Black Tennis Pros

PARIS -- James Blake of the United States beat French veteran Fabrice Santoro 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the Paris Masters on Sunday.

The 36-year-old Santoro, who is playing his final season on the ATP tour, swapped jerseys with Blake after the match and did a lap around the court to warm applause from the crowd at Bercy indoor arena.

Blake broke Santoro's serve twice in each set, and afterward paid tribute to the Frenchman.

"He's a great competitor, such a classy guy. Someone I've had a lot of tough matches with," said Blake, who next plays fourth-seeded Andy Murray of Britain. "He's had a great career. It's unbelievable how much success he's had in singles and doubles and how well liked he is by his competitors."

Murray beat Mikhail Youzhny in the Valencia Open final on Sunday, winning his sixth title of the season in his first tournament back since injuring his wrist at the U.S. Open in September.

In another first-round match in Paris on Sunday, Benjamin Becker beat Michael Llodra of France 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. The German next meets sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia.

Becker converted all three break chances, and saved two second-set break points and another in the decider. Both players served nine aces.

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DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Serena Williams bested big sister Venus again Sunday, winning 6-2, 7-6 (4) in the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships final.


Serena broke twice in the first set and lost just seven points on serve in her last match of the year. She looked sharper than Venus in every facet of a match that featured few long rallies and little of the spectacular tennis the two have provided in some of their previous meetings.

Serena sealed the match with a crosscourt forehand winner, and celebrated calmly with a simple fist pump before hugging her sister at the net.

"It feels great," said Serena, who also won the WTA Tour's season-ending event in 2001. "I totally didn't expect to come here and win."

It was Serena's fourth straight win over her sister. She also beat Venus in the round-robin stage of the Doha tournament, the Wimbledon final and the semifinals in Miami this year. She leads their head-to-head record 13-10.

"Playing a final against Venus is really tough," Serena said. "Even though she wasn't really feeling great, she kept hitting every ball back."

Serena earned $1.55 million for the win after finishing the event undefeated. She also clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking earlier this week after Dinara Safina of Russia pulled out injured in her first match.

The tournament featured the eight top-ranked women in the world divided into two groups, with the semifinalsts decided by a round-robin stage.

Venus lost two of her three round-robin matches but still advanced. The defending champion looked tired after rallying for a three-set win over Jelena Jankovic on Saturday, and each of her other group matches went three sets.

She played with her left knee strapped while Serena had strapping on her left thigh.

"It was the end of the season, so I have no complaints," Venus said about her fitness level. "You have to show up and play no matter what. So that had nothing to do with it."

Serena, who advanced after U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki retired injured in the semifinals, held five of her last seven service games at love and lost just one point in each of the other two.

It was her third tournament win of the season after Wimbledon and the Australian Open.

"I haven't won a tournament that wasn't a Grand Slam in a while, so that was even more exciting," she said. "My losing streak in (other) tournaments in over."

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As unlikely as it seemed in the beginning, American sisters Venus and Serena Williams will appear in yet another final, this one being that of the year-end Sony Ericsson Championships.

As defending champion, older sister Venus had a hard time sinking her teeth into this tournament and it was the actual performance of others in the Maroon Group, Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva, that allowed Venus to ascend to the semifinals.

Against Serbian Jelena Jankovic in Saturday's final, Venus came out strong but was not able to hold on to the first set. More consistent play and some impressive serving propelled Venus to a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 win.

Serena has literally sailed through the tournament undefeated and had no problem making her way to the final. The semifinal against Caroline Wozniacki even provided a little more breathing time as the high-spirited Dane retired at 6-4, 0-1.

For big fans of the sisters, such as myself, the title will remain in the family for at least another year.

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VIENNA -- Third-seeded Gael Monfils of France beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in a straight-set, first-round match Wednesday at the Bank Austria Tennis Trophy in Vienna.

Monfils, the tournament's 2008 runner-up, defeated his Spanish foe 7-5, 6-4, winning 79 percent of service points and hitting seven aces.

If Monfils, a Paris native, wins the Vienna event, he will earn 160 points in his effort to qualify for the season-ending men's singles final at London next month.

Monfils, provisional 16th, faces long odds to make it into one of the two spots remaining for the ATP World Tour Final starting November 22 in London. But he says the chase is the last thing on his mind as he competes at the event where he lost the 2008 final.

"I'm really not thinking about London, not at all. I'm more excited about maybe winning a title here after missing it last year.

"I hope to play well here and next week in Valencia - maybe I can grab the title in Bercy (Paris Masters), that would help."

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In what was one of the strangest retirements from a match that I've ever witnessed, on Wednesday at the Sony Ericsson Championships during a second round match between Russian Dinara Safina and Serbian Jelena Jankovic, a sobbing and clearly overwhelmed Dinara Safina simply began crying, walked over to the official, retired, shook her opponents hand and made her way off court. It was heart wrenching to see.

We were later informed that she had been struggling with a back injury for three months and had been taking cortisone injections.

Safina said she will be sidelined for at least six weeks and is struggling to compete in the opening grand slam of 2010 in Australia.

"My body just gave up. I did everything possible to play. I went to have a cortisone injection, but I couldn't handle the pain anymore," Safina told reporters.

Hopefully she will have a speedy recovery.

On the flip side, the woman that caused all kind of ruckus earlier this year when she stated "we all know who the real number one is, will indeed be the real world number 1, again, come Monday, November 2.

After playing a very tight match against big sister Venus, and then being asked if she knew that she would regain the number one ranking Serena said," It's a great feeling to be world number one, but I feel really sorry for Dinara. She's a great player and never gives up."

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LYON, France (AFP) — Top seed and home favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga squeezed past Kevin Kim and into the second round of the Lyon ATP event here Tuesday.

The unseeded American belied his 87th world ranking to give Tsonga a run for his money but the 2008 Australian Open finalist eventually prevailed 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/5).

The unexpectedly tight first round duel had the Gerland crowd captivated for an hour and a half.

In the second tie break Tsonga was trailing 5-3 but he managed to raise his game to close out the set and match.

The 24-year-old is aiming for his sixth career title and his fourth this season after wins in Japan, Johannesburg and Marseille.

Elsewhere Croatian third seed Ivan Ljubicic, who took the Lyon title in 2001, ended the hopes of Argentina's Martin Vassallo Arguello with a 6-3, 6-4 success.

Tsonga's compatriots enjoyed differing fortunes.

Veteran Fabrice Santoro, a winner here back in 1997, was knocked out by Spanish eighth seed Albert Montanes 6-4, 6-4, but Michael Llodra lives on after brushing aside Algerian Lamine Ouahab 6-1, 6-2.

Two qualifiers, France's David Guez and South African Kevin Anderson, respectively saw off Rajeev Ram of the United States and German Simon Greul to also make it into the second round.

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A picture is worth a thousand words, and the above photo says it all...

On Tuesday evening in Doha at the 2009 Sony Ericsson Championships, American sisters Venus and Serena Williams split the outcome of their round robin play down the middle... Venus lost and Serena won.

First up was Venus against Russian Elena Dementieva. During the first set Venus played beautifully and was in total control, it appeared that the outcome of Venus winning was a foregone conclusion. Wrong.

Somewhere mid second set, after being up a set and a break, Venus took her foot off of the gas, loaded up her game with errors and allowed Dementieva to breeze right on by her to set up a third and final set; the handwriting was already on the wall.

Dementieva came out even stronger in the third set and sealed the deal by defeating Venus 3-6, 7-6(6) 6-2 - very disheartening.

Serena Williams and Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova immediately followed that match and played in very different fashion. The two ladies were literally toe-to-toe until the very end. Serena was able to win critical points when necessary and came out the victor defeating Kuznetsova in straight sets 7-6, 6-5.

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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- Serena Williams is back on the U.S. Fed Cup team for the first time since 2007.

Surprise U.S. Open quarterfinalist Melanie Oudin is also on the roster announced Tuesday by the U.S. Tennis Association for the Nov. 7-8 final against host Italy.

Williams leads active women with 11 Grand Slam singles titles and is 4-0 in Fed Cup singles matches over her career. Her sister Venus is not on the team.

Top-ranked doubles player Liezel Huber and Alexa Glatch round out the roster.

U.S. captain Mary Joe Fernandez says she strongly believes her team can win the Fed Cup title, something the country hasn't done since 2000.

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