Black Tennis Pros

Yesterday at the U.S. Open Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga returned to the courts after an extensive layoff because of surgery to his knee. After Tsonga enthralled the tennis world with his beautiful play at the Australian open this year, he was greatly missed while out with his injury.

Although Tsonga was not in the form that we saw him in when he was a grand slam tournament finalist, he still managed to defeat his opponent Spainard Santiago Ventura 7-6(7/3), 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.

“I didn't play really good tennis...I was a bit worried about my knee"

"Of course it is different than before. But I feel good."

Tsonga will have a brief period to rest his knee before he hits the courts again against Carlos Moya.

“It is difficult,” Tsonga said of coming back from his injury. “That’s life. Sometimes you are happy and sometimes you are not. I am happy to be back on the court.”

Here's a nice bit of information that is new to me. I heard this song prior to Venus' match on Tuesday, but I wasn't aware of its origin. HCFoo of HCFoo's Tennis Blog - The Asian Tennis Blogger stopped by yesterday, and when I paid her a visit in return she had written the following post.

Thanks for sharing HCFoo, I'm loving this song already!


Wyclef Jean has recorded a track for Venus Williams that will serve as theme music for the tennis player throughout her appearance at the U.S Open tennis tournament.

The track, entitled 'Venus (I’m Ready)’was recorded as a tribute to Williams who recently won a gold medal with her sister Serena in the women’s doubles at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

The recording came about after the pair met during the taping of a fourth season episode of 'Iconoclasts'.

Williams said "I was so happy to meet Wyclef and work with him on our 'Iconoclasts' episode but not even in my wildest imagination, did I expect that such a beautiful song would be one of the outcomes from meeting Wyclef.”

"He is an amazing human being and it is truly an honour for me to be recognized in such a wonderful way by such a gifted musician and exceptional person."

Click here to go to Wyclef's website and listen or download the song.

(Via wyclef.com, mtv.co.uk)

At the U.S. Open on Tuesday, American sisters Venus and Serena Williams both won their first round matches with relative ease. Each of their opponents experienced a couple of surge games, but insufficient to topple the dynamic duo.

During the day session, Serena defeated Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko 6-1, 6-4.

Post match Serena responded to the current discussion about Serbians Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic dominating the game. "I can't sit here and say someone is going to dominate when I'm still playing tennis."

Serena was then asked about being nervous during matches and how she finds the way to win. "I'm definitely mortal," Williams said. "And, yeah, I do struggle with self doubt.

"Sometimes when I'm in a match I do get tight and I get nervous.

"I always try to think of like, you know, current players that can work through that, like (Rafael) Nadal and (Roger) Federer.

"If they can do it I can do it too. So it takes me out of that moment."

On making a run at this year's event she said, "I don't know because I keep losing matches I shouldn't lose."

In the evening session, Venus defeated Australian Samantha Stosur 6-2, 6-3.

Regarding the win Venus said, “I thought it was just really straightforward tonight, nothing super special...I didn’t try anything too crazy.”

After a bit of a dust up in the first set, Stosur briefly got it together in the second set and took a 3-1 lead after breaking Venus' serve. It was short lived though, Venus came right back and leveled the set.

“That’s when I play my best, when I’m down,” Williams said.

If you did not have the opportunity to see Michelle Obama address the Democratic National Convention last night, you missed something real. She was beautiful, heartfelt, articulate and all woman. I am so very proud of the wife, daughter, mother and sister that comprises this Black woman. Look out D.C.!

Based upon American Donald Young's recent tournament history, it was my expectation that fellow American James Blake was going to come out and blow this kid off the court. By the time the first set was over and Blake had beaten Young 6-1, I knew that this match would be wrapping up quick fast and in a hurry. By no stretch of the imagination did I figure this would be a five setter. Talk about being wrong.

Over the course of five sets both Blake and Young gave one another as good as they got. One minute Blake was up and taking it to the Young one, then after a commercial break Young would be playing as if his life depended on it. After the third set you could tell that Olympic fatigue was creeping up on Blake. As with most champions though, he dug deep and found the strength somewhere.

When it was all said and done, the elder Blake sent the Young one packing to the tune of 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.

Earlier in the day, the very muscular Frenchman Gael Monfils advanced to the second round after defeating Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-4, 6-4, 6-1.

I purposely left the photos of the legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Earth, Wind and Fire out of the first set of U.S. Open Opening Ceremony photos because they are always in a class by themselves.

If you have a musical bone in your body I know that you were rocking, dancing, tapping or something when they dedicated "Shining Star" to all of the champions last night. I know that I was! Earth, Wind and Fire has always brought the house down whenever and wherever they were playing, and they did no less last night. The only thing missing was Maurice White doing that lil' dance he used to do. I am so glad to see them around, still in good musical form, still relevant and appearing at events like this.

I halfway expected Phillip Bailey to hit one of those sound-barrier-breaking notes of his and clear the stadium. He didn't do that, but he did deliver a beautiful rendition of "God Bless America."

“On behalf of the city of New York, welcome to the one and only U.S. Open,” said Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg.

This year’s Open celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the tournament and the first tournament of the Open Era. From 1881 until 1968, the U.S. National Championship was limited to amateurs. In 1968 the modern era of tennis was born when the US Open replaced the U.S. National Championship and opened its doors to all who qualified to compete.

Since 1968, Bloomberg said that the US Open is “the best attended annual sporting event in the world.”

The host of the evening's festivities was Oscar winning actor Forrest Whitaker, who spoke about the history of the tournament and the tumultuous year of 1968.

In 1968, the U.S. became even more embroiled in the Vietnam War, protests and social unrest erupted throughout the country, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed, and the highly politicized summer Olympic games took place in Mexico City. And in 1968 Arthur Ashe became the first ever men’s champion and the first ever African American Champion of the U.S. Open, which was held at West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York, for the first time, becoming one of the only bright spots during a difficult year for the country.

In honor of that special moment in tennis history, Whitaker introduced a procession of 25 past champions of the tournament including Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe and her daughter Camera Ashe as well as Virginia Wade, the first women’s singles US Open champion.

Widow and daughter of Arthur Ashe, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe and Camera Ashe

Venus Williams

Serena Williams

Billie Jean King

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Forest Whitaker

Martina Navratilova, Gabriela Sabatini, John McEnroe

Boris Becker

Gabriela Sabatini

Monica Seles

Marat Safin

Roger Federer

Forest and Keisha Whitaker

Oscar de la Renta

Martha Stewart

Anna Wintour, Editor of Vogue