Black Tennis Pros

ATP World Tour No. 6 Andy Roddick became the second Top 10 player inside a week to tie the knot as he and fiancée, Brooklyn Decker, exchanged vows in a candlelit ceremony before close family and friends in Austin, Texas on Friday.

Last Saturday, World No. 2 Roger Federer wed his long-time girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec in his hometown of Basel.

Roddick and Decker were joined in their celebration by former and current American players, Andre Agassi – with wife Steffi Graf - , Justin Gimelstob, James Blake and Mardy Fish, while Sir Elton John – a good friend of Roddick and Agassi - flew in from Las Vegas to perform for the wedding party.

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American Venus Williams was ousted today by German Sabine Lisicki at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina 6-4, 7-6(5).

While the Wimbledon champion gave Lisicki quite a bit of help in defeating her today, Lisicki never backed down and basically took her game to Venus, whose response was inadequate.

Post match Venus said, "I wasn't expecting that and, you know, I'll try to come back next year and win. "I made a few errors at the wrong time and she played some great shots."

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American tennis superstar Serena Williams and fashion model Selita Ebanks both look gorgeous as they highlight the red carpet of the 6th Annual New Yorkers For Children Spring Dinner Dance at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City on Wednesday evening. The event benefits many of the City’s 17,000 youth in foster care.

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Second-seeded Venus Williams struggled to advance at the Family Circle Cup on Wednesday, beating Sania Mirza of India 6-1, 3-6, 6-2.

It took the fifth-ranked Williams almost 2 1/2 hours to defeat the 100th-ranked Mirza on the green clay of stadium court at the tennis center on Daniel Island. Williams, who won the Family Circle five years ago, is now 3-0 against Mirza.

"When she's playing against me, she's got to go for it and I think there's also a sense of nothing to lose," Williams said. "When you look at the numbers and the rankings and statistics, you know, I'm supposed to win this match, so I think that gives her an opportunity to swing freely."

It appeared Williams had the match well in hand, winning the first set 6-1, although it took 46 minutes to do so. She led 3-1 in the second before Mirza rattled off five straight games, including breaking Williams at love to take a 5-3 lead and holding serve in the final game, which went to deuce eight times.

Williams recovered to easily win the third set.

"These kind of matches are great to pull out," she said. "I've been in these situations before, so I rely on that."

Photos by AP

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American Alexandra Stevenson had the pleasure of having more than the Charleston, South Carolina tennis fans observe her match against Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan - dear old dad was in the stands.

Former NBA superstar Julius 'Dr. J' Erving sat in the stands of the Family Circle Cup and for the first time witnessed Alexandra play a tour match. As depicted in ESPN's "Outside The Lines, Reaching Out: Alexandra Stevenson And Julius "Dr. J" Erving," the father and daughter have been slowly building their newfound relationship.




Of Erving's visit Stevenson said, “He actually wanted to come to one of the challenger tournaments, and I was like, I don’t think you should come there. We play on public parks, and some of them are a bit sketchy.”

“This is a nice tournament to come to, and I think he knows the tournament director, Bob Moran, and he just picked this tournament.”

“We were never in a bad place, I just didn’t know him. So it’s good now. I mean, obviously, it’s still odd, because you are getting to know somebody. But it’s nice that I know him, and he is supporting me out here, coming to watch me play."

Stevenson was not able to bring in a win in front of her father, as she was defeated by Amanmuradova 6-2, 6-4. When asked if having Erving present made her nervous Stevenson said, “I actually didn’t even see him until the second set.”

“And he can see how hard tennis is. It’s not like basketball where you have a whole team of support. So it’s nice that he came out here.”

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American Shenay Perry, a qualifier, upset 15th-seeded Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-1 on Tuesday to advance to the second round of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina.

At the same tournament, 'can't stop won't stop' American Angela Haynes had her marathon of tennis halted by Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-4, 5-7, 6-0.

This is usually not a good thing, but in Haynes' case, the opportunity to rest just might be.

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Newly coiffed Frenchman Gael Monfils may be stylishly ready for summer, but he definitely wasn't ready for the red clay courts of the Masters Series Monte Carlo Tennis Tournament today.

For the man who reached the semifinals of the French Open in 2008, you would never have known that Monfils can find comfort in playing on clay. He appeared to be totally ill at ease with the surface. Additionally, Monfils had both knees taped.

Monfils' opponent, Serb Janko Tipsarevic, appeared to be much more prepared and took Monfils to task. In little more than an hour Tipsarevic defeated Monfils 6-3, 6-1.

With regard to his bandaged knees, Monfils told reporters "No (I was not bothered by the bandages). I'm playing with it and I'm getting used to it,"

"They keep my knees very tight. I have pain when I take them off. In fact, my knees hurt when I climb the stairs."

Well, looks like you've got plenty of time to rest them now.

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