Black Tennis Pros

CARSON, Calif. — Valerie Tetreault of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, won her first pro title Sunday after defeating Alexandra Stevenson of the United States at the Home Depot USTA Challenger.

The unseeded 21-year-old defeated No.8-seed Stevenson 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in a hotly disputed singles final.

Tetreault, ranked No. 304 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings, beat Julia Cohen of the U.S. in straight sets Saturday en route to the final.

She faced a much stiffer test in the Sunday, after losing the opening set to Stevenson to take home the US$7,700 winner's purse.

Tetreault will become one of six Canadian women to be ranked in the top 300 when the new Tour rankings are released following the conclusion of the French Open.

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French 24 - Local favourites Gaël Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga have scored key victories to make it to the eight final rounds of the French Open.

Once believed out of the running due to persistent pain in his left knee, Monfils says he is hampered no more and is approaching the final full of confidence.

"One might call this the first step," said Monfils. "It is always a pleasure to spend a second week at a Grand Slam."

But Monfils, who made it only to the semifinals in 2008, says he is far from satisfied.

"Now, one must try to go much farther," he said.

In the next round, Monfils will face America’s Andy Roddick, the world number six, whom he has not beaten yet this season.

Roddick is "a great player, very strong," said Monfils. "I’ve lost to him twice this year. It would be a superb comeback, before my public, in France,” he said of a possible victory against his next opponent.

But Monfils wants first to savour his victory against Austria’s Jürgen Melzer. He will ponder a win against Roddick tomorrow, "but not now," he said.


"Wouldn't it be nice to win?"

On the Philippe Chatrier Court, Tsonga bested Belgium’s Christophe Rochus in three sets (6-2, 6-2, 6-2) and thus also qualified for the final eight. It was a result that might have surprised some, but not him.

“Nobody thought that I could evolve like that on the clay,” Tsonga said. "I was often asked, 'What are you hoping for? What would be good for you? To make it through an eighth of the final, a quarter?'"

Determined to put an end to this sort of speculation, Tsonga hit a volley back to the journalists: "And to win, wouldn’t that be nice?"

In the coming round, Tsonga will face Argentinean Juan Martin Del Potro, a player who is very at ease on the clay and who defeated Russia's Igor Andreev (ranked 25th) in an all-out match.

But when an Argentinean journalist asked del Potro who he expects to win in his match against the local favourite, the fifth-ranked player answered with no hesitation: “the local”.

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At the Home Depot Center Women's USTA $50,000 Pro Circuit Challenger in Carson, California on Friday American Alexandra Stevenson defeated 16-year-old American junior Kristie Ahn, 6-2, 6-4, leaving Stevenson the the last remaining seeded player.

Stevenson, who now resides in Manhattan Beach, California, next faces former world top 30 player Laura Granville in today's semifinals.

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PARIS (AP) — Out of breath and out of sorts, Venus Williams played her way right out of the French Open on Friday with her most lopsided Grand Slam loss since 2001.

That the No. 3-seeded Williams would exit in the third round at Roland Garros is not quite so extraordinary, perhaps, considering she now has left this particular Grand Slam tournament at this precise stage in four of the past five years.

That Williams would lose the way she did — 6-0, 6-4 — and to the player she did — 29th-seeded Agnes Szavay of Hungary, whose resume boasts a lone major quarterfinal appearance — was anything but ordinary.

"I'm used to beating people 6-0. I'm not used to my shot not going in and losing a set 6-0," Williams said. "So it completely was foreign ground for me."

The red clay of Paris often feels that way to the older Williams sister, whose seven Grand Slam singles titles were earned at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Based on seeding and name, her departure qualifies as by far the tournament's most significant.

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Go HERE to enter the competition.

Write for the Rolandgarros.com website by submitting a caption for the "photo of the day"! Once they have been moderated, your entries will be published throughout the day on the site (until 6 p.m. CET). The best entry will be selected every evening with the winner receiving a Roland Garros cap. So get your thinking caps on and send in your captions!

Rules and regulations - The "Caption it!" competition

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At the Home Depot Center Women's USTA $50,000 Pro Circuit Challenger in Carson, California on Thursday American Alexandra Stevenson defeated fellow American Kaitlyn Christian 6-3, 6-3 to move into the quarterfinals of the event.

Stevenson will meet Kristie Ahn in her next match.

American Asia Muhammed was knocked out by Nicole Gibbs 6-3, 7-5. Asia came through three rounds of qualifying to enter the main draw.

In the doubles event American Mashona Washington and India's Shikha Uberoi advanced to the semifinal round by defeating the team of Gail Brodsky and Laura Siegemund 6-3, 7-5.

Washington and Uberoi will next play Australians Monique Adamczak and Nicole Kriz.

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Daunting site seeing Venus and Serena Williams put their heads together during doubles play. The opponents across the net might be in for any level of barrage.

On Thursday at Roland Garros the sisters did what they generally do when they hit the doubles court... win. They resumed a suspended match that left the sisters with a first set win at 6-1 and the Czech pairing of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka winning the second set 6-3.

The sisters sealed the match by winning the remaining set 6-3.

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American Serena Williams hit the clay courts at Roland Garros in much better form on Thursday. Serena's game and persona were much more confident and composed as she easily worked through her defeat of Spainard Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-2, 6-0. Serena joins sister Venus in round 3.

"Everything clicked for me today, finally," she said. "It was just a better match. I'm not nearly as upset as I was the other day."

Asked about her comfort level on clay Serena said, "I grew up on the clay a lot. I'm totally fine on the clay. My results haven't been where I wanted them to be, but from, like, 9 to 14, I played nothing but clay-court tennis. I actually love it, and it's really one of my favorite surfaces, because I love to slide."

About her game now as opposed to her earlier years Serena says, "I think I'm wiser. I think I'm just a more mature player. Back then, it was more nitty-gritty. And now it's more composed and planned-out playing."

Serena also talked about what she does in between matches and her home in Paris, an apartment that she's currently redecorating.

"I just stay in my apartment, I live in a really cool area so, whatever I want.... Right now I'm kind of remodeling my apartment little by little, so I just bought a new couch and now I'm looking for rugs, I want a really nice rug.

It's interesting because it's like a totally different lifestyle for me, but it's really really fun."

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