Black Tennis Pros

On Friday Oprah Winfrey explained her decision not to have Sarah Palin on her show. Despite a public endorsement of Obama off of the show, she has never discussed it on her show. She reminded viewers that she has always said she would not use her show as a platform, and that the last time she interviewed Obama on air was 2006, before he declared himself as a candidate for president.

On a panel that was discussing current world events, Oprah chatted with best friend Gayle King, Ali Wentworth (tv personality and wife of George Stephanopoulos) and Mark Consuelos (an actor married to Kelly Ripa) and pointedly said they would not be discussing the election.

Oprah also says how, after Michelle Obama's DNC speech, she was encouraged by staff to invite her on the show. She refused. Oprah also agreed that if she had conducted the same interview as Katie Couric, she would have been hammered.

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I'm looking forward to this!!

Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils will go toe-to-toe in the semifinals of the Thailand Open in Bangkok. Tsonga and Monfils last met in France five years ago.

"I'm happy to be in the semifinals playing against my friend Gael," said Tsonga.

"I think it will be a good show! It's a very good feeling to be back. It was a lot of work to come back from injury."

World No. 20 Tsonga hit 13 aces and won 81 per cent of service points to beat No. 8 seed Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-3, 6-2 in just 61 minutes. The La Rippe, Switzerland resident, who improved to 21-9 on the season, takes his place in a fourth semifinal (or better).

"I was focused and I played very good tennis today."

World No. 30 Monfils earned a gutsy 7-6(6), 6-4 victory over Philipp Petzschner of Germany to take a place in his third ATP semifinal this year.

"It's great to be in the semifinals, it gives me confidence. I'm playing consistently, which makes me feel good."

The 22-year-old Nyon, Switzerland resident has a 1-4 record in ATP finals, highlighted by a title-winning run at Sopot (defeated Mayer) in August 2005. He reached his last ATP final at Poertschach (lost to Monaco) in May 2007.

Photos Getty Images

Source

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Second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, who took part in a Thai kick-boxing demonstration on Thursday, will meet eighth-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer in the quarterfinals. Tsonga has a 1-0 record against Melzer, after the Frenchman won their ATP Masters Series Miami meeting in March. Melzer knocked out last month's Washington finalist Viktor Troicki of Serbia with a 6-4, 7-6(4) victory in 86 minutes. This season's Kitzbuhel finalist (l. to del Potro) improved to 27-22 on the season, while World No. 65 Troicki dropped to a 17-16 mark.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France poses with Thai kickboxing champion Somrak Khamsing.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga gives a kickboxing demostration.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga poses with Thai kickboxing champion Somrak Khamsing.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga poses while kickboxing at Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand.

Source
Photos Getty Images

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Second-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who finished runner-up at the Australian Open final in January, earned a hard-fought 7-6(9), 3-6, 7-6(1), victory over qualifier Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic Wednesday for a place in the Thailand Open quarterfinals.

The 23-year-old Tsonga booked his place in a fourth ATP quarterfinal (or better) on the season after one hour and 59 minutes. The La Rippe, Swiss resident, hit 21 aces and converted two of four break point opportunities in a service-dominated match. The pair had previously met on the ATP Challenger circuit in Rennes two years ago.

Tsonga, who missed three months of the season due to knee surgery, is currently No. 18 in the ATP 2008 Race to Shanghai. He has a 20-9 record on the season, highlighted by a runner-up finish at the Australian Open (l. to Djokovic) and two semifinal exits at Adelaide (l. to Nieminen) and Casablanca (l. to Simon). The 25-year-old Dlouhy, who was contesting his third ATP singles event this year, has a 2-4 season record.

Another Frenchman, fourth seed Gael Monfils, who could move into the Top 20 of the ATP 2008 Race to Shanghai if he wins the title this week, knocked out American Robert Kendrick 6-4, 7-6(4) in 75 minutes. Monfils had a 5-7 start going into Roland Garros, before turning his season around by reaching his first Grand Slam semifinal (l. to Federer) at Roland Garros, followed by a semifinal run at Nottingham (l. to Karlovic), a quarterfinal at the Beijing Olympics (l. to Djokovic) and fourth round performance at the US Open (l. to Fish). The 22-year-old improved to 21-13 on the season, while World No. 102 Kendrick dropped to 3-8.

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Barack Obama rejected the proposal -- put forward by John McCain today -- that the two presidential candidates leave the campaign trail, delay Friday's debate, and return to Washington to work on a bailout package for the economy,

"Presidents are going to have to deal with more than one thing at a time," he said, "it is not necessary for us to think we can do only one thing and suspend everything else."

Expressing concern about infusing "Capitol Hill with presidential politics," Obama said it was his desire to see the debate go forward.

"With respect to the debates it is my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who in roughly 40 days will be responsible for this mess," he said. "I think it is going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once. I don't see why we can't be constructive in helping with this problem."

Obama, who would not commit to taking advertisements off the air as McCain's campaign has, delivered his remarks hours after McCain announced the suspension of his campaign. The Arizona Republican insisted that it was time for the two candidates to return to work to help push forward a bi-partisan bailout package to deal with the financial crisis.

Earlier in the afternoon, Democrats in Congress were already calling out McCain for engaging in what was described, at various times, as a "Hail Mary pass" and a "deeply cynical" ploy.

"The debate should take place as scheduled," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview with NPR to be broadcast this afternoon. "We have to be able to do a couple of things at once. That's what leadership requires."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement that McCain's move would actually impair negotiations over the bailout by introducing politics into the equation.

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John McCain woke up this morning and saw that he has now slipped nine points in the polls, Obama was on the phone taking the lead in unity on the principles of fixing this Wall Street mess, and he still had not done all of his economic homework. So what does he say, TIME OUT!

McCain chooses to suspend his campaign and asks that Obama do likewise so that they can return to Washington and bring compromise. PLEASE!

McCain is selling wolf tickets. There are enough people already on the Hill working on this bill. We have a president to elect, show us what you've got!

Nico Pitney at The Huffington Post writes the following:

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SINGLES

Round 1

Gael Monfils, FRA vs. BYE

Donald Young, USA vs. Jurgen Melzer, AUT

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA vs. BYE


DOUBLES

Round 1

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA and Fabrice Santoro, FRA
vs.
Novak Djokovic, SRB and Marko Djokovic, SRB

Gael Monfils, FRA and Viktor Troicki, SRB
vs.
Robin Soderling, SWE and Rogier Wassen, NED


SINGLES

Round 1

Nicholas Monroe, USA defeated by Todd Widom
2-6, 1-6

Raven Klaasen, RSA defeated Michael Russell, USA
6-2, 5-7, 7-5

Phillip Simmonds, USA defeated by Ryan Sweeting, USA
1-6, 4-6


DOUBLES

Round 1

Raven Klaasen, RSA and Ivo Klec, SVK
vs.
Tim Smyczek, USA and Ryan Sweeting USA

Nicholas Monroe, USA and Alberto Francis, USA
defeated by
Raony Carvalho, BRA and Christian Rojmar, SWE
3-6, 4-6

Phillip Simmonds, USA and Greg Ouellette, USA
defeated by
Philip Bester, CAN and Peter Polansky, CAN
5-7, 1-6


SINGLES

Round 1

Marcus Fugate, USA vs. Sheeva Parbhu, USA


DOUBLES

Round 1

Marcus Fugate, USA and Nima Roshan, USA
defeated by
Daniel Andrus, USA and Aaron Yovan, USA
2-6, 7-6(2), [8/10]


SINGLES*

Round 1

Alexandra Stevenson, USA vs. Madison Brengle, USA

Angela Haynes, USA vs. Betina Jozami, ARG

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA vs. Shenay Perry, USA


*Eliminated during the singles qualifying rounds:

Whitney Jones, USA
Tiya Rolle, USA


DOUBLES

Round 1

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA and Abigail Spears, USA
defeated
Soledad Esperon, ARG and Tetiana Luzhanska, UKR
6-3, 6-4

Angela Haynes, USA and Sunitha Rao, IND
defeated by
Liga Dekmeijere, LAT and Jelena Pandzic, CRO
3-6, 7-5, [10/12]

Whitney Jones, USA and Tiya Rolle, USA
defeated by
Madison Brengle, USA and Heidi El Tabakh, CAN
1-6, 0-6

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