Black Tennis Pros

On Court Suzanne Lenglen Wednesday night American Venus Williams and the Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova had to shut down their one-set match for the night due to darkness.

When the match was called for the evening Safarova had taken the first set 7⁷-6⁵.

Venus will have to wrap this one up in straight sets if she is to continue her quest ... she's done it a thousand times.

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

Lesser know Frenchman Josselin Ouanna is making excellent use of his wildcard at the 2009 French Open. Today he ended Marat Safin's French Open career with an epic five-set victory on Wednesday evening.

The very tempered but stragetgic Ouanna held on in a tight 4 hour and 34 minute match to take out Safin in a 7⁷-6², 7⁷-6⁴, 4-6, 3-6, 10-8 victory.

Safin, who has vowed to retire at the end of the season, lost the first set on a tie-break and the pattern repeated itself in the second.

The Russian appeared to have the mental edge after he saved four set points while serving at 5-6 but Ouanna stayed focused in the breaker to open a two-set lead.

However, Safin's famous temperament was held in check as he launched a fightback.

A single break of serve in both the third and fourth sets saw him level match - Ouanna missing six break points in the process.

Safin, a semi-finalist at Roland Garros in 2002, looked set to roll on to victory when he broke early in the decider, but he allowed Ouanna to hit back and level at 3-3 - Safin slamming a ball into the stands in disgust and picking up a warning in the process.

The Russian saved match points at 4-5 (with an ace) and at 5-6 (with a brilliant forehand winner) but when Ouanna fashioned more chances at 8-9 he finally cracked.

One was saved but when Safin sent a forehand wide on the next it was all over.

Ouanna progresses to a third-round meeting with Fernando Gonzalez, the 12th seed.

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

Although their first round doubles match currently stands suspended due to darkness, sisters Venus and Serena Williams plan to return on Wednesday and complete what they began on Tuesday.

Playing on court No. 2 at the 2009 French Open, the sisters took the first set 6-1, only to have that reversed in the second set when the Czech pairing of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka won 6-3.

The teams currently stand one set all, four games to three third set, Williams sisters.

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

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

PARIS (AP) — James Blake has lost in the first round of the French Open to a qualifier making his Grand Slam debut.

The 15th-seeded Blake was upset 7-6 (6), 7-5, 6-2 on Tuesday by 93rd-ranked Leonardo Mayer of Argentina.

Blake has never been past the third round at Roland Garros. The American made more than twice as many unforced errors as Mayer.

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

Talk about a painful match to watch!

Both American Serena Williams and the Czech Republic's Klara Zakopalova agonized throughout their match on the Suzanne Lenglen Court at the French Open today, with Serena taking the bigger brunt of the pain even though she went on to win the three-set match 6-3, 6⁵-7⁷, 6-4.

"I was just desperate for a win," the second-seeded Williams said, "and I think it pretty much showed in my game."

Serena described today's performance as "horrendous." She then added, "I just played junior tennis — or even worse."

Throughout the error laden match Serena looked to gain more pain with each error.

After the 2^1/2 hour match was finally won, she joined sister Venus for a round of doubles. That match is currently suspended because of darkness until Wednesday.

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

Given that he was highly doubtful about his ability to play in the 2009 Roland Garros because of a knee injury, Frenchman Gaël Monfils has begun the tournament very impressively.

“I’m not thinking too much about my injury,” said Monfils. I decided to play. I’m going to stop talking about being hurt or not hurt. I’m in the tournament, and for once, I started at a high level. Now it’s a question of how I can build on it.”

Monfils’s impressed the crowd in the Suzanne-Lenglen court with his 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 defeat of Bobby Reynolds.

“I feel strong, and I was hitting strong,” said Monfils. “After a few more matches and with a bit more confidence, I’ll be hitting even harder. And I tell myself, why not take things further?”

“I didn’t have to dig too far into my reserves today,” Monfils said. “But I could see in the rallies we had that I was there and I hadn’t lost too much of my game.”

In the next round, he faces the Romanian Victor Crivoi.

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

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