Black Tennis Pros

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Venus Williams might have come up short in her bid for a third Bank of the West Classic singles title. However, she still managed to walk away with one championship trophy. One hour after falling shy in a three-set loss to Marion Bartoli in the tournament’s singles title match, Venus Williams and teammate Serena Williams cruised to a 6-4, 6-1 victory in the doubles final over the team of Yung-Jan Chan and Monica Niculescu.

The title was the third this year for the Williams sisters, as the duo also captured the crowns at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. It is the 15th championship overall for the Williams sisters and the first non-Grand Slam doubles title since 1999.

Serena Williams and Venus Williams enjoyed a dominating run through the tournament, never allowing more than four games to an opponent.

Playing together for the first time, Chan and Niculescu were also impressive during the week. Unseeded in the draw, Chan and Niculescu’s signature moment came during the quarterfinals in the form of a 7-5, 6-3 victory over the top-seeded team of Cara Black and Liezel Huber.

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No matter how American Venus Williams begged and pleaded with herself on Sunday at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, Calfornia, she was not able to bring the brilliance of her game that she had just displayed on the previous two consecutive nights against Russians Maria Sharapova and Elena Dementieva.

This is the second meeting between Venus and Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli. In the Wimbledon 2007 final Venus showed Bartoli a thing or two and defeated her. Bartoli has just evened the score by defeating Venus 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 and earning the Bank of the West Classic title.

“I’m more experienced since that Wimbledon final," said Bartoli. "I’ve grown a lot and know what to do on big points. I can run a lot and I wanted to make Venus play one extra shot on every point.”

Venus, the former 2000 and 2002 titleholder of this event said, “Marion played really well,” Williams said. “I couldn’t find my game. I was fighting myself a lot and I couldn’t find the court. I’m not used to that.”

“Venus is one of the greatest champions ever,” Bartoli said. “That’s what I practice for, to play her. To beat her is even better.”

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I love the way American Venus Williams nearly takes Russian Maria Sharapova's head off at the Bank of the West Classic Friday night, then waves as if she's a delicate flower in a beauty pageant.

Venus stepped onto the Stanford, California court with her eye on the ball and didn't take it off until she had picked Sharapova apart in a straight sets 6-2, 6-2 win.

Can you spell s-m-a-c-k-d-o-w-n Maria? Wow!

One of the more interesting aspects to me was the pre-match hype of a showdown. Have those who thought that it would be such seen Sharapova play lately?

I had no idea that Venus would come out and clean girlies clock like that, but I definitely didn't see Sharapova taking Venus out.

Post match Venus said, "I enjoy playing against Maria, one of my favorite matchups. Her game matches up well for my game."

"I thought I could have played a little more consistently, but I guess I can't complain too much," Venus said.

"She did many things better than I did today," Sharapova said. "She was just aggressive the whole way through."

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The quarterfinal round of the Bank of the West Classic generated a rough day at the office for 2009 Wimbledon Champion Serena Williams.

Although Serena did seem a step or two off of her game, that wasn't her problem. A very focused and powerful Australian who goes by the name of Samantha Stosur was the issue.

After losing the first set, Serena managed to take the second from Stosur but never really seemed to have a solid grip on the match.

Of Stosur's play Serena said, "she had a lot of lucky shots; she's a good framer, but it's obviously all talent. She's mastered that."

"She played well and didn't do anything bad," Serena continued. She went for broke and struck all her balls as hard as she could. She never lets you get into a rhythm.

Of all of the WTA Tour players, I personally never saw Stosur with the potential for this level of effectiveness in singles. Stosur has quietly come up the sides and is a serious threat.

"It's one of the biggest, if not the biggest win of my career," Stosur said. "We don't always play our best tennis every single day. Maybe she didn't play her best and I played very well."

"At the end of the day you have to go out and play well," Stosur said. "I'd like to take it one more step. I'd love to make it to another final."

Impressive!

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The Legg Mason Tennis Classic presented by GEICO returns to the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park (16th & Kennedy Streets, NW), August 1-9, 2009, joining a new classification of elite events, the ATP World Tour 500’s, recognized as being among the top 20 men’s tournaments worldwide.

While we will have the pleasure of watching Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga compete, American James Blake has withdrawn with a foot injury and Frenchman Gael Monfils continues to ail from a wrist injury.

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At the Bank Of The West Classic in Stanford, California on Thursday, American sisters Venus and Serena Williams set up their quarterfinal matches with wins over Russian Alla Kudryavtseva and Hungary's Melinda Czink respectively.

Serena started the day with a 6-3, 7-6 (7) win over Melinda Czink. After looking strong in the first set, Williams trailed the entire second set until prevailing in the tiebreaker.

Subsequently, Venus cruised to a 6-1 win in the first set and looked to be in complete control midway through the second frame with a 5-3 lead. But Alla Kudryavtseva won back-to-back games to tie the set at 5-5 before Williams swiped the next two games for a 6-1, 7-5 triumph.

In Friday's quarterfinal matches Venus will go up against Russian Maria Sharapova, and Serena against Australian Samantha Stosur. I think the Serena/Samantha match will be the one to watch.

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