Black Tennis Pros

On Tuesday at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis Tennessee, a very global group was handed their walking papers in the first round.

From Japan's Kei Nishikori, to American Donald Young, to the 2003 title holder American Taylor Dent, to Argentine Guillermo Canas, and others.... defeat was prevalent in some who I thought would at least make it past the first round. Did I mention that Sweden's Robin Soderling is also in this group?

Neither Young or Nishikori have been setting the courts on fire as of late, so I guess I'm more hoping that they will prevail. Dent and Canas haven't been on top of their game in awhile either, but these are two players who you expect to see beyond round 1.

A quartet of Americans will be front and center on Wednesday, James Blake, Andy Roddick, Sam Querrey and Mardy Fish. Let's hope they fair a bit better.

Read the rest of this post...........

SINGLES

Round 1

Venus Williams, USA vs. BYE

Serena Williams, USA vs. BYE


Round 2

Venus Williams, USA defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
6-0, 6-1

Serena Williams, USA defeated Sara Errani, ITA
4-6, 6-2, 6-0


Quarterfinal Round

Venus Williams defeated Alize Cornet, FRA
6-3, 6-2

Serena Williams defeated Jie Zheng, CHN
6-4, 6-2


Semifinal Round

Venus Williams, USA defeated Serena Williams, USA
6-1, 2-6, 7-6(3)


DOUBLES

Round 1

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA and Vladimira Uhlirova, CZE
defeated
Daniela Hantuchova, SVK and Ai Sugiyama, JPN
Walk Over

Round 2

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA and Vladimira Uhlirova, CZE
defeated by
Akgul Amanmuradova, UZB and Chia-Jung Chuang, TPE
4-6, 4-6


Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA


SINGLES

Round 1

Stephanie Foretz, FRA defeated Melinda Czink, HUN
6-2, 4-6, 6-2

Alexandra Stevenson, USA defeated by Vania King, USA
2-6, 6-7(5)

Round 2

Stephanie Foretz defeated by Sabine Lisicki, GER
2-6, 4-6


DOUBLES

Round 1

Angela Haynes, USA and Christina Fusano, USA
defeated by
Vania King, USA and Alla Kudryavtseva, RUS
6-7(2), 2-6

Mashona Washington, USA and Jill Craybas, USA
defeated
Chanelle Scheepers, RSA and Abigail Spears, USA
7-6(3), 6-0

Shenay Perry, USA and Alexa Glatch, USA
defeated
Julie Ditty, USA and Carly Gullickson, USA
6-2, 7-5


Quarterfinal Round

Mashona Washington, USA and Jill Craybas, USA
defeated by
Yuliana Fedak, UKR and Michaella Krajicek, NED
7(5)-6, 4-6 [4-10]


Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

Angela Haynes, USA


SINGLES

Round 1

James Blake, USA defeated by Lleyton Hewitt, AUS
6-3, 1-6, 4-6

Donald Young, USA defeated by Christophe Rochus, BEL
4-6, 3-6


DOUBLES

Round 1

James Blake, USA and Bobby Reynolds, USA
defeated
Eric Butorac, USA and Bruno Soares, BRA
7-5, 3-6 [11-9]


SINGLES

Round 1

Jo Wilfried Tsonga, FRA defeated Andrey Golubev, KAZ
7(5)-6, 6-2

Gael Monfils, FRA defeated by Paul-Henri Mathieu, FRA
6-4, 4-6, 5-7


Round 2

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA defeated Simone Bolelli, ITA
6-3, 6-2


Quarterfinal Round

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA defeated Feliciano Lopez, ESP
6-2, 6-7(1), 6-4


SINGLES

Round 1

Asia Muhammad, USA defeated by Georgie Stoop, GBR
3-6, 0-6

Asha Rolle, USA defeated by Kai-Chen Chang, TPE
5-7, 0-6


DOUBLES

Round 1

Ahsha Rolle and Yanina Wickmayer, BEL
defeated
Maria-Fernanda Alves, BRA and Yi Chen, TPE
6-4, 3-6 [13-11]


Quarterfinal Round

Ahsha Rolle, USA and Yanina Wickmayer, BEL
defeated
Heidi El Tabakh, CAN and Michelle Gerards, NED
7-5, 7-6(3)


Semifinal Round

Ahsha Rolle, USA and Yanina Wickmayer, BEL
defeated
Mailen Auroux, ARG and Vernonica Spiegel, ARG
6-2, 6-1


Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

Sloane Stephens, USA
Jennifer Elie, USA


SINGLES

Round 1

Todd Paul, USA defeated by Philip Bester, CAN
1-6, 1-6

Nicholas Monroe, USA defeated Nikita Kryvonos, USA
6-2, 7-6(3)


Quarterfinal Round

Nicholas Monroe, USA defeated Andrey Kumantsov, RUS
6-2, 6-2


DOUBLES

Round 1

Nicholas Monroe, USA and Michal Ryderstedet, SWE
defeated by
Uladzimir Ignatik, BLR and Nikita Kryvonos, USA
2-6, 6-7(3)

Paul Todd, USA and Treat Conrad Huey, PHI
defeated by
Jesse Witten, USA and Tigran Martirosyan, ARM
4-6, 5-7

Read the rest of this post...........

Note: Near the end of this article, after stating that Venus Williams has not changed her mind about playing Indian Wells, the article implies that the sole reason she and Serena are not playing is because they were booed after Venus defaulted with an injured knee.

If you recall, the sisters and their father, Richard Williams, have stated that they encountered racist behavior in Indian Wells.

In a November 2008 interview with the New York Times Serena Williams stated:

“I’m not going to be playing at Indian Wells. I’ve had some extremely life-altering things that happened to me there. So I told Larry Scott there are things that happened there that he understands shouldn’t happen, especially me being African-American. We’ve been struggling for so long. I try to stand up for what I believe in. I won’t be able to say anything positive about Indian Wells. If they really want me to promote it, then honestly, I don’t know what to say.”

AP/New York: Venus Williams wants to play her top-ranked sister when women's tennis returns to Madison Square Garden for the first time in nearly nine years.

Williams will join Serena Williams, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic on March 2 in the BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup. They will compete for $1.2 million in prize money.

"I'm hoping for an all-Williams final," Venus said Wednesday during a conference call. "That would be most exciting for us and, of course, for the fans. I love playing with Serena, against her and in doubles."

The single-elimination exhibition will feature three players who won Grand Slam titles in 2008. Ivanovic won her first major at the French Open, Venus won Wimbledon and Serena won the U.S. Open and this year's Australian Open. Jankovic held the No. 1 ranking for part of last season.

The draw will be held later this month, and they will compete in a one-set, no-ad scoring semifinal. The winners will play a best-of-three final.

In her only appearance at Madison Square Garden, Venus lost in the 1999 WTA season-ending tournament.

"There is an unbelievable amount of tennis tradition there for the women," she said. "It was the pinnacle of the season. I feel honored to be playing."

The Garden hosted its final WTA season-ending championships in 2000. Williams captured her first season-ending event last November in Doha, Qatar.

Roger Federer and Pete Sampras played an exhibition match last March at the Garden, the first men's pro tennis competition there since 1996.

The Williams sisters last faced off at the Wimbledon final. They've combined to win the last three Grand Slam singles titles, so the goal is to stay healthy throughout the season.

"As long as that happens, I really play good tennis," said Williams, who teamed with Serena to win the Australian Open doubles title. "I love the challenge. If it wasn't challenging, we wouldn't love it as much as we do."

Williams will compete in the Dubai Tennis Championships, which begin Sunday. She hasn't changed her mind about skipping the tournament next month at Indian Wells, Calif., one of the mandatory events on the WTA schedule. In 2001, Venus defaulted with a knee injury before a semifinal match against Serena and they were booed by the crowd.

She said King, an investor in the Indian Wells tournament, hasn't tried to persuade her to play.

"I don't think that's her job or her aim," Venus said. "With Billie, her whole intention has been if I'm OK and happy more than anything else."

Venus said she hasn't been paying close attention to the recent steroid revelations in baseball. She considers tennis "a completely different sport."

"You have to hold your nerve, and I don't know if there's a drug for that," she said. "Tennis has a pretty good record and we continually test."

The showdown will be broadcast on HBO. It's part of "Tennis Night in America," an effort by the U.S. Tennis Association to get youth signed up to play.

Read the rest of this post...........

Dubai, UAE, 14th February 2009: Dubai could witness an all-Williams semifinal showdown after world number one Serena and her sister Venus were drawn in the same half of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships today.

The two have not gone head to head in Dubai before, but there’s a long way to go before a potential semifinal clash at the Dubai Tennis Stadium.

Both sisters have been handed byes in the first round and Serena will then meet the winner of Yung-Jan Chan v Sara Errani in round two, while Venus will come up against the winner of the match between Maria Kirilenko and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round.

Venus was present at the tournament draw which took place at the Aviation Club today and was joined by 2007 Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli, who will come up against Japan’s Ai Sugiyama in the first round.

“I’m already enjoying being here. This is an exciting tournament, one of the largest events on the tour, and I’m really looking forward to it. It’s a really tough field again and I’m ready to play,” said Williams after the draw.

As for being drawn in the same half as her sister, she joked: “Well, she’s number one in the world right now and her last name is Williams so people could confuse us and think I’m number one. I hope we do play each other.”

The sensational sisters form part of an incredible lineup for this year’s Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships which includes all the top-ranked women’s players in the world.

Read the rest of this post...........

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA (TICKER) - At The SAP Open Blake injured his ankle on Friday in a quarterfinal win over Sam Querrey. The injury affected his effort against Fish. Fish defeated Blake 6-3, 6-2.

“I had no idea his ankle was that bad,” Fish said. “It’s just a testament to James. He’s never defaulted in a match in his career.”

Blake was down 1-2 in the first set when he asked for a trainer and had his ankle retaped. He had the process repeated at the end of the first set, but to no avail.

“It affected me more than I thought it would have when I did it,” Blake said. “I just iced it a few times yesterday and taped it up. I thought I’d be ready to go.”

The trainer told Blake that he would not do any more damage, so the third seed played on.

“I thought if I wasn’t going to hurt it any more, I could suck up the pain for 20 minutes, 30 minutes and make it a little better for the fans, hopefully, and better for Mardy to feel like he earned a victory, which he did,” Blake said.

PARIS (AP)— Elena Dementieva advanced to the final of the Open GDF Suez after top-ranked Serena Williams withdrew with a knee injury.

Williams said she hurt her right knee during Friday’s win against Emilie Loit and was in too much pain to play.

“My left knee always hurts, but this time it’s my right knee,” Williams said. “When I woke up this morning, it wasn’t feeling good. I wasn’t moving well at all in practice.

“Today I don’t feel like I could have gotten there. I wanted to make the fans extremely happy. It wouldn’t have been a good showing for me at all.”

"My knees have been really good, and I'm really optimistic. I think they'll continue to be really good," said Williams who is due to play in Dubai next week.

"I just have been playing a lot of tennis, so maybe it's just a sign that I'll need to take a day or two off and get ready for the next event."

Monfils, who struggled with illness in his quarter-final win over Julien Benneteau at the ABN AMRO World Tournament, cut a lethargic figure as he returned to court after an off-court medical time-out at the end of the first set and punishingly long rallies with World No. 1 Rafael Nadal. The 22-year-old Monfils showed great character as he continued to fight and produced some of his best tennis towards the end of the second set, when he forced break point opportunities in successive Nadal service games. However, the left-handed Nadal dominated on the important points to snuff out Monfils’ chances and confidently served out the victory to love at 5-4. He now improves to a 13-1 match record on the season.

Monfils was defeated 6-4, 6-4.

Read the rest of this post...........

Happy Valentine's Day Glitter Graphics

Read the rest of this post...........

PARIS (AP) — Top-ranked Serena Williams defeated Emilie Loit 6-4, 6-1 to set up a semifinal with Elena Dementieva for the third straight tournament at the Open GDF Suez on Friday.

Loit, only the second qualifier in tournament history to make the quarterfinals, broke Williams when she was serving for the first set at 5-3. Williams threw her racket on the ground but broke right back and cruised the rest of the way.

"Definitely a tricky match," said Williams, the Australian Open champion. "Definitely good to get through, you know? I don't play too many lefties.

"I definitely don't feel at my best," Williams added, "but I feel like I'm getting there."

Dementieva gave Williams her only loss of the year in the Sydney semifinals, but Williams avenged that in the Australian Open semifinals en route to her 10th Grand Slam singles title.


SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — James Blake beat fellow American Sam Querrey 7-6 (9), 6-3 on Friday to advance to the semifinals of the SAP Open, setting up an intriguing meeting with doubles teammate Mardy Fish.

Blake hung on to win despite rolling his ankle with two points to go. He reached the semis shortly after Fish, his close friend and teammate, beat Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 6-4, upsetting the world's seventh-ranked player.

After Fish and Blake meet in a semifinal match Saturday afternoon, they'll team up for a doubles match late that night. They won the doubles title at San Jose in 2004, and both say their games improve when they're working together.

"There won't be any hard feelings," Blake said with a grin. "There better not be any hard feelings, or there might be a serve to the back of the head. ... Hopefully, we can go out to dinner tonight, play each other tomorrow, and then go out to dinner again."

Frenchman Gael Monfils defeated fellow Frenchman Julien Benneteau 7-6(4), 6-1 in an all-French quarter-final at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Next up for Monfils is World No. 1 Rafael Nadal. Monfils handed Nadal his only loss thus far of the 2009 ATP World Tour tennis season, posting a quarter-final win at the ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament in Doha in the first week of the year. The Spaniard had won their first three meetings in straight sets.



Although Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga hit 26 aces, that's right count 'em 26 at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, he was still not able to topple Spaniard Rafael Nadal. Tsonga was defeated 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4.

Read the rest of this post...........

MIDLAND, Mich. -- Shenay Perry would just as soon forget 2008.

The 24-year-old from Florida sat out four months of the year following surgery on her right knee caused by a degenerative bone disorder and played just doubles for half the year. She did have some good results early on, however, including winning the doubles title at the Dow Corning Tennis Classic in Midland, Mich., with Ashley Harkleroad in February.

The daughter of a firefighter-turned-tennis coach, Perry grew up in Washington D.C. She turned professional in 2004 and made the third round at the 2006 French Open and the 2006 Wimbledon round of 16, where she was the last American to be eliminated.

Perry returned to Midland for her first tournament of the year this week and was eliminated in the first round in singles. One of a few top African-American women players currently competing on the USTA Pro Circuit, she sat down with USTA.com at Midland to answer five questions:

USTA.com: Do you still think about your injury when you’re on the court?

Shenay Perry: Yeah, a little bit. Once you get on the court it’s fine, but I still think about it. It’s in the back of my mind, and I’m conscious of it.

USTA.com: You’re from Washington D.C. Do you follow politics?

Shenay Perry: I’m not really into politics, no. With this election, I was a little more into it, but I don’t normally follow it.

USTA.com: What did the election of new President Barack Obama mean to you?

Shenay Perry: I definitely think that was a great thing for history. I’m grateful to be able to see something like that in my lifetime. I wasn’t able to watch the inauguration because I was on a flight back from Australia the entire day.

USTA.com: Whom did you pattern your game after as a young player?

Shenay Perry: Pete Sampras was my favorite player. At one time I tried to emulate my entire game exactly like his, especially his serve. I tried to make my serve exactly like his. But that didn’t work out too well, so I’ve changed it a lot as I’ve gotten older.

USTA.com: What do you like to do in your time off the court?

Shenay Perry: I’m pretty boring. I like to go to the movies and shop a little. I really like just sitting on my couch and watching TV. I don’t get to do it very often, so I enjoy it when I finally get the chance to.

Read the rest of this post...........