let looks fool you. In what seemed like the time span of a couple of long television commercials, the American doubles sister team of Venus and Serena Williams totally dismantled the doubles team of Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus and Anastasia Rodionova of Australia on Tuesday. The sisters issued the team a 6-0, 6-3 beat down. It was just nasty...I felt sorry for them!

Not too long ago Venus said that she and Serena were very serious about playing doubles this year. If I didn't believe it then, you can rest assured that I believe it now.


Here is what Anastasia(l.) and Tatiana looked like in happier times. Hopefully they will pull themselves and their game together and survive to fight another day. Poor babies.

Today I have my first guest post for the Wednesday Coaches Corner. This article was written by T.A. Niles for Suite101.com. T.A.'s love of tennis definitely makes his work perfect for Black Tennis Pro's. I hope to have more of his work here in the future. You can read his full profile here.


Bryan Shelton Coaches NCAA Winner
First Black Head Coach to Win NCAA Div. I Championship in Tennis

The first African American, former USTA National Coach Bryan Shelton, guides Georgia Tech's Lady Yellow Jackets to NCAA Women's Div. I Tennis Title.

Earlier this year there was quite a bit of fanfare when Tony Dungy and Lovey Smith made it to the SuperBowl as the first Black, National Football League (NFL) coaches to get to the SuperBowl. Dungy received considerable accolades for being the first Black coach to win the Championship game. Given the notoriety of the SuperBowl and the prominent places that both “race” and the game of football play in US culture, it is no surprise that Dungy was lauded for his accomplishment.

An Accomplishment Worthy of Recognition

Tennis, particularly college tennis, is not the sporting and economic juggernaut that the NFL is, but being the first Black coach to win a Division I tennis title is a feat that ought applauded every bit as much as winning the SuperBowl. Bryan Shelton, the Head Coach of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, is the first African American to coach a Division I tennis team to the national title. Unlike Dungy who emerged victorious in a league with only 30 teams and half-dozen Black coaches, Shelton triumphed in a league with over 300 teams, 64 of which participated in the NCAA tournament. There were only 2 other Black coaches in the tournament.

Georgia Tech Upsets UCLA in Final

Shelton guided the lady Yellow Jackets to a 4-2 championship win over the UCLA Bruins, a perennial tennis power and one of three California teams in the team competition semi-finals. It was the first time that Georgia Tech had advanced to the finals of the NCAA tournament, and they captured the title in their first effort. For any who has followed Bryan Shelton’s progress since his retirement from the ATP men’s tennis tour, this accomplishment is no surprise. Prior to assuming the position of Head Coach at Georgia Tech, Shelton had established himself as a premier coach while serving as a National Coach for the United States Tennis Association (USTA).

Yellow Jackets Rise with Shelton's Arrival

To support the wisdom of the hire, Georgia Tech made its first appearance in the NCAA tennis tournament during Shelton’s first season as Head Coach. The lady Yellow Jackets achieved a ranking of No. 29 that year, the highest year-end ranking the team had achieved at that point. Prior to his arrival, the team had never played in the season-ending NCAA championship tournament. Sweet-16 appearances in 2005 and 2006 heralded Georgia Tech’s potential as a challenger for the title that they claimed this year.

Repeating as champions will be difficult for both Bryan Shelton and Tony Dungy, but in a country still struggling to escape the chains of racialization and racism, it is still an accomplishment when a Black coach wins a National Championship in collegiate sports for the first time. Hopefully there will come a time in the United States when the color of the coach’s skin will matter less than the color of the team’s uniform.

It's always a better day for me when a friend takes the time to share with me their good feelings about this site. The unselfishness of a lot of people in this great blogsphere is just wonderful. In this instance it is Matt from a favorite place of mine, "Meltwater. Torrent. Meanderings. Delta." (MTMD) This site represents so much of what I love about cyberspace. In the regular course of life I probably would not have met Matt. And since he spends a lot of time on the river, I KNOW that we would not have run into one another in the midst of our hobbies (I like dry ground). But because we enjoy and are open to the perspectives, outlook and life meanderings of others, here in cyberspace is where we got the opportunity to meet, share and visit. What a world!

All of that said, Matt was recently awarded the "Arte y Pico" Award and opted to share it with me, along with others. Thank you so much Matt, I truly appreciate this and consider it an honor.

The way this award works is that you have to pick 5 blogs that you find deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.

--Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

--Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

--The Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of the "Arte y Pico" blog so everyone will know the origin of this award. Here it is: http://arteypico.blogspot.com/.

In the company of excellence, along with me Matt honored the following sites:

Ride to Remedy
Adopted Jane
Tricia's Musings
First Door on the Left

I am going to share my award with these beautiful souls:

People You Need To Know
Welcome Back Rosenthal
Lisa C Writes
Marriage and Beyond
Black On Campus

As it should have been, nothing particularly exciting happened on the grounds of the Wimbledon stadium. The Black tennis pros that were in action split success.

American Serena Williams advanced to the second round and Venezuelan Milagros Sequera was defeated.

Although, Serena did toss on a pretty snappy looking short trench over her tennis dress. Interesting look...I like it.

“It is definitely not athletic attire, but it is ladylike and I am very ladylike. It goes perfectly with my personality and everything else.”

“I absolutely love trenchcoats. I mean, I love coats, and I don’t know why because I live in Florida, so it doesn’t really add up.”

“It is a very lightweight fabric. It is woven so it has a little give in it as well. On the inside it is stitched with gold. It has a little give on both ways. It is very movable, it is very light, it is delectable.”

"It is definitely kind of retro-inspired; buckles on the wrist, the waistband tie. You can tie it or button it. Now I have a wonderful white coat I can wear on the court and also, you know, in New York for those rainy days,”

Americans Venus Williams, James Blake and Donald Young, and Frenchwoman Stephanie Foretz will be in action today.

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- French Open semifinalist Gael Monfils withdrew from Wimbledon before the first round Monday because of inflammation in his right shoulder.

The 22-year-old Frenchman was replaced in the singles draw by Serbia's Ilia Bozoljac, who was due to play Australian Chris Guccione later Monday.

Monfils said he risked long-term injury if he played because the inflammation has been bothering him for a long time.

"I think now with more experience I'm sad, but still, I know it's the right decision,'' Monfils said. "So I stay confident in my decision and I'm not worried about it -- because I know it will be a couple weeks, but still will be good after.''

The 26th-ranked Monfils, who lost to Federer in the French Open semis, could have faced Federer in the third round at Wimbledon.