Black Tennis Pros

Marseille France - Big-hitting second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga hammered 19 aces in a 7-6(9), 6-4 win over fellow Frenchman Josselin Ouanna to reach the quarter-finals of the Open 13, an ATP World Tour 250 indoor hard-court tennis tournament in Marseille.

Tsonga dropped just five points on his first serve and did not face a break point. Playing just his second tournament of the year – and first match since his semi-final run at the Australian Open – Tsonga advanced to meet Belgian Olivier Rochus. Tsonga had a bye in the first round.


No. 3 seed Gael Monfils blistered 18 aces before taking the win over Italian Andreas Seppi 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 7-6 (7-3). Monfils will now face off against fellow Frenchman Julien Benneteau in the quarters.

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DUBAI (AFP) - Venus Williams will have to play her semi-final in the two-million-dollar WTA Dubai Open on a distant outside court on Friday after beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-4 in the last eight here.

That is because the defense of her title has carried her to a meeting with Shahar Peer, the first Israeli ever to compete in the United Arab Emirates, who has been playing her matches on a low-profile court where security is more manageable.

It means that many of the 5,000 fans who have pre-booked centre court tickets in the hope of seeing one or more of the the world's best known players will be unable to do so, because the five-time former Wimbledon champion will be on a faraway court out by the trees and the shops.

"I guess I just want what is best for everyone," said Williams, after admitting that it was a long time since she had been scheduled to play on such a minor court. "And if this is the best decision then I support it."

Williams looked as though she might have a spot of bother when she went 1-3 down in the first set to an 18-year-old former world junior champion, who hit the ball like an express train and had the titleholder scrambling to contain her early on.

But the match changed mood after Pavlyuchenkova served a double fault in the sixth game and then played an indifferent point at 30-40 to allow a Williams break back.

It led to the champion taking six matches in a row and gaining such a hold on the match that she accelerated to 4-2 in the second set, with the teenager's error ratio rising to self-destructive levels.

However the potential danger of the fierce-hitting young Russian's game showed itself again near the end, when she began to put Williams under more consistent pressure again with raking drives.

Pavlyuchenkova even looked capable of breaking back in the final game, and Williams needed fully seven match points before she closed it out with a heavy service winner.

Earlier Peer scored her third victory over a seeded player, reaching the semis when Li Na retired after "suddenly feeling a click" in her back early in the second set.

Peer's 7-5, 3-0 success over the Australian Open semi-finalist nevertheless looked like a genuine victory, based again on tremendous consistency, rhythmic and varied driving, tenacious mobility and intense focus.

Needless to say, she wouldn't be phased by where she plays.

"I'm the only player that hasn't played on centre court," she said. "But whatever will be, will be. I'm not controlling it. I'm doing what I've been told, and wherever I need to play, I'll play on."

Asked if it would be a disadvantage if she reaches a final on centre court not once having played there, Peer answered: "I guess not, because I am winning. But you know I'm doing what I've been told. I'm not involved in the schedule.

"I just get it when my coach tells me where I'm playing, and I'm getting ready for the match."

Similarly Williams wouldn't admit to any disadvantage for her match on Friday, which will be the first time she has played away from the centre court this week.

"I am just focused on the semi-final and executing my game," she said.

"I have practiced out there before, but I have not played a match out there before. I will obviously try to make the experience I have gained from all these years count for me."

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Top-seeded Andy Roddick snapped a three-match losing streak to fellow American James Blake with a 6-3, 4-6. 7-6 (3) victory in the first round of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships on Wednesday night.

"We've played so many times, and he's beaten me, that there's going to be a sense of belief that most guys ranked 60th in the world probably aren't going to have as much as he has against me," Roddick said.

Blake, actually ranked 55th, broke Roddick's serve in the 10th game of the third set to pull even at 5-5. Both then held serve sending the match to the tiebreaker.

He went up in the tiebreaker when he broke serve on the fourth point as Blake hit a backhand wide down the line. Blake would end up with three unforced errors off the backhand in the tiebreaker.

"Whoever won was going to be pretty darn well-prepared for the rest of the tournament and feel good about their chances," Blake said. "It's tough to swallow.

"It just didn't go my way on a couple of points," Blake said of the tiebreaker. "A couple of missed backhands, and he kept the pressure on me the whole time."

As usual, Roddick used a strong serve, recording 22 aces and converting 75 percent of his first serves.

"I served well in the tiebreaker," Roddick said. "I served smart in the tiebreaker."

Roddick, the defending champion, was the only one of the top four seeds in the tournament to make it out of the first round. No. 2 seed Fernando Verdasco lost Tuesday night.

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This Black History Month perspective is the first of a three-part article written by Bob Davis whom you will meet, and on some level come to know, through the words of his writing.

Slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865. Nearly 15 years later, in 1880, the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) was founded (The name was later changed to USTA). Tennis was the dominion of the white, upper class and Blacks were neither interested, nor invited to participate. Segregation was rampant throughout America and an attitude of exclusion was pervasive in most areas of American society.

Blacks began to surface on tennis courts in about 1890 at Tuskegee Institute. Booker T. Washington, one of America’s great, black visionaries and leaders, founded Tuskegee. In his famous Atlanta Address of 1895, Booker T. Washington set forth the motivating spirit behind Tuskegee Institute. In a post Reconstruction era marked by growing segregation and disfranchisement of blacks, this spirit was based on what realistically might be achieved in that time and place. "The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now," he observed, "is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera house." Because of Washington's extraordinary ability to work within the system and to maximize the possible, Tuskegee flourished to the extent only dreamed about when he met his first students on July 4, 1881.

By 1898, Blacks began to have inter-club matches with rival black clubs in New York, Philadelphia and a variety of other eastern seaboard cities. These inter-club rivalries were primarily networking opportunities; occasions for the black, college-graduated elite to commune with their colleagues from other cities. This group of clubs eventually grew in number until an organizational structure was needed. In 1916, the American Tennis Association (ATA) was created as the governing body of Black tennis in America. In the fifty years since slavery was abolished, 80% of the Black population became educated. Nearly 4 million people came out of slavery as legislated illiterates and by 1915, an elite middle-class had been formed. By today’s standards, this is a phenomenal accomplishment. When one considers the growing rate of illiteracy across America, illiteracy that transcends racial lines, we should look at this statistic with awe and wonder!

In any event, it was this continuing attitude of separation that caused a group of black professionals to form the American Tennis Association (ATA) in 1916. The primary mission of the ATA was the formation of a circuit of black clubs and tournaments across the country. This new organization permitted the black elite to travel from city to city, network amongst their peers and enjoy the game of tennis. These separate but unequal tennis societies continued without conflict for nearly 25 years. While blacks enjoyed the social and the networking opportunities provided by the ATA, the USLTA enjoyed the pristine, private, country club environment that offered the same opportunities to it’s constituency.

In many ways, this elite Black society was born of necessity. Blacks were determined to do for themselves what the segregated governing society refused to do for them. Significantly, these elite middle-class Blacks were graduates of Black colleges and universities and were educated in the Arts and Sciences. They became doctors, lawyers and educators and, because there was no access to professional sports at that time, went to college to develop the foundations for lifetime careers.

And so, Black business – and Black tennis flourished during the first quarter of the twentieth century. The ATA held its first national championship in 1917 in Baltimore, MD. Tally Holmes and Lucy Slowe emerged as the winners of that historic event. It was obvious that the ATA had gotten off to a resounding start and now emphasis was being placed on increasing the number of new clubs and the creation of junior development programs. By the mid-1930’s there were more than 100 member-clubs, many of them private, black-owned tennis and golf country clubs. This idyllic serenity was about to undergo a change as players began to improve and the desire to compete at the highest levels of the sport took on greater importance. The very first confrontation came in 1929 when Reginald Weir and Gerald Norman were denied entry into the National Indoors in New York City. Both paid their entry fees, but upon presenting themselves to play in the event, were denied the opportunity to participate. Formal complaints were filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the following response was received from the USLTA: “….the policy of the USLTA has been to decline the entry of colored players in our championships… In pursuing this policy we make no reflection upon the colored race but we believe that as a practical matter, the present methods of separate associations should be continued.” Neither Weir nor Norman were permitted to play, but it was now clear that the cauldron was being stirred.



Bob Davis currently owns and operates Coastal Tennis and Sports, LLC in Bradenton, Florida.

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DUBAI — Venus Williams' bid to hang on to one of her two remaining titles made a reassuring start as she quashed the challenge of one of the tour's brightest young hopes to reach the last 16 of the Dubai Open.

The defending champion's 6-2, 6-3 win over Sabine Lisicki, the 20-year-old Wimbledon quarter-finalist, contained consistent serving, well-timed increases in pressure, and a conspicuously tight focus.

A good week here is important for the five-time Wimbledon champion's belief that, approaching her 30th birthday, she remains capable of winning more majors, and that need showed in the quality of her performance.

There was only one brief moment when it seemed that the hard-hitting but variable German might find sufficient control to get into the match - when she played a brilliant game to break Williams' serve for the only time, and edge up to 3-4 in the second set.

Williams responded immediately, applying extra pressure on her returns to break Lisicki's delivery a fourth time, then smartly closing out the match for the loss of only a point.

She had been put through her paces robustly by her father Richard, before the match, and it appeared to have helped.

"I still try to listen to him," she said, smiling, "and not to rebel against what he says."

The champion's sharp start earned her a meeting with Belarus' Olga Govertsova, a surprise survivor who is coached by her brother, and who brought down the 14th seeded Italian, Francesca Schiavone, in straight sets.

If Williams gets past that as she should, she could go on to a semi-final with the top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Venus Williams is intent on winning more tournaments in 2010 than her two titles last year and plans to start by retaining the Dubai Tennis Championship.

Williams won back-to-back events in Dubai and Acapulco in 2009 but then lost in the final at Wimbledon, Stanford and the season-ending WTA Tour Championship in Doha.

The American has won five Wimbledon titles, the last in 2008, but hasn't won any other major since the 2001 U.S. Open.

"I may not have won many tournaments but I came close to winning a couple of big ones last year," Williams said. "Obviously, I go into each tournament wanting to win. And I am aware that I haven't won a Grand Slam tournament, apart from Wimbledon, for some time."

Williams, seeded third for the Dubai tournament, will be without her younger sister with top-ranked Serena Williams skipping the event due to an injured leg. Second-ranked Dinara Safina of Russia has also withdrawn from the tournament, which starts Monday.

"Obviously, I miss her here and the tournament misses a player as successful as her, but once I step on the court I am completely focused on my game," Williams said. "The field is really strong. Obviously, a couple of top players are missing because of injuries, but the rest of us are playing very good tennis and it should be a fascinating week.

"I am just happy to win last year and I just want to add another title. I am looking forward to getting back on the court."

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On Friday, February 6, American Serena Williams pulled out of the Paris Open because of a leg injury. This injury and her inability to play comes as no surprise to anyone who watched her win her fifth Australian Open last month in spite of having her leg and other places heavily taped.

At the Paris Open on Wednesday, Russian Elena Dementieva spoke about Serena's absence.

"It's very disappointing for the tournament because she is a great player."

"We have had some great matches. I always like to play against her. It is a great experience. But you saw her in Australia with all that taping on her leg and she still produced a great win.

"So it is not surprising that she isn't here -- especially as she is always playing to win a tournament and pushing herself."

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