Black Tennis Pros

WIMBLEDON, England — Zina Garrison’s racial discrimination lawsuit against the United States Tennis Association has largely been panned in the greater American tennis community as without merit, based on her mediocre record as the United States’ Fed Cup captain from 2004 to 2008.

But in an interview Wednesday afternoon after playing in a Ladies’ Invitation Doubles match, she said she was not backing down from, and had no intention of dropping, the suit.

“What I’ll say is that it’s not what it is being made out to be,” she said. “I’m still the same person people always knew. I’m still an honest and truthful person.”

Garrison was fired after posting a 5-5 record as captain and failing to lead a nation that had been a longtime Fed Cup power to even one final, replaced by Mary Joe Fernandez. She filed the suit last February in a Manhattan federal court. It charged, among other things, different pay scales and treatment for her and Patrick McEnroe, the American Davis Cup captain, who has won one Davis Cup and had more success in getting the best American players — mainly Andy Roddick — to participate.

Her stance is that her tenure as captain began as American stars — Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati — were departing the sport, and Lindsay Davenport, a standby when Billie Jean King was captain, was tiring of the commitment. That left Venus and Serena Williams as the only imposing American players.

Venus Williams, a good friend of Garrison’s, often committed, but Serena Williams seldom played.

Asked if she believes, in retrospect, that she, as an African-American, was hired to entice the Williams sisters to play and not based on her coaching ability, Garrison nodded. Hence, her charge of racial discrimination, given her belief that her job security was largely based on the U.S.T.A.’s expectation that African-American players would come through for an African-American captain.

“That’s pretty accurate,” Garrison said.

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LONDON (AFP) — Venus Williams angrily hit back at suggestions that her 6-1, 6-0 Wimbledon semi-final demolition of world number one Dinara Safina was an embarrassment to women's tennis.

Venus, the five-time Wimbledon champion, took just 51 minutes to beat her Russian opponent in the most one-sided women's semi-final here in 40 years.

The result piled more pressure on both Safina, who has yet to win a Grand Slam title, and the rankings system which sees Venus and sister Serena at three and two in the world respectively despite winning 17 majors between them.

'Are you trying to be down on women's tennis?', she snapped at a journalist who said that the Centre Court mis-match, which followed sister Serena's marathon win over Elena Dementieva, was embarrassing to the women's game.

"I think women's tennis is fantastic. I would never be down on it. I happen to have enormous respect for Dinara.

"I'm not the number one seed so I shouldn't be expected to win but I have more experience playing on grass courts so that helped me."

Safina defended her world number one status, claiming her place on top of the rankings is reward for her consistency and success at all tournaments throughout the year and not just the four Grand Slams.

The 22-year-old Russian, who will remain on top next week when the new rankings are released, has finished runner-up at the last two French Opens as well as the Australian Open this year.

"I have reached the semi-finals at least at the last four Grand Slams," said the Russian.

"Venus and Serena didn't make the semi-finals at the French Open. The ranking is all year, tournament by tournament.

"I won in Rome and Madrid this year. I have been very consistent. The rankings are not just the result of the Grand Slam events."

Safina committed 16 unforced errors to Venus's one on Thursday and was out-aced 5-0.

But she insists that she can do better if she can get more experience on grass courts.

"She is just too good on grass," said Safina. "This is not my favourite surface. It's disappointing to finish in less than one hour and win only one game.

"She gave me a good lesson today but we only play two tournaments a year on grass. I tried to go for my shots and I like to build points. She can hit winners straightaway."

Serena, who saved a match point before booking her place in Saturday's final, said she had sympathy with Safina.

"Venus is not the easiest opponent on grass and she was playing really well," said Serena.

"Dinara is ranked No. 1 in the world. She's worked really hard to get there. She's been really consistent. I don't think anyone should take that away from her."

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Awwww man! I was really hoping that the all-American final vibe would also translate to the men's doubles with Bob and Mike Bryan vs. Mardy Fish and James Blake. Unfortunately Canadian Daniel Nestor and Serb Nenad Zimonjic had other plans.

I thought that it was over when Nestor and Zimonjic lost the first two sets to Blake and Fish. However, as the night began to fall, Nestor and Zimonjic held strong through the next three sets and defeated Blake and Fish 5-7, 3-6, 6-2, 7⁷-6³, 10-8.

Nice run though!

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Seeded seventh in the Wimbledon Girls Juniors, sixteen-year old American Sloane Stephens was stopped in the quarterfinals today as she was defeated by the girls no. 1 seed Kristina Mladenovic of France 6-1, 6-0.

Post match Stephens said, "she was serving, really big, she made a lot, a lot of first serves, and she was playing really, really well."

“I think she’s gonna win the tournament because there’s no one else that can really challenge her in any way.”

“No one can really hit the ball back, like at her pace, I don’t think she’ll have any more trouble the rest of the tournament. I think she’ll win it pretty easily.”

“From the first game, she was playing, she was after me for sure, she hit her serves, she was serving like 120-125 the whole match.”

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What can you say? What is there to be said?

Americans Venus and Serena Williams epitomize the ability to persevere. These ladies are just something else!

Up first today Serena had a literal battle of wills against Russian Elena Dementieva. Of course if you're going will power to will power against Serena, you're pretty much going to lose. Nonetheless, Dementieva came to play. Dementieva served like I have never seen her serve before. We all know that she has one hell of a fierce ground game, and that alone has given Serena headaches previously, but to add a good service game to that presents a different equation.

In a toe-to-toe battle in which Serena had to save a match point, the ladies put on a war of a ground game that could not have been scripted... with Dementieva actually having the upper hand for a large part of the three-set match.

Yet it had to end, and after 2 hours and 48 minutes Serena finally edged Dementieva out 6⁴-7⁷, 7-5, 8-6.

At the end Serena said, “Elena played so well. We gave the crowd a wonderful match.”

“The more we play, the better it gets. When we play our match on Saturday, you know, it’s for everything. This is what we dreamed of when we were growing up in Compton 20-something years ago. So, you know, this is what we worked for, and this is what we want. Like I wanted her to win today, and she wanted me to win today. It’s all come down to this.”

And Then Came Venus

Not so much drama between Venus and Russian Dinara Safina... more like pure ugliness. Venus put her foot on the gas and did not stop until she reached the finish line. The match looked like Venus was on automatic pilot.

In 51 minutes Venus just demolished Safina 6-1, 6-0.

Afterwards Venus said, “I was out there and really able to stay focused; I have so much experience on this court.”

To say the least...

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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — James Blake is joining Andy Roddick and the Bryan brothers on the U.S. Davis Cup team that will play Croatia in next month's quarterfinals.

U.S. captain Patrick McEnroe has picked Blake over Sam Querrey and Mardy Fish.

Blake lost in the first round at Wimbledon last week. Fish reached the third round, Querrey the second.

This is the 12th time in the last 13 Davis Cup contests that McEnroe is using the same quartet of players.

The best-of-five quarterfinal will be July 10-12 on an indoor clay court in Porec, Croatia.

Croatia has beaten the U.S. both times the countries have played in Davis Cup — the only country that has a winning record against the Americans.

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I apologize for the delays in accessing Black Tennis Pro's. My file hosts server is down. Hope to be running smoothly soon.

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(CNN) -- Entertainer Michael Jackson has died after being taken to a hospital on Thursday after suffering cardiac arrest, according to multiple reports including the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press. CNN has not confirmed his death.

Jackson, 50, had been in a coma at the hospital, sources told CNN.

Brian Oxman, a Jackson family attorney, said he was told by brother Randy Jackson that Michael Jackson collapsed at his home in west Los Angeles, California, Thursday morning.

Family members were told of the situation and were either at the hospital or en route, Oxman said.

Fire Capt. Steve Ruda told CNN a 911 call came in from a west Los Angeles residence at 12:21 p.m.

Ruda said Jackson was treated and transferred to the UCLA Medical Center.

Asked specifics of the patient's condition, he said he could not discuss them because of federal privacy laws.

The music icon from Gary, Indiana, is known as the "King of Pop." Jackson had many No. 1 hits and his "Thriller" is the best-selling album of all time. Video Jackson "as big as it gets" »

Jackson is the seventh of nine children in a well-known musical family. He has three children, Prince Michael I, Paris and Prince Michael II.

At the medical center, every entrance to the emergency room was blocked by security guards. Even hospital staffers were not permitted to enter. A few people stood inside the waiting area, some of them crying.

A large crowd was also gathering outside the hospital, according to video footage.

Outside Jackson's Bel Air home, police arrived on motorcycles. The road in front of the home was closed in an attempt to hold traffic back, but several people were gathered outside the home.

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