Black Tennis Pros

The injection of a fella lovingly called Rafa slowed the pace at which Roger Federer would reach this milestone, but it has happened nonetheless.

The 2009 Wimbledon champion defeated American Andy Roddick 5-7, 7⁸-6⁶, 7⁷-6⁵, 3-6, 16-14.

Roger is a great and gracious champion who has truly earned this crown through hard work and a lot of joy and pain.

Congratulations Roger Federer on becoming the top grand slam title holder in all of tennis - Yay big 15!

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

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Venus and Serena Williams have won their fourth women's doubles title at Wimbledon by beating Rennae Stubbs and Samantha Stosur of Australia 7-6 (4), 6-4.

The doubles final began a few hours after Serena beat Venus for the singles championship Saturday. It's the Williams sisters' second consecutive doubles title at the All England Club and their ninth Grand Slam doubles title as a pair.

They've also won the Australian Open together three times, including in January, along with the U.S. Open and the French Open once each.

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

WIMBLEDON, England -- Serena Williams fell to her knees on the grass, eyes closed, arms raised, and threw back her head.

After six years, it was her turn to hold up the Venus Rosewater Dish again.

In the fourth all-Williams final at Wimbledon, Serena beat her sister Venus 7-6 (3), 6-2 on Saturday for her third title and 11th Grand Slam championship.

"It feels so amazing," Serena said. "I'm so blessed. I feel like I shouldn't be holding the trophy. I can't believe I'm holding it. It's named for Venus and she always wins."

Serena came out on top by out-serving her big sister, lifting her game in the tiebreaker and dictating play throughout the second set, finally winning when five-time champion Venus slapped a backhand into the net on the fourth match point.

Serena beat Venus in the 2002 and '03 finals, before Venus prevailed in last year's championship match. Venus was trying to become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1991-93 to win Wimbledon three years in a row.

Still, the Williams sisters proved their dominance at the All England Club once more, winning their eighth singles title this decade. As always with Williams vs. Williams matches, the celebrations were relatively muted. The sisters embraced at the net, with the 29-year-old Venus patting 27-year-old Serena on the back.


"I didn't think about Venus at all today," Serena said. "I just saw her as an opponent. At one point, after the first set, I looked on the side of the court at the stats, and it was like 'Williams, Williams.' I couldn't figure out which was which."

The sisters were due back on Centre Court later for the women's doubles final, where they will face Samantha Stosur and Rennae Stubbs of Australia. They're seeking their fourth Wimbledon doubles title and 10th Grand Slam crown.

Venus had come into the final as the favorite after playing some of the best grass-court tennis of her career. She hadn't dropped a set in 17 straight matches at Wimbledon, but couldn't cope on this day with the fierce competitive drive and relentless power game of her sister.


"This is one of the few times I didn't expect to come out with the win today," Serena said. "When I won that first set, I was like, 'Wow, this is great. No matter what, I'm a set away.' So I was just trying to relax."

The statistics summed up Serena's superiority: She had 12 aces, 25 winners and 12 unforced errors, compared to two aces, 14 winners and 18 unforced mistakes for Venus.

"She played great, especially in the tiebreak," Venus said. "I would just play a good shot and she'd just hit a winner off of it or put me in a position where she could hit another winner. I played a good tiebreak, but she played a great one."


Serena now has an 11-10 edge overall and is 6-2 in Grand Slam finals against her sister. She currently holds three of the major titles -- the U.S. Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon -- and is one Slam win away from tying Billie Jean King at sixth all-time.

"It's unbelievable," Serena said. "I feel like now I'm just not even in a competition of how many I can win. It's just now I'm looking at the next goal of someone like Billie Jean King, who is completely my idol. To get to her level and have 12 would be even better."

Serena said she found no particular significance in stopping her sister from taking a third straight Wimbledon crown.


"She's won seven Grand Slams on her own, five being Wimbledon," Serena said. "You can't compare that, because she's a living legend right now."

Despite her dominance on the big stages, Serena will stay at No. 2 in the world rankings behind Dinara Safina. The Russian reached the top spot this year even though she has never won a Grand Slam title. She was routed 6-1, 6-0 by Venus in the Wimbledon semifinals.

"I think if you hold three Grand Slam titles maybe you should be No. 1, but not on the WTA Tour obviously," Serena said.


"My motivation is maybe just to win another Grand Slam and stay No. 2, I guess," she added with a laugh. "I'd rather definitely be No. 2 and hold three Grand Slams in the past year than be No. 1 and not have any."

Serena became the second player in the Open era to win the Wimbledon women's title after overcoming a match point, having done so in the semifinals against Elena Dementieva. The only other player to do it was Venus, who saved one in the 2005 final against Lindsay Davenport.

On a sunny, breezy day, there was little to separate the sisters for most of the first set, though Venus failed to convert her chances to break in the eighth game. Serving at 15-40, Serena saved the first break point with a second serve into the body that forced a backhand error from Venus. On the second, Venus went for a forehand passing shot that landed just wide of the line. Serena then hit back-to-back aces to take the game.

Serena dominated the tiebreaker, increasing her intensity and grunting volume and pushing Venus around the court. Serena closed it out in style, flicking a picture-perfect topspin lob that floated over Venus and into the back of the court for a winner.


Venus looked flat and demoralized in the second set and, from 2-2, Serena ran off the last four games. The match was essentially over when Venus double-faulted on break point in the sixth game to hand her sister a 4-2 lead. Two games later, Serena failed to convert on three match points before Venus ended the contest with a final backhand error.

"Serena and I, we both expect from ourselves great results," Venus said, refusing to reflect on what the siblings have accomplished. "At the moment, we're just pushing for everything that we can. And maybe when all these moments are over, then we can look back and kind of be amazed."

Photos by:
AP
Getty Images

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

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.

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

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."

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

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!

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

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.”

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

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...

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