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OUR PROUD TRADITION Of EXCELLENCE DEFINES US
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AO Day 5: Monfils Exits, Williams Sisters Power Forward In Doubles

Friday, January 22, 2010

Black Tennis Pro's Gael Monfils vs Taylor Dent 2010 Australian OpenGael Monfils, France
(Photo by Getty Images)

Try as he may, Frenchman Gael Monfils was not able to raise his level of play sufficient to overcome the game of American John Isner. Isner barraged Monfils with 26 aces to pull off a 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6(7-5) upset.


Black Tennis Pro's Venus and Serena Williams Doubles 2010 Australian OpenVenus and Serena Williams, USA

American doubles team of Venus and Serena Williams continued there AO doubles success defeating Ioana Raluca Olaru of Roumania and Olga Savchuk of the Ukraine 6-1, 6-2 to advance to round three.

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American Raquel Kops-Jones, partnered with Great Britain's Sarah Borwell, did not enjoy the same success. They were knocked out by Argentine Gisela Dulko and Italy's Flavia Pennetta 7-5, 6-2.


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(PHOTOS) The Prince And The Grand Slam

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Black Tennis Pro's Prince William at the Australian OpenHis Royal Highness Prince William of Wales
(Photos by Getty Images)

While visiting Australia, the very dapper Prince William made an appearance at the Australian Open and took time to be photographed with various players.



Black Tennis Pro's Prince William and Serena Williams at the Australian OpenPrince William and American Serena Williams

Black Tennis Pro's Prince William and Roger Federer at the Australian OpenPrince Williams and Switzerland's Roger Federer

Black Tennis Pro's Prince William, Serena Williams and Oracene Price at the Australian Open(L-R) Serena's mom, Oracene Price, Prince William, and Serena

Black Tennis Pro's Prince William at the Australian Open


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AO Day 4: Three Up, One Down

Black Tennis Pro's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. Taylor Dent 2010 Australian OpenJo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA

Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has sent a powerful message to his opponents in his 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 win over American Taylor Dent on Thursday night at Hisense Arena.

Tsonga thumped 42 winners and had only 10 unforced errors in his 101-minute effort. For Dent, the stats weren’t as appealing, as he offered seven double faults and 33 unforced errors as he tried to keep the pace with his power-laden opponent.


Black Tennis Pro's Venus Williams vs. Sybille Bammer 2010 Australian OpenVenus Williams, USA

With a 6-2, 7-5 win over Austrian Sybille Bammer, American Venus Williams advanced to the third round. Venus hit 32 winners to Bammer’s four and seven aces to none.

Venus later commented that, "Playing two lefties in the first two rounds is a little unusual, but I was up for the challenge."

"She's a really good player and a really good athlete. Her game is a little bit different from most people, so you really have to be a little more patient because she's hitting a kind of a moonball almost.

"It's a little bit different, so I just had to just make sure I stayed on my rhythm -- I'm happy to be through."

Black Tennis Pro's Serena Williams vs Petra Kvitova 2010 Australian OpenSerena Williams, USA

Serena Williams did likewise by defeating Czech Petra Kvitova 6-2, 6-1 in just an hour and seven minutes. Post match Serena said, “I thought today was a little bit better than my match in my first round. I felt like I was moving better and I had better energy. I felt like I could have actually played a lot better today. She was definitely taking it to me, though. That was really good for me to play a lady like her.”


Black Tennis Pro's Donald Young vs Lleyton Hewitt 2010 Australian OpenDonald Young, USA

Donald Young's Australian Open hopes were cut short by Australia's Lleyton Hewitt in a 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 6-1 defeat. Young began the match very strong but was unable to match Hewitt's onslaught and the games as well as the match slowly slipped beyond anything he could muster to turn it around.

An early exit for Young, but after three rounds of qualifying and an impressive five-set victory in the first round, 2010 is already looking good.


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Venus And Serena Begin AO Doubles Campaign In Winning Williams Style

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Black Tennis Pro's Venus and Serena Williams 2010 Australian Open Doubles
Rarely do Serena and Venus Williams step onto the court without an air of purpose about them.


And although Margaret Court Arena may not be as significant a stage as Melbourne Park’s centre court, the No.2 seeds were no less hungry to open their women's doubles title defence with a win in front of a packed house.

Sadly, their Australian opponents Jess Moore and Sophie Ferguson were poorly matched against a pairing with 10 Grand Slam doubles titles – not to mention a few in singles as well.

The only real threat to the Williams sisters was Serena’s serve, with two double faults responsible for one of the two games they dropped during the match.

The packed crowd tried their best to lift the locals, but ultimately were left clutching at straws as Moore and Ferguson succumbed 6-1 6-1.

Luckily, there are still a number of Australians left in the draw – not to mention many of the top women in the game.


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AO Day 3: Monfils In, Blake Out, Young Does Press

Gael Monfils, France

France’s Gael Monfils didn’t show his best form in cruising past Croatia ‘s Antonio Veic 6-4, 6-4 6-4 in the second round. Next, he faces a much taller task in American John Isner.

Putting his various ailments behind him, the 12th seed played an athletic and fairly effective game behind the baseline match in besting the Croat, cranking big forehand winners when called upon to ice the contest.
“I’ve had two easy rounds, and that’s never happened to me at Grand Slam before.”

But Monfils, who is coached by Australian Roger Rasheed, wasn’t thrilled with his play.


“On a scale of 1 to 20, I would give myself a five,” he said. “Roger would probably give me a two. Against Isner, I’m planning on giving him a much better number.”


“He has a monster serve,” said Monfils. “It’s going to be really hard to return serve. If he’s serving well, it’s almost a bet as to whether I go left or right. I’m going to have to try and read his serve really well.”


James Blake, USA

I don't know what this exchange of glances on the sidelines was about, but there was definitely a fight happening on court. Blake was not able to topple Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro, who won the match 6-4, 6-7(3), 5-7, 6-3, 10-8, but he put up one hell of of a contest.

In the best match on the men’s side to date, del Potro had to come up with every shot in the book to repel the veteran American, who fought off one break point after another late in the fifth set in an attempt to pull off what could have been one of the most critical victories of his career.

“As soon as I let any ball sit up a little, he was taking it to me,” Blake said. “That’s my goal too, and I had chances at them and made some mistakes. That's the difference. You miss a couple balls and he’s moving on, and I'm not. But that’s why he won the US Open and is No. 4 in the world.”

“It’s tough to rank the [five set losses] but right now it hurts pretty bad,” said Blake. “I had plenty of messages from people back home who were up until 5 am watching me, and I don’t even want to respond to many. I just feel bad that they were up watching and are probably going to sleep a little disappointed. Luckily for me they will all be my friends tomorrow, which will help me get through after I stop beating myself up for a few hours or few days.”

That was an encouraging battle to watch, no disappointment here Blake.



Donald Young, USA

"Every match I played in the qualies, it seemed like they were rooting for the other guy, but this will just be at a totally different level, obviously," he said."I'll just have to go out there and play and imagine they're cheering my name."I've played a couple of pretty top players, but none like Lleyton here with the crowd. He's from here and they love him. (But) that's what you look for, you want to play these players."


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The "Early Bird Gets The Ring" Giveaway Begins Today!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Black Tennis Pro's Giveaway Serena Signature Collection
Black Tennis Pro's has the pleasure of being able to give some lucky winner one of the beautiful designs from Serena's Signature Collection. The item is the Famous Pavé Dome Lucky Ring. The very same ring that Serena is currently wearing at the Australian Open.

The substantial ring stuns with a freeform center station, glistening with a blanket of pavé-set, round clear CZs (approx. 1.5mm). The shoulders flaunt an intriguing appeal with an open, split design. Lending presence, the ring towers with a domed interior.



Simply leave a comment with your email address on this post during the first two hours of AO play each day (7 pm - 9 pm Eastern). Comments without an email address WILL NOT not be entered into the drawing.

Entry begins on Tuesday, January 19 at 7:00 p.m. and ends at 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 23. There will be a random drawing on Sunday January 24, and the winner will be announced on Monday, January 25.

GOOD LUCK!


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Australian Open Day 2: A Wealth Of Wins

Black Tennis Pro's Donald Young vs Christophe Rochus AO 2010Way to go Donald... great performance!

American Donald Young persevered in a four-set match with Belgium's Christophe Rochus that saw him down a set from the jump. Donald put it in gear though and took the next three sets with a win coming in at 1-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4.

Donald said “If he would have played the whole match the way he did that first set, he would have got me again. He couldn’t miss.”

After having come through the qualifying event to enter the main draw he states, “When I’m feeling good about myself, I play better, when I’m down I don’t play as well.”

Black Tennis Pro's Venus Williams vs Lucie Safarova AO 2010American Venus Williams cruised past Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic easily, defeating her her 6-2, 6-2. Post match Venus said, "I feel like I have so much left in my strings to accomplish, I love playing. I want to win each tournament I play. I want to win the majors, play doubles, and be in the Olympics."

Always being asked about age and retirement as she approaches 30 this year, of playing younger players Venus says,
"To be honest, when you're on the court, age doesn't matter. So far, I'm fast and strong and maintaining that is great."



Black Tennis Pro's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs Sergiy Stakhovsky AO 2010Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has continued his love affair with the Australian Open, sailing through to the second round after a straight-sets win over Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky on Hisense Arena on Tuesday.

The Frenchman, seeded No. 10, put on a powerful and athletic display that entertained the sizeable crowd. Showing no signs of the wrist injury that afflicted him in the lead-up to the tournament, he prevailed 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 51 minutes.


Black Tennis Pro's James Blake vs. Arnaud Clement AO 2010American James Blake continues to look like a man on a mission in his 7-5, 7-5, 6-2 defeat of Frenchman Arnaud Clement. Blake seems so much more poised and focused as he begins his 2010 campaign - impressive.

Blake himself is pleased with his current serve execution, “I only got broken once in three sets against a guy who puts so many returns in the court … a good feeling - got a few free points and served at a high percentage for me. I am pretty proud of the work we did on my serve in the off-season.


Black Tennis Pro's Serena Williams vs. Urszula Radwanska AO 2010American Serena Williams made quick work of her first opponent, Poland's Urszula Radwanska who also has a big sister on the tour (Agnieszka). Serena pummled Radwanswka for a little over an hour to arrive at a decisive 6-2, 6-1 victory.

“I was happy to get through,” Serena said. “The scoreline seemed to be easy, but there were tough points. So I was just happy to get it over with.

“She plays really well. I think her game has definitely come on. I feel like she's more consistent. You know, it's a different score than Wimbledon, but still I think that she's more consistent and a little better ‑ a lot better.”


Black Tennis Pro's Gael Monfils vs. Matthew Ebden AO 2010Frenchman Gael Monfils completed his rain-delayed match against Australian Matthew Ebden, winning the match 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.


Black Tennis Pro's Shenay Perry vs. Ana Ivanovic AO 2010American Shenay Perry was unable to find a solution for her match with Serbian Ana Ivanovic. She was defeated 2-6, 3-6.


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Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: Celebrate The Legacy, Be Of Service

Monday, January 18, 2010

Black Tennis Pro's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2010January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."


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