Black Tennis Pros

Since we will all inevitably reach 60 one day, we best pay attention to Phylicia Rashad who is throwing down the gauntlet and stopping age in its tracks!

If her bio reads correctly, Ms. Rashad will turn 61 in June, and not only does she look great and is obviously beautiful, she is the new spokesperson for Jenny Craig and is already down a reported 16 pounds after her first seven weeks.

In a statement Rashad said, "this whole journey I am taking is about life balance. I want to embrace life. I want to be light on my feet, literally, and I'm excited to be a role model for others who are ready to take the next step."

She's going to have people rubbing that Jenny Cuisine on their face!

Don't blink...the very small number of five Black tennis professionals is all that began the Australian Open 128 player draw. And with the fatal swing of a racquet, we're down one. Venus Williams had a rough second round and could not get the job done.

Oh well, moving on with those who did get the job done:

First up, American Serena Williams. Serena had to put up a good fight against what seemed to primarily be herself. Nonetheless, she's through to the third round after defeating Argentine Gisela Dulko 6-3, 7-5.

"It was a very tough second set, she started playing unbelievable, hitting winners left and right," Williams said. "She had a couple of opportunities but I always felt I wasn't going to lose.

"I feel I could play a lot better."

Blake, who will play Russian Igor Andreev, said he had not been aware of the problem until Keothavong addressed the crowd.

"I didn't even notice him till he said it," Blake told reporters. "We were going to wait for security but he said he didn't mind as long as I didn't mind when I was down that end.

"He was doing something that got under his skin.

"That can be very frustrating when it's just one person and you hear it constantly, especially when they're talking during a point.

"I just hope it was not intentional. People are entitled to have a few Heinekens but if they have one too many they may just forget how loud their voice can be."

Wow...all of that fresh face and healthy look had me pumped on the possibility of American Venus Williams etching this Australian Open in her win column, not so. As I watched Venus play this morning, I wasn't particularly excited about the difficulty that she was apparently having responding to the fairly impressive play of Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro, but I NEVER thought that she would not pull out the win, especially when she reached match point. Navarro not only saved that match point, she went on to defeat Venus 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.

The 46th ranked 20-year old Navarro did not present a game so daunting that Venus was just blown off the court, Venus just could not get it together. Major bummer.

Jennifer Hudson has been spotted out and about getting in shape for scheduled appearances at the Super Bowl and the Grammys. Nice to see her moving forward.

In round one of doubles action at the Australian Open today, a capacity crowd watched American powerhouse sisters Venus and Serena Williams very easily dispatch the Russian team of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Nadia Petrova. In just over an hour the Williams sisters defeated them 6-3, 6-1.

I'm probably late on finding this out, but my favorite Russian dish of tennis player is currently playing his last season on the ATP Tour. Twenty-eight year old Marat Safin says that he's had enough stress.

I've always enjoyed watching Safin play, you never quite knew what to expect. When he's on, he's on, and vice versa. A lot of players I probably wouldn't even notice if they left, but Safin...this guy I'll miss.

Here's some of what Safin had to say regarding his impending retirement:

"I don't want to get stressed, I don't want to plan anything," he said.

"I want to play and be relaxed, no stress. Whatever comes, comes.

"It's great for me. Just try to be in shape, be able to run around the court. Like this it's much easier to play tennis.

"At least I want to enjoy it. I don't want to suffer anymore, I don't want to get stressed, I don't want to feel bad on the court anymore."

"It's not easy because you're under continuous tennis pressure, which is traveling around the world, practising every day, be in shape, try to be a little bit more responsible what you're doing outside the court," he said.

"It's getting tougher and tougher with the age, especially with the injuries I've had throughout the years.

"It's not an easy game, let's put it this way, especially if half of the time you've been injured."

"When you are young, 20 years old, 19 years old, you're coming, everything is new, it's exciting to come and play the big matches," he said.

"With the years, you start to feel the pressure.

"A little bit you start to be unsure in certain moments of the match, hit it down the line or play a little bit cross-court.

"So you start to feel a little bit uncomfortable on the court, and this is what makes you have doubts.

"Eventually it comes to the errors. The young boys are not scared anymore. They will eventually be scared with the years, but it's tough to play against them in such conditions."

But when asked about when he would eventually walk away, as he has previously indicated, Safin would not be drawn.

"No, I'm enjoying it, it's just a different way of enjoying myself," he said.

"(But) you need to keep yourself fully committed to the tennis -- it's getting tougher and tougher."