Black Tennis Pros

The USTA announced the launch of the US Open National Playoffs, which will expand the footprint of the US Open and provide the opportunity for all players 14 years of age and older to earn a wild card into the 2010 US Open Qualifying Tournament. The US Open National Playoffs begins with 16 sectional qualifying tournaments held throughout the country from April through June. The men’s and women’s champions from each of the sectional qualifying tournaments advance to the US Open National Playoffs – Men’s and Women’s Championships, which will be held in conjunction with Olympus US Open Series tournaments this summer.

“The US Open National Playoffs makes the US Open ‘open,’ where one woman and one man will earn a wild card into the US Open Qualifying Tournament and a chance to advance to the main draw,” said Lucy Garvin, Chairman of the Board and President, USTA. “The fact that the US Open National Playoffs are supported by qualifying tournaments run by our sections makes this event even more unique, extending the reach of the US Open across the country.”

With the goal of connecting more people to the US Open and expanding the tournament’s reach to communities throughout the United States, players will compete in sectional qualifying tournaments hosted by 16 of the 17 USTA Sections nationwide.

The entry fee for each of the sectional qualifying tournaments is $125. All players competing must have a current USTA membership valid through August 30, 2010. Competitors can enter any of the 16 sectional qualifying tournaments, but they can only enter and compete in one sectional qualifying tournament. Each sectional qualifying tournament is limited to 256 players, and players will not be seeded by any means. Participants can be of any playing level, from aspiring novice to seasoned professional, giving everyone an equal opportunity to advance.

“While professionals are eligible to play, we expect the draws to be filled with top junior players, collegians, teaching professionals and even recreational players who will now have a chance to play themselves into the US Open for the first time,” said Jim Curley, Chief Professional Tournaments Officer & US Open Tournament Director.

Skier Bode Miller, a two-time overall World Cup champion, two-time Olympic silver medalist and three-time world champion, will compete in one of the sectional qualifying tournaments.

“Tennis has always been a part of my life,” said Miller, who won the 1996 Maine state singles title for Carrabassett Valley Academy and whose family owns the Tamarack Tennis Camp in Easton, N.H., which was founded by his grandparents. “The US Open National Playoffs is a great concept, and I look forward to playing in one of the sectional qualifying tournaments this spring. It will give me an outlet to focus my competitiveness after the Olympics and World Cup season.”

Entry information and a schedule of US Open National Playoffs Sectional Qualifying Tournaments are available online at www.usopen.org. Registration begins February 1.

The US Open Qualifying Tournament will be held August 24-27 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.

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In a real display of mind over matter, the heavily bandaged and obviously fatigued World No. 1 Serena Williams pressed on to a straight sets victory in Thursday's semifinal match against Li Na of China. Talk about the walking wounded!

The hallmark of this champion is without question fortitude. Clearly bandaged, admittedly not in her best form and playing doubles with sister Venus as well, has presented a challenge to the younger Williams sister that few could meet. Yet Serena continues to not only show up and press on... she's winning.

One day after a hard-fought comeback win that sent Belarusian Victoria Azarenka home, Serena steadied herself and her game sufficient to dismiss the woman who defeated sister Venus the previous day.

Taking the match 7-6(4), 7-6(1), Serena toiled against the very fit shot making Li Na who should have won the match given her opponents limitations. As the match went on Serena seemed to be encouraged and strengthened by her ability to hang into the match. By the end she was pumped and ready for whatever came across the net.

After her inspiring performance Serena said, "I am happy I was able to pull it out, it was really close. I wasn't at my best today but I'm still here, which is shocking, and I'm just going to do whatever I can to stay."

A few hours afterwards Serena joined sister Venus for their doubles semifinal match against American Lisa Raymond and Australian Rennae Stubbs. The sisters defeated the ladies 6-3, 7-6(8/6) and set up a final against American Liezel Huber and Zimbabwe's Cara Black, the same team they met in 2009's final.

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Let's start with one of my favorite Americans, Venus Williams... it was such a rough day at the office, to say the least, for her and her fans. Venus came out and whipped all kinds of tennis beat down on China's Li Na in the first set, to the tune of 6-2, it was merciless.

At the end of that set it pretty much became a foregone conclusion that Venus would more than likely be headed for a meeting with younger sis Serena in the semifinals. Then, the very weird and strange occurred, the second set.

Somehow, someway... Venus managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, it was an unbelievable spectacle. Not only did her game fall apart right before our very eyes, Li Na was playing like she had just discovered tennis also. And yet she... won? With a score of 2-6, 7-6(7/4), 6-2 Li Na joined the elite of the grand slam semifinal.

There was truly no real winner of this match, only an outcome, it was depressing. Somebody please cue up the song "Mama said there'll be days like this..."

It was so difficult to watch Venus so out of sorts in an element of her life where she knows such perfection.

Post match Venus said that it was a bit early to really make a determination of what went wrong, but when asked about returning she stated, “Absolutely [I’ll be back]. I really love this tournament ... Like I said so many times before, if I would have, you know, kind of gotten involved in what people said I would have never left the ghetto. So here I am playing pro tennis, playing well. The sky's the limit in this sport.”



Next up was American Serena Williams who very unfortunately appeared to be continuing what big sister Venus started, defeat. Although there was a very distinct difference in the matches. Serena's opponent, Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, came to play. Unlike Li Na, Azarenka's game was on point and taken to Serena with everything necessary from the onset. Azarenka was a real force in the first and second sets, so long as Serena didn't utilize her super powers.

Down a set at 4-6 and 0-4 in the second set as well, it looked as if the Williams sisters were history at the 2010 Australian Open. And then, unfortunately for Azarenka, Serena opted to use her super powers: conviction, iron will and absolute refusal to go down without a fight.

Once invoked, we saw Serena turn Azarenka's well-earned lead slowly chipped away until Serena had taken the second set in a tie-break. We all knew that it all over for Azarenka at that point. Primarly because we've seen Serena do this time and time and time again. It was a thing of beauty.

In the post match interview Serena said, “I’m surprised. I’m just happy to still be here. I didn’t expect to win when it was 0-4. I was like, ‘oh well, at least I’m still in the doubles’.”

When asked about Venus's loss she said, "Yeah, I just try not to think about it too much. It was obviously on my mind. Just tried to do what I could ... obviously I was incredibly disappointed. Yeah, just try not to deal with it."


What can you say, what can you say, what can you say? Tsongaaaaaaaaaaa!

Wow... what a performance, and boy did we need it after the first three quarterfinal matches. This lived up to every expectation and more. Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Serbian Novak Djokovic provided a well contested, great shot making, fabulous rallies, down to the wire match - great stuff.

In a re-match of the Australian Open 2008 final – which Djokovic won in four sets – Tsonga recovered from a disastrous third set before gaining confidence against his increasingly ragged opponent, triumphing in five sets for the second match in a row by a scoreline of 7-6(8), 6-7(5) 1-6, 6-3, 6-1.


Speaking on court after the match, Tsonga said that he felt like he could keep going. “I think I was just in a good form, I might be better than him (in the end). He played unbelievable in three first sets, he was amazing. Finally I won, and I am happy with that.”

Tsonga will take on world No. 1 Roger Federer in the semi-finals after the Swiss champion ousted No. 6 seed Nikolay Davydenko in four sets earlier on Wednesday. Tsonga said he was hoping to use the crowd’s energy to assist him during the daunting assignment.

“Yeah, I will be ready, I hope you (the crowd) will cheer for me a bit,” he joked.

“It’s going to be tough, because he’s the best player ever.”

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Congratulations!

Black Tennis Pro's is happy to announce Philip Pugh of Lewisville, Texas as the winner of the "Early Bird Gets The Ring" Giveaway; Philip's name was drawn in a random drawing held on Sunday, January 24.

As stated in the promotion, he will receive the very beautiful Famous Pavé Dome Lucky Ring from the Serena Signature Collection.

Thank you for participating Philip!

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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.



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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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.


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."

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.”



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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