Black Tennis Pros

American super twins Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan got the job done in Birmingham, Alabama today by chalking up a 6-3 6-4 3-6 7-6(2) win over the Swiss doubles team of Yves Allegro and Stanislas Wawrinka. The USA takes a 2-1 lead over Switzerland.

This win gives the Bryans their 15th out of 17 Davis Cup match wins. They now become the most winning doubles team in US Davis Cup history.

Mike Bryan said, “obviously it feels very good to be considered one of the best US doubles teams. We have a lot of respect for teams like McEnroe-Fleming and Flach-Seguso, guys like that, but we just do what we do and treat every match like a grand slam final and put everything into it and here we are six years later, we have 15 wins and being considered one of the best teams.”

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The United States and Switzerland draw even at 1-1 in the first round of 2009 Davis Cup play.

In the first rubber, after an impressive first set, James Blake was defeated by Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 6-7(3).

The second rubber paired Andy Roddick against Marco Chiudinelli whom Roddick defeated 6-1, 6-3, 7-6(5). This win brought Roddick his 30th Davis Cup victory, tying him in total wins with Andre Agassi in sixth place in American Davis Cup history.

Tomorrow’s doubles line-up will feature Bob and Mike Bryan against Yves Allegro and Wawrinka. The USA is favored against the team even with Wawrinka having won the Olympic gold medal in doubles with Roger Federer, beating the Bryan brothers in route to the final.

On Sunday in reverse rubbers, Roddick will face Wawrinka in the opening singles followed by Blake against Chiudinelli.

Photos by AP/Getty Images

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Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is congratulated by the French Davis Cup Captain Guy Forget and teammates after defeating Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (1). The first rubber, played by Gilles Simon, was lost to Tomas Berdych 6-7(3), 4-6, 6-7(2), 3-6.

Photos by AP/Getty Images

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In the Americas Zone Group II, Jamaicans Damion Johnson, brother Damar Johnson (team captain), Christopher Lawson and Brandon Burke have gone down 0-2 to Mexicans Santiago Gonzalez, Bruno Echagaray, Luis-Manuel Flores, and Miguel Gallardo-Valles.







New Family Member



Jamaican Damion Johnson is listed with the ATP Tour but is currently unranked.

Damion was the #1 player in 2006 at Temple College, Temple Texas. He was also the 2006 NJCAA National Champion. Seeded #6 at the NJCAA championships, he upset the #2, #3, and #4 seeds on the way to the title. In the final he edged 2005 Champion Alejandro Gonzalez of Laredo C.C. 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Johnson, a freshman from Jamaica and a member of the Jamaican Davis Cup team, was the first Temple College men's player to win the NJCAA crown at #1 singles.

Photo © Temple College

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McALLEN - Fifty of the players who entered the 2009 Dr. Raul Marques and Dr. Rosario Parra Men's Futures of McAllen singles qualifying tournament came to the Rio Grande Valley to swing, sprint and dive their way to another gold star on their tennis resumés.

Donald Young doesn't need any more gold stars - he just needs playing time.

Young, 19, is already a professional and plays in ATP Tour events.

With an ATP world ranking of No. 146 (130 when he entered), he stands 240 spots ahead of his next-best competitor, Vladimir Obradovic, at the tournament hosted by McAllen Country Club. The McAllen Futures provides him with a chance to get some much-needed match play.

"I haven't been playing that many matches on the tour," said Young, who was born in Chicago and lives in Atlanta. "You win two matches, you're in the quarters. You don't get that many (matches) because you're playing a lot of high-level players. I need to get some confidence, so I come down and play where I can win some matches."

McAllen Country Club pro Arturo Czerwiak, the event's main organizer, said that it's nice to have a player of Young's caliber in the tournament.

"It's an honor for us and the tournament and the USTA in McAllen," Czerwiak said. "It's an honor and we're proud to have him here."

After defeating Houston native Henry Fowler 6-4, 6-2 in Sunday's second round, Young beat China's Yu Chang 6-3, 6-2 on Monday to advance to the qualifiers round of eight. Despite losing in straight sets, Chang gave Young a good workout, forcing the pro to sprint end to end on a few points.

"He had nothing to lose and he came out," Young said of Chang. "I don't get to see these players too much, so this is where all the good players come from anyway. You have to start at somewhere, so this is where they're starting."

Before turning pro, Young was one of the world's best junior players, winning the Australian Open junior tournament in 2005 and the Wimbledon junior event in 2007. In 2005, he became the youngest year-end world No. 1 junior player at 16 years, five months, as well as the first African American male to hold that honor.

So far in 2009, Young's best showing was in late January when he lost to fellow-American Vincent Spadea in the quarterfinals of an ATP Challenger Tour event in Carson, Calif. Young hopes that the match play he gets at the McAllen Futures will help him prepare for the BNP Paribas Open, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event running March 12 through 23 at Indian Wells, Calif.

"This year I want to break top 50 ATP and just keep playing well and get better," he said. "I guess I want to improve - that's the biggest thing."

The McAllen Futures started this past Saturday and runs through Sunday. There is no admission for rounds through Friday. Tickets for Saturday's semifinals and Sunday's finals are $10. The weekend package is $15.

Stephen K. Lee covers sports for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4442.

Source

Photo © The Monitor

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DOUBLES

Round 1

Megan Moulton-Levy, USA and Heidi El Tabakh, CAN
defeated
Maria-Fernanda Alves, BRA and Riza Zalameda, USA
6-4, 1-6 [10/6]


Quarterfinal Round

Megan Moulton-Levy, USA and Heidi El Tabakh, CAN
defeated by
Abigail Spears, USA and Tian-Tian Sun, CHN
6-2, 3-6 [8-10]


Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

Megan Moulton-Levy, USA
Jennifer Elie, USA


SINGLES

Round 1

Donald Young, USA defeated Artur Chernov, RUS
6-4, 6-2

Nicholas Monroe, USA defeated by Antonio Ruis-Rosales, MEX
1-6, 2-6


Round 2

Donald Young, USA defeated by Tigran Martirosyan, ARM
2-6, 6-7(4)


DOUBLES

Round 1

Jarmere Jenkins, USA and Ryan Lipman, USA
defeated by
Stephen Bass, USA and Sheeva Parbhu, USA
3-6, 1-6


Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

Jarmere Jenkins, USA

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PRESS RELEASE

WeMix.com and Tennis Superstar Serena Williams Launch a Nationwide Songwriting Competition in Search of the Original Best Song Ms. Williams Will Use As Her Official Theme Music at Tennis Matches and Other Outlets.


New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) March 2, 2009 -- WeMix.com, the premiere online music creation community for independent musicians, announced today an exclusive partnership with superstar tennis champion Serena Williams to create an original theme song made specifically for her tennis matches.

The "Serena's Song" contest is a nationwide songwriting competition inviting independent musicians, songwriters, producers, rappers and singers to submit original music inspired by and about Serena Williams. Ms. Williams will select her personal favorite songs as Finalists, and the winner will be chosen by the online communities at WeMix.com and Ms. Williams redesigned and anticipated website serenawilliams.com. The musician with the winning song will be taken into the studio to professionally record what will become Serena's official theme music. The winner will then go to the premiere of the song at the Bank of the West Classic, in Stanford, CA., in late July. The new theme song will be used at tennis matches, public appearances and a variety of other outlets by Serena.

"Sports and music have such a powerful connection," says Ms. Williams. "I always see athletes including myself listening to music, while they're getting ready for or decompressing after a match, or a race, or a game, whichever the sport. WeMix provides fans with a fun and unique way to get involved and be a part of that process. I use my website [www.serenawilliams.com] as a way to interact with my fans, and hopefully I can use WeMix.com to continue that interaction and include my fans more in that part of my game. "So please log on and make a fun, upbeat song that motivates me and others."

WeMix was founded in 2008 by Grammy Award-winning artist Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and veteran media executive Matthew Apfel. Its corporate mission is to re-invent how popular music is sourced, filtered, produced, and marketed. WeMix builds multiple creative and distribution opportunities for talented new artists, by partnering them directly with superstar musicians and celebrities. The "Serena's Song" contest is the latest example of how WeMix.com helps new artists break through, fast track their careers, and share in the profits.

"We're thrilled to announce another unique creative event," said WeMix founder Matt Apfel. "Eclectic partners like Serena Williams help engage our talented community to create thousands of new songs, and that's always a good thing."

"Pop music knows no boundaries," added WeMix Founder Chris Bridges. "We're hoping to prove that yet again with the "Serena's Song" contest."

Beginning today, March 3, 2009, artists interested in submitting an original Serena Williams theme song to the "Serena's Song" contest can visit WeMix.com. Finalists will be chosen in early May. Complete contest rules and details can be found on www.wemix.com

About WeMix.com
Created by Disturbing Tha Peace Entertainment and MegaMobile TV, WeMix.com is a music-creation community and user-generated record label that enables unsigned singers, rappers, songwriters, musicians and producers to be heard and get discovered. Artists who join the WeMix.com community and upload their creations have the potential to sell their work directly to the consumer. Top-performers can also become eligible to have songs produced by Ludacris, thereby opening up an entirely new way to launch a career outside of the traditional music hierarchy. Please visit www.wemix.com to learn more.

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In what turned out to be a really nice event, American Serena Williams had to take down big sister Venus to earn the first Billie Jean King Cup title.

The entire event appeared to be planned, organized and promoted wonderfully. The celebration of legend Billie Jean King with a tournament named for her, broadcast on HBO and contested by four of the world's top players, it just could not have been done any better.

Venus and Serena Williams and Serbians Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic went head to head. The single-set semifinal no-ad format was do or die. It wasn't a matter of it suiting any of the players well, it was a matter of who was willing to go for it all. In the first semifinal Venus and Jelena seemed to start out on equal footing, but Venus managed to break Jelena's serve at the all to crucial 4-4 point of their match. She then served for and won that semifinal 6-4.

Serena and Ana's semifinal wasn't quite as even handed. While Ana did get in a few memorable shots, Serena was never in any danger. She defeated Ana 6-3 setting up the all-Williams final.

The maiden contesting of a tournament could not get any better than an all-Williams final. While it wasn't the most memorable match, the ladies played well and provided a match worthy of a final. After two weeks of winning tournaments back to back, Venus appeared to run out of gas... who wouldn't.

Nevertheless, the first Billie Jean King Cup was definitely a night to remember.


Event Photos

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