Black Tennis Pros

(HONG KONG) Venus Williams beat Anna Chakvetadze in straight sets Friday

Chakvetadze played well in the first set, responding to Williams' power-hitting with crafty counter-punching and big hitting of her own, but the Russian couldn't maintain her form in the second set.

"She's able to chase down a lot of balls," Williams said. "Against a player like that, it's just important to focus on what's happening on my side of the net and realize that I might have to hit two or three extra (balls). The reply might be a little shorter so I might have the chance to come in to be more aggressive."

Chakvetadze was up 4-2 in the first set, but Williams broke back in the eighth game. The Russian then missed two straight forehands in the tiebreaker to give Williams a 6-0 lead.

"It's tough to play her," Chakvetadze said. "She hits very hard."

Williams broke Chakvetadze twice to take a 5-1 lead in the second set, but the Russian saved two match points to hold serve in the seventh game and then broke Williams to stay in the match. However, Williams broke right back, sealing the win as Chakvetadze missed a forehand down the line.

Williams will play Zvonareva and Dulko faces Chakvetadze on Saturday, before a final doubles match.

DOHA, Qatar, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Frenchman Gael Monfils slammed seven aces and made three service breaks Thursday to knock world No. 1 and top-seed Rafael Nadal out of the Qatar Open .

Monfils, the tournament's fifth seed, disposed of the Spaniard in a little less than an hour and a half and moved on to the semifinals.

The Frenchman, who in three previous meetings had failed to win more than three games in a set against Nadal, produced some excellent tennis and broke the Nadal serve on three occasions in a match lasting 89 minutes.

It was Nadal's first defeat in a completed match prior to the semifinals since May 2008, when he fell to Juan-Carlos Ferrero in the second round at the ATP World Masters event in Rome.

The 22-year-old Monfils is bidding to reach his second final in Doha, having finished runner-up to Roger Federer in the title match in 2006.

HONG KONG (AFP) — Venus Williams crushed world number one Jelena Jankovic in straight sets Thursday, inspiring the Americas to victory over second seeds Europe at Hong Kong's World Team Challenge.

The Wimbledon champion pulled her team level after the Americas lost their opening doubles clash and in Thursday's late evening match Gisela Dulko beat Agnes Szavay 6-4, 6-7 (8-10), 6-3 to take her team through to the gold group final.

In the final, the Americas will face top seeds Russia, who won all three of their matches against Asia-Pacific.

Williams seized control early in her match with Jankovic and never let up, breaking twice in each set for a 6-2, 6-2 win.

The seven-time Grand Slam champion broke the Serbian in the first game of the match, racing into a 4-0 lead, unfurling a series of unanswerable ground strokes.

Williams, who trails Jankovic 4-5 in head-to-heads on the WTA tour, broke again in the third game of the second set and went on to seal the match with the help of another break.

"I had a good start. I think it put some pressure on her. I also wasn't giving her the errors I usually give to her, lots of errors," said Williams, who beat Jankovic in their last meeting at the season-ending WTA Tour Championships.

The world number six said she had a "great feeling" about the upcoming season and was going to use the knowledge she had gleaned from her last two tournaments in 2008, both of which she won.

Williams, looking to win her first Australian Open title, said she was not surprised to be off to such a strong start against a powerful opponent.

"I've always been a good player off the jump. That's always been the way I've played throughout my career," she said.

Jankovic said she had found her first singles match of the season tough.

"It was very hard to get into the match. I felt very slow on the court and didn't really get my rhythm out there," she said.

"But it's the first match of the season so I can't expect myself to play the best tennis, which is normal."

American Serena Williams is free of the hamstring issue that caused her to withdraw from the Hopman Cup and has begun training in preparation for the Australian Open Series Medibank Sydney International Tennis Tournament at the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Center, Sydney, Australia, set to begin tomorrow.

BRISBANE, Australia: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga recovered from a disastrous start to overcome Finland's Jarkko Nieminen and lead a posse of Frenchmen into the quarter-finals of the Brisbane International on Wednesday.

Tsonga failed to win a game in the first set but came back to win the last two sets in tie-breaks to ensure four Frenchmen made the final eight.

He closed out the match 0-6, 7-6 (7/1), 7-6 (7/5) to join Richard Gasquet, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Florent Serra in the quarter-finals.



Rafael Nadal and Gael Monfils will square off in the Doha quarterfinals on Thursday. The winner will meet either Andy Roddick or Victor Hanescu in the semis.

Rafael Nadal and Gael Monfils will do battle for the fourth time in their careers on Thursday when they meet in the quarterfinals of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. Nadal holds a 3-0 edge in the head-to-head series, but only one of the victories came on hard courts. He won 6-3, 6-2 on the clay courts of Rome in 2005, 6-2, 6-2 on the Monte-Carlo dirt in 2006, and most recently 6-3, 6-2 at last season's Master Series Paris.

Monfils erased Jan Hernych in the first round but struggled with countryman Nicolas Devilder for two hours and seven minutes before outlasting him 7-5, 7-6(4).

HONG KONG (AP)—Venus Williams and Coco Vandeweghe of the United States lost in straight sets to Team Europe at an exhibition tournament on Wednesday.

Top-ranked Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal beat Team Americas 6-4, 7-5.

Williams will play Jankovic in singles on Thursday.

Photo Getty Images

Watching American Meghann Shaughnessy stand there as returned balls whizzed by her was as painful as a root canal! I can't count the number of times that I yelled, "what the hell are you doing?" I'm still shaking my head wondering who thought that this was a bright idea.

When is the last time that this woman won anything significant? Surely there had to be SOMEBODY else available who is at least seemingly on the upswing. And to make matters worse, she is returning from an injury. Oh good gracious.

Now, I realize that Hopman Cup isn't a tour tournament, but come on! Shaughnessy has lost each of her singles events and barely assisted in the mixed doubles events.

When Serena pulled out at the end of last year, I was definitely disappointed since she and Blake are former title holders and the USA is the defending champion, but I at least thought that someone with an ounce of game would be selected to replace her.

James Blake has literally been a one person Hopman Cup team...I wonder if that's a first, hmmm.

Yet, I continue to torcher myself by watching this madness nightly. Oh well...

Photos Getty Images