Black Tennis Pros

WASHINGTON - Life in the White House isn't keeping President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama from holding onto date night.

The president and first lady attended an Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performance on Friday night at The Kennedy Center.

The show was sold out, but that was not a problem. The White House says the Obamas sat in the president's box.

The first couple attended the performance with their daughters.

In an interview before his inauguration, the president said he and his wife liked having Friday date nights.

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Top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga eased past Frederico Gil 6-3, 6-4 at the SA Tennis Open on Saturday to set up an all-French final at the ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament at the Montecasino in northern Johannesburg. Earlier, fifth seed Jeremy Chardy (pictured) had saved three match points as he defeated World No. 13 David Ferrer 1-6, 7-6(9), 7-6(4).

It is the first all-French final on the ATP World Tour since Gilles Simon defeated Julien Benneteau in the Casablanca final in May 2008. It will be the first meeting between Tsonga and Chardy.

World No. 14 Tsonga advanced to his fourth ATP World Tour final after breaking serve three times from four opportunities in his 64-minute victory over first-time semi-finalist Gil. The right-hander, who has yet to drop a set this week, reached his first ATP World Tour final at the 2008 Australian Open (l. to Djokovic) and later that year captured his first two ATP World Tour titles at Bangkok (d. Djokovic) and the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis event in Paris (d. Nalbandian).

Despite missing three months of the 2008 ATP World Tour season with a knee injury, the Le Mans native finished inside the Top 10 at No. 6 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings and qualified for Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai (now re-named the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals to be held at London’s O2 Arena in November).

Baroness Thatcher and her daughter Carol in the Royal Box at The Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, London. Photo: PA

The daughter of former prime minister Baroness Thatcher has lost her job on the BBC One programme after making the comment backstage to presenter Adrian Chiles and guest Jo Brand.

She was discussing the Australian Open, in which Tsonga lost to Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in the quarter-finals.

Tsonga, 23, shot to international attention last year when, as an unseeded player, he reached the Australian Open final, beating Andy Murray along the way. He scored a stunning 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Rafael Nadal in the semi-final, eventually losing to Novak Djokovic.

Fans have long pointed out his resemblance to boxer Muhammad Ali. He was marked out as a promising talent when he won the US Open junior title in 2003, only for injury to put him out of the game for the next two years.

He is mixed race, born in Le Mans to a white French mother, Evelyne, and a black Congolese father, Didier. Sporting talent runs in the family - his father, who moved to France in the 1970s to study for a chemistry degree, was a handball international and his younger brother, Enzo, is a basketball player.

Asked in a recent interview if he had ever experienced racism in the tennis world, he replied: "I cannot say I have. However, I have seen on many occasions, especially in soccer, expressions of racism. At the end of the day, stupidity cannot be controlled. You can only hope to contain it."

Tsonga is known on the circuit as a polite, serious man devoted to his family. He has said of his upbringing: "From my mother I've inherited my coolness and my serenity. From my father I've inherited respect for the rules and respect for the people around me."

His second cousin is Charles N'Zogbia, the Premiership footballer recently embroiled in his own controversy over "offensive" remarks. He refused to play for his club, Newcastle United, after manager Joe Kinnear called him "Insomnia" during a television interview. He signed for Wigan Athletic on Monday.

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In an interview Blake said, "Monday's going to be a lot of fun. I did an exhibition with him last year, and we had a really good match. He's obviously one of the great champions we've ever had in the sport if not the greatest. It's a lot of fun being around someone like that, a great tennis mind. Someone who can still teach you plenty.

You know, it's not really pressure packed, we're just having fun. He still obviously has the game that he can compete, you know, for one match or two matches at a time. I think what's gotten him the most is he wasn't able to do the grind all year, playing three out of five sets every other day and playing match after match and getting on the practice court and putting in the time. But on a given day, he can put up a pretty good fight."

Top-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga advanced to his first semi-final of the 2009 ATP World Tour season after defeating seventh seed Kristof Vliegen of Belgium 6-4, 6-1 at the SA Tennis Open on Friday. The 23 year old dominated on serve in the 73-minute encounter, hitting nine aces and winning 90 per cent of points on first serve. He has not dropped a set this week at the Montecasino in northern Johannesburg.

Tsonga improved to 10-2 on the 2009 ATP World Tour season, that includes three quarter-final exits at Brisbane (l. to Gasquet), Sydney (W/O vs Nieminen) and the Australian Open (l. to Verdasco). Vliegen, 26, could only convert one of five break point opportunities and drops to 3-3 this year.

Althea Gibson, the first African-American to win a grand slam title, which happened to be Wimbledon, is one of 13 inductees chosen for the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

The winners were chosen by New Jersey residents, who had months to pick their favorites online, and by the hall's voting academy, made up of 100 state organizations. All inductees have deep ties to the state.

"This group of hall of famers embodies the spirit of New Jersey, a combination of drive, determination and creativity that has led them to greatness," Governor Jon S. Corzine said in a statement.

The remaining 12 that will accompany Ms. Gibson are Paul Robeson, Walt Whitman, Guglielmo Marconi, Carl Sagan, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, Jon Bon Jovi, Jerry Lewis, Shaquille O'Neal, Phil Rizzuto, F. Scott Fitzgerald and William Carlos Williams

The induction ceremony will be held in May at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.

New Jersey Hall of Fame