Black Tennis Pros

MADRID (AFP) — Sluggish and injured Serena Williams lost her third consecutive clay match to crash out of the Madrid Masters after pulling the plug while trailing 4-6 to Francesca Schiavone in the first round Monday.

The exit of the second seed leaves Williams in a precarious position without a victory on the dirt heading into the May 24 start of Roland Garros.

"After the first set I did not want to risk anymore. I'm hoping to be ready for Roland Garros," she insisted.

Williams, who also lost in Marbella and last week in Rome and has suffered with thigh and knee injuries, effectively stayed on court for 45 minutes to avoid a 75,000 fine which the WTA would have imposed for failing to play the new tournament.

The sanction would have been imposed had she pulled out of the event and then not shown up on site for essentially a public relations appearance under the rules.

The multimillionairess has already lost several hundred thousand dollars in year-end bonus pool money as a result of refusing to compete at Indian Wells last March.

"I don't know about you, but 75,000 is a lot of money to me," said the winner of more than two million dollars in prize money so far this season.

"I'm redecorating a house and 75,000 is my furniture budget, some stairs...

"I can't just go writing cheques for 75,000 in this economy," added the ten-time Grand Slam champion, a 24-million-dollar woman over the course of her career.

Williams insisted with some bravado that she would aim to play both singles and doubles at the French Open, starting a week from Sunday.

Williams has not won a match since April 2 in a Miami semi-final over her sister Venus.

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On the USTA Pro Circuit at the Eagle Landing Tennis Classic, Orange Park, Florida, the American doubles team of Todd Paul and Marcus Fugate defeated teammates Philip Bester of Canada and American Gregory Ouellette 6-4, 6-1 to take the doubles championship.

Fugate also advanced to the singles semifinal of the same event, but was defeated by Mexican Daniel Garza 6-4, 6-4.

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MADRID (Reuters) - World number two Serena Williams hit out at the WTA Tour injuries policy on Sunday, commenting that players would be fined for pulling out of a tournament even if they were dead.

The American 10-times grand slam winner was asked why she played at last month's Andalucia Tennis Championships when she had clearly not recovered from a thigh problem that hampered her in the final of the Sony Ericsson Open the previous week.

"Unfortunately it doesn't matter if you're injured, if you're dead or if you're alive, if you don't play they're going to fine you heavily," Williams said at a news conference ahead of this week's Madrid Open.

"So I have to play whether I am injured or not. That's just how it is so I have no choice."

Williams suffered a shock defeat to Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic in the first round in Marbella having lost heavily to Belarussian teenager Victoria Azarenka in Miami.

The WTA introduced a new Roadmap for 2009 designed to reduce the number of tournaments and shorten the season to make it less physically demanding on the players.

Top 10 players must still compete in at least 10 of the 20 Premier events -- previously known as Tier 1 and 2 tournaments -- and the four grand slams and are also obliged to play the events at Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing.

Justine Henin's retirement last year at the age of 25 highlighted the problem of burnout and Russia's Maria Sharapova has accused the ruling body of women's tennis (WTA) of being ignorant of the players' needs.

Men's world number one Rafael Nadal has repeatedly complained about the congested ATP calendar and reiterated his concerns on Saturday in Madrid at the combined men's and women's clay event.

"It's a fact that there are too many matches but that's the way the calendar has been set," the Spaniard, who suffered a knee injury at the end of last season, told a news conference.

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This is one loss that American James Blake can take with a grain of salt. We literally watched a man without a plan come into the Estoril Open and establish and execute a grand plan.

After his semifinal match was suspended on Saturday because of rain, darkness and who knows what else, Blake came back on Sunday and finished the job, defeating Davydenko 6-7(3), 7-6(2), 6-3.

Not long thereafter Blake had to return to the court to play the final against Spainard Albert Montanes. Montanes saved two match points at 4-5 in the second set and came back to beat 5-7, 7-6(6), 6-0 just over two hours.

Yeah well, he didn't have to play two matches either (sour grapes). Congratulations to Montanes and to Blake. Blake had an absolutely fabulous run and made my tennis for the year thus far.



“Tennis is a game of inches,” said Blake. “If he missed the line by one inch on one of the match points, I would have won. It didn’t and he gained confidence. It happens to every player. Today, it happened to me in the final. With the exception of one bad set I played some high-level tennis all week.

“Of course I’m disappointed in a loss. But I’m going to try and look back in the next couple of days and think about it positively. I came in here with very little confidence on clay, having lost my last two matches. At least now I won my last four matches and put myself in a position to win a clay-court tournament. I couldn’t take advantage of it, but I will go onto next week’s tournament with a lot more confidence and try and duplicate the results.”

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MADRID (AFP) — American James Blake continued his fine form on clay by reaching the first European clay final of his career with a 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 win over Nikolay Davydenko at the Estoril Open on Sunday.

Blake, who had never advanced beyond the quarter-finals on the continent before, won a rain-delayed semi-final over two days and now faces a last test in the title match later on Sunday.

The fourth seed will face experienced clay campaigner Alberto Montanes, the Spanish seventh seed, who booked his spot in the final on Saturday.

Blake trailed by a set to 2003 winner Davydenko but took a 4-2 lead in the second before darkness on Saturday finally forced the contest off court after a frustrating afternoon of rain.

Davydenko, who lost the 2008 final to Roger Federer at the Estadio Nacional, levelled at 4-4 upon their return as the Russian's vast experience on the surface looked like paying off.

But the newly confident Blake fought through a second-set tiebreaker, sweeping into a third set after the Russian put a backhand wide.

Blake consolidated in the third set, sewing up his personal best performance on the surface in two and a half hours.

The American and Montanes have never met, while the 28-year-old Spaniard tries to improve a 13-13 season record and bids for a second title from a sixth career final.

Blake holds a 10-12 career record in finals as he plays only his second on clay after losing last year in Houston.

Blake becomes the second American to reach an Estoril final since Todd Martin in 1999.

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American James Blake and Russian Nikolay Davydenko are going through it in their semifinal match at the Estoril Open in Estoril, Portugal. Rain caused the first suspension and darkness the second.

The match is currently suspended in the second set with Blake up 4-2. Davydenko took the first set 7-6(3).

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