Black Tennis Pros

Before a packed house in the Rod Laver Arena, Americans Venus and Serena Williams captured the 2009 Australian Open doubles title. The sisters played a high-powered match that gave Japan's Ai Sugiyama and Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova very little room for success.

This victory gives the sisters their third Australian Open doubles title and 8th grand slam doubles title overall.

During the presentation ceremony Venus said, "also, thank Serena for being the best partner, I would never play with anyone else; she' amazing, I'm sure you saw her."

Post match Venus said, "I think we compliment each other on the court because we're both extremely positive. We know, when the other one moves, what the other one needs to do to compensate for that or to add to it. I think that we're so good at putting the ball away, I think it helps us so much."

Love these two!




Photos by Getty Images

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Phoenix resident Bethanie Mattek, the third-highest ranked American woman in the world, will make her Fed Cup debut alongside Liezel Huber, the world’s No. 1 doubles player, Jill Craybas, and fellow first-time Fed Cupper Melanie Oudin when the U.S. faces Argentina in the 2009 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas quarterfinal February 7-8 at the Surprise Tennis and Racquet Complex in Surprise, Ariz.

The best-of-five match series begins on Saturday, February 7 with two singles matches and is followed by two reverse singles matches and the doubles match on Sunday, February 8. Tennis Channel will present live daily coverage beginning at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday and Sunday. The U.S. won its last home Fed Cup tie in last year’s quarterfinal against Germany at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club in La Jolla, Calif.

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The Australian Open women's final will consist of American Serena Williams and Russian Dinara Safina. Both ladies looked really good in their semifinals on Wednesday. Serena defeated another Russian, Elena Dementieva, whom she has been having all sorts of trouble with lately,
6-3, 6-4. Dinara had a bit more trouble defeating fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva, but it still resulted in a win for her coming in at 6-3, 7(7)-6(4).

I'm looking forward to this match, I really like both of these ladies. It's been nice seeing Dinara turn her game around and come into her own over this past year and more. Serena of course is the tried and true who's going to fight to the bitter end. We've seen a bit of that grit in Dinara too throughout this Open.

While my money is on Serena, Dinara is capable of putting up a formidable fight. Let the games begin.

Oh, and there needs to be some Clint Eastwood "High Plains Drifter" music playing when these two come out.

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Tonight, after Serena Williams defeated Elena Dementieva in their semifinal at the Australian Open, Chris Fowler and Bud Collins were "commentating" about the match. They drifted into the area of Dementieva's serve falling by the wayside yet again. Now, I must admit, I was reading when I heard this, but I do believe I heard Chris Fowler say:

Did I not just post an article regarding ridiculous commentary? Perhaps I should mail it to him. Surely there was some other analogy.

Oh good grief!

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WASHINGTON — Massive deficits could force the post office to cut out one day of mail delivery, the postmaster general told Congress on Wednesday, in asking lawmakers to lift the requirement that the agency deliver mail six days a week. If the change happens, that doesn't necessarily mean an end to Saturday mail delivery. Previous post office studies have looked at the possibility of skipping some other day when mail flow is light, such as Tuesday.

Faced with dwindling mail volume and rising costs, the post office was $2.8 billion in the red last year. "If current trends continue, we could experience a net loss of $6 billion or more this fiscal year," Postmaster General John E. Potter said in testimony for a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee.

Total mail volume was 202 billion items last year, over 9 billion less than the year before, the largest single volume drop in history.

And, despite annual rate increases, Potter said 2009 could be the first year since 1946 that the actual amount of money collected by the post office declines.

"It is possible that the cost of six-day delivery may simply prove to be unaffordable," Potter said. "I reluctantly request that Congress remove the annual appropriation bill rider, first added in 1983, that requires the Postal Service to deliver mail six days each week."

"The ability to suspend delivery on the lightest delivery days, for example, could save dollars in both our delivery and our processing and distribution networks. I do not make this request lightly, but I am forced to consider every option given the severity of our challenge," Potter said.

That doesn't mean it would happen right away, he noted, adding that the agency is working to cut costs and any final decision on changing delivery would have to be made by the postal governing board.

If it did become necessary to go to five-day delivery, Potter said, "we would do this by suspending delivery on the lightest volume days."

"We are in uncharted waters," Potter said. "But we do know that mail volume and revenue _ and with them the health of the mail system _ are dependent on the length and depth of the current economic recession."

He proposed easing the retirement pre-funding for eight years, while promising that the agency will cover the premiums for retirement health insurance.

At the same hearing the General Accounting Office agreed that the post office is facing an urgent need for help to preserve its financial strength. But the GAO suggested easing the pre-funding requirement for only two years, with Congress to determine the need for more relief later.

Potter noted that the agency has cut costs by $1 billion per year since 2002, reduced its work force by 120,000, halted construction of new facilities except in emergencies, frozen executive salaries and is in the process of reducing its headquarters work force by 15 percent.

The Postal Service raised the issue of cutting back on days of service last fall in a study it issued. At that time the agency said the six-day rule should be eliminated, giving the post office, "the flexibility to meet future needs for delivery frequency.

A study done by George Mason University last year for the independent Postal Regulatory Commission estimated that going from six-day to five-day delivery would save the post office more than $1.9 billion annually, while a Postal Service study estimated the saving at $3.5 billion.

The next postal rate increase is scheduled for May, with the amount to be announced next month. Under current rules that would be limited to the amount of the increase in last year's consumer price index, 3.8 percent. That would round to a 2-cent increase in the current 42-cent first class rate.

The agency could request a larger increase because of the special circumstances, but Potter believes that would be counterproductive by causing mail volume to fall even more.

Dan G. Blair, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, noted in his testimony that cutting service could also carry the risk of loss of mail volume. He suggested Congress review both delivery and restrictions it imposed on the closing of small and rural post offices.

The post office's problem is twofold, Potter explained.

"A revolution in the way people communicate has structurally changed the way America uses the mail," with a shift from first-class letters to the Internet for personal communications, billings, payments, statements and business correspondence.

To some extent that was made up for my growth in standard mail _ largely advertising _ but the economic meltdown has resulted in a drop there also.

Potter also asked that Congress ease the requirement that it make advance payments into a fund to cover future health benefits for retirees. Last year the post office was required to put $5.6 billion into the fund.

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At a meeting in the Roosevelt Room with business leaders to discuss the economy, President Obama asked to make an unrelated comment -- on the weather.

"My children's school was canceled today, because of what? Some ice," Obama said, and all at the table started laughing.

"As my children pointed out, in Chicago school is never canceled," he continued. He said that in their old hometown, "you'd go outside for recess in weather like this. You wouldn't even stay indoors."

The President said he would have to bring "some flinty Chicago toughness" to Washington.

Asked if he was calling Washingtonians wimps, Obama responded: "I'm saying that when it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things."

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SINGLES

Round 1

Donald Young, USA defeated Artem Sitak, RUS
6-2, 6-3

Scoville Jenkins, USA vs. defeated Somdev Devvarman, IND
6-1, 6-4


DOUBLES

Round 1

Phillip Simmonds, USA and Tim Smyczek, USA
defeated by
Woong-Sun Jun, KOR and Hiroki Kondo, JPN
4-6, 6-7(2)

Scoville Jenkins, USA and Prakash Amritraj, IND
defeated by
Rylan Rizza, USA and Kaes Van't Hof
4-6, 6-7(4)

Donald Young, USA and Lester Cook, USA
defeated
Brian Battistone, USA and Dann Battistone, USA
6-1, 6-3


SINGLES

Round 1

Todd Paul, USA defeated Mattia Livraghi, ITA
2-6, 6-4, 6-1

Marcus Fugate, USA defeated by Luigi D'Agord, ITA
6-7(9), 3-6


DOUBLES

Round 1

Todd Paul, USA and Stephen Bass, USA
defeated
Roman Borvanov, MDA and Dennis Zivkovic, USA
6-4, 6-1


Marcus Fugate, USA and Andreas Siljestrom, SWE
defeated
Marcus Echtler, USA and Zachary Ganger, USA
7-5, 6-2


SINGLES

Round 1

Angela Haynes, USA defeated by Madison Brengle, USA
2-6, 4-6

Jennifer Elie, USA defeated Maureen Diaz, USA
6-1, 6-1

Megan Moulton-Levy defeated S. Zahlavova, CZE
6-3, 6-1

Mashona Washington, USA defeated Kai-Chen Chang
6-1, 6-4


DOUBLES

Round 1

Angela Haynes, USA and Christina Fusano, USA
defeated by
Megan Moulton-Levy, USA and Laura Siegemund, GER
6-4, 3-6 [6-10]

Mashona Washington, USA and Kimberly Couts, USA
defeated by
Lindsay Lee-Waters, USA and Tetiana Luhanska
3-6, 6-3, [9-11]

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I absolutely love this article by Claudia Johnson that appears on SI.com. It captures my total disdain for inept commentators and why the mute button on my remote is practically worn out.

Color me cranky, but tennis commentators who talk during points chap my ass (as we used to say where I grew up in Texas). It's like trying to watch your favorite film with the director's commentary running -- and you can't turn it off. Or sinking into a soothing massage and your masseuse won't shut up.

Mind you, I think tennis commentators are the best in the biz -- smart, funny, insightful. I agree with SI.com's Jon Wertheim that they're "a competent bunch with a nice mix of styles" and that "critiques about the commentators are fairly muted," but I have to second Tennis Magazine Editor-in-Chief James Martin's suggestion:

"Television needs to come up with a new mute button. Not one that blocks out the sounds of the game. Listening to the ball come off the strings, the sliding (or squeaking, depending on surface) of the shoes, the grunts of the players, and the 'shhhs' of a crowd before a big point -- this is the soundtrack to my life, my passion. No, this new mute button will keep all of those sounds but simply, mercifully, block out the commentators' blather."

Get out of my head.

Before I read this last night, I planned to propose a small onscreen button --COMMENTARY OFF -- that viewers could click when commentators are driving them crazy. Yes, ESPN2's screen is getting so crowded it reminds me of the stateroom scene in A Night At The Opera, but viewers need some escape, some way to watch tennis with the sound of ball smacking, the calls, and the crowd, but without commentators who careen off into irrelevant land and schmooze celebs -- onscreen during games! -- like John McEnroe at last year's U.S. Open or otherwise blab during points like Brad Gilbert at this year's Australian Open.

Don't get me wrong. I like these guys. They're both rascals -- Johnny Mac, the legendary bad boy of tennis, and Gilbert, the loveable bonehead from Planet Goofy whose colorful lingo and self-slamming humor ("The older I get, the better I used to be") make him the whipping boy in the booth, like Karl in a Ricky Gervais Podcast. I'd love to hang out with them both and talk tennis -- just not when a match is in progress.

Still, you gotta hand it to Gilbert. He took talking off point during points to new heights in the Round of 16 match between James Blake and Igor Andreev. Sixth game, third set. ESPN2 cut away from the ongoing game (don't get me started) to show us a tease for that night's match between Murray and Meltzer, over which Gilbert said, "Both of them come in without losing a match this year."

Chris Fowler countered, "Melzer, though, gave him a five-set test at the U.S. Open, and Murray was able to dig out of a two-set hole and out of the final, of course."

We cut back to Blake hitting a killer forehand followed by a winning backhand volley. Great tennis! But Gilbert's still carrying on about Murray. "Not only was he down two sets but there was a third-set tie-break --"

ESPN2 replays Blake's brilliant performance, but Gilbert blabs on, "-- and Murray was two points from losing the match, and at 5-4 in the tie-breaker, Meltzer missed . . ."

The replay ended.

Alas, not Gilbert. ". . . and all of a sudden his game went back to Austria and he went home meekly after that."

Amazing.

We viewers were trying to watch an incredible point between Blake and Andreev onscreen, and Gilbert was giving us a blow-by-blow commentary of a different point between two different players in a different tournament in a different year.

But at least the subject was tennis. Earlier in the same match Fowler, distracted by a shot of Melbourne's harbor, asked Brad Gilbert if he could name the rivers that ran through the four Grand Slam cities. It took Gilbert a couple of games to figure it out.

"Hey," he said, clearly exasperated by Fowler's question, "I'm focused on tennis."

Fowler laughed. "For the first time."

So if Fowler knew that, why did he ask about rivers?

Maybe ESPN2's producers want the verbal equivalent of the visual cram they provide on their screen. Or maybe their commentators get paid by the word, like Charles Dickens. I just wish they'd all take to heart what James Martin said:

"Tennis is a beautiful sport. Watching a point play out with only the sounds of the players, ball, and crowd is enough. Really."

Then maybe they'll stop breaching tennis's own etiquette and shut their bazoo during play. Show more respect for the viewer.

And this beautiful sport.

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