Black Tennis Pros

Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament that schedules a day off on the middle Sunday -- and the only one that puts all 16 men's and women's fourth-round matches on the second Monday.

This gives the viewers/attendees/listeners a day off too - happy to have it. I'll be ready for action again on Monday.

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Ladies' Singles 4th Round

Venus Williams, USA (23) vs. Svetana Pironkova, BUL (32)

Serena Williams, USA (7) vs. Marion Bartoli, FRA (9)



Gentlemen's Singles - 4th Round

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA (12) vs. David Ferrer, ESP (7)



Ladies' Doubles - 2nd Round

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA and Abigail Spears, USA
vs.
Cara Black, ZIM (14) and Shahar Peer, ISR (14)

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Ladies' Singles 3rd Round

Serena Williams, USA (7) defeated Maria Kirilenko, RUS (26)


Gentlemen's Singles - 3rd Round

Gael Monfils, FRA defeated by Lukasz Kubot, POL

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA (12) defeated Fernando Gonzalez, CHI


Ladies' Doubles - 1st Round

Heather Watson, GBR and Jocelyn Rae, GBR
Sophie Lefevre, FRA and Evgeniya Rodina, RUS


Mixed Doubles - 1st Round

Heather Watson, GBR and Ross Hutchins, GBR
Rennae Stubbs, AUS and Marcelo Melo, BRA

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA and Wesley Moodie, RSA
Alicja Rosolska, POL and Rogier Wassen, NED

Dustin Brown, GER and Vania King, USA
Elena Baltacha, GBR and Kenneth Skupski, GBR

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WIMBLEDON, England -- Serena Williams has been known to say she isn't satisfied with this or that aspect of her game, even after easily winning a match, say, 6-3, 6-2.

So it was somehow refreshing to hear Williams actually praise herself after a victory by that very score over 26th-seeded Maria Kirilenko at Wimbledon on Saturday.

Yes, only five matches since returning to the tour after nearly a full year off because of a series of health scares, Williams produced a performance worthy of the 13-time Grand Slam champion that she is. And then Williams talked the talk of someone finally ready to concede that British bookmakers might very well have been right to make her the pre-tournament favorite.

Asked whether she was surprised by the odds, the seventh-seeded American smiled widely and said: "I wouldn't bet against me."

After hitting 10 aces and compiling a 32-9 edge in winners against Kirilenko, Williams termed the showing her "best I've played since I came back."

"I was a little more consistent, and I played mygame more," said Williams, trying to become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1991-93 to win three consecutive Wimbledon titles. "Wasn't as tight and nervous and uptight. I was able to relax more today."


She was part of a parade of past champions who breezed into the fourth round Saturday, joined by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova, who all were straight-set winners, too. Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, seeking her first Grand Slam title, and two-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, who is now 44-1 in 2011, also moved on.

Serena explained she'd been playing tentatively until Saturday.

"You're always thinking, 'I can get hurt again.' You just kind of have to let those thoughts go or anything could happen," Williams said. "And I wasn't thinking that at all today. It was just a big difference."

On Monday, she'll face 2007 runner-up Marion Bartoli. Other fourth-round women's matches include Williams' older sister Venus vs. No. 32 Tsvetana Pironkova, who upset the five-time Wimbledon champion a year ago; Wozniacki vs. No. 24 Dominika Cibulkova; and Sharapova vs. No. 20 Peng Shuai.

After beating Kirilenko -- her first straight-set victory in five matches since returning -- Williams revealed another, if less serious, mishap from her annus horribilis: She scraped her right shoulder and face when she fell off her pink bicycle during a ride near her home in Florida in October.


"I'm thinking, 'Oh, nooooooo,"' Williams recounted, as though replaying her words in slow motion. "All I thought was, 'Don't fall on my face. Don't fall on my face.' When I fell on my face, I was like, 'No!"'
Since then, she's been sticking to stationary bikes.

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Britain's Heather Watson and Ross Hutchins celebrate after their 6-7(5), 6-3, 8-6 round 1 Mixed Doubles win over Marcelo Melo, Brazil and Rennae Stubbs, Australia.

The partners both Tweeted about their win:

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Wimbledon is a happy place this fortnight, if your name is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The 26-year-old Frenchman has smiled his way through the first three rounds, apparently unperturbed by the small troubles life may put in his way.

He breezed his way to another contented win over the Chilean Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 and those who like their tennis quick will have relished this encounter as much as the No.12 seed himself. The entire joust was done in an economical 84 minutes.

In fact, parts of this match were so brisk, they verged on the bizarre. Neither of these two players is a chap to linger over personal pre-service rituals, with the result that the first set lasted 22 minutes, and it wasn't as if it was a whitewash. It was just that rallies on Tsonga's serve were a bit of a rarity and, besides, he had the necessary break in the bag at 3-1.

For those watching on No.2 Court, the constant risk was that they might sneeze at the wrong moment and find that they had missed some crucial passage of play. Glancing away for 10 seconds could leave spectators wondering how they missed half the set.

Tsonga, whose best Wimbledon was last year when he reached the quarter-finals, arrived at SW19 this fortnight with mixed form on grass. On the one hand, he brought the encouragement of being runner-up to Andy Murray at Queen's earlier this month; on the other, he followed it by losing to Radek Stepanek in the second round at Eastbourne.

As for 30-year-old Gonzalez, this was his first Grand Slam tournament since retiring in the first round of last autumn's US Open with a knee injury, itself caused by a previous hip injury dating back a further year. His ranking coming into Wimbledon was 478, and he made it into the main draw on a protected ranking because of this prolonged period out through injury. He did well to reach the third round, beating the No.22 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov in the first round.

At the start of the second set, Tsonga had the Chilean racing all over the court. He easily commanded three break points for 2-1 and converted the first as a matter of course. The next game was not atypical of the entire match. Tsonga served three aces, made one unforced error, and then made it a quartet of aces for good measure.

Umpire Fergus Murphy barely had time to announce the score in his trademark musical delivery before it was out of date and he was on to the next. At 5-3, Tsonga had two openings to break again and take the set, but in the event was obliged to cool his heels and serve it out.

Gonzalez had his chances, not least three opportunities to break early in the third set. But each time Tsonga dug his way out of the hole. Instead it was the Frenchman who broke in the next game, courtesy of a wild Gonzalez forehand at the net.

It was the same pattern as the set before, but this time when Tsonga had the chance to break again, it was to secure the win, and he took it. Even Gonzalez smiled back at Tsonga at the net.

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Lukasz Kubot, Poland

Gael Monfils was dumped out of Wimbledon before the second week for the fifth time in five appearances, losing his third-round encounter against Lukasz Kubot of Poland, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3

The athletic Frenchman, who has achieved a Wimbledon-best three third rounds at The Championships since his first appearance in 2005, returned to No. 3 Court after his match against Kubot was delayed overnight after yesterday's rain interruption.

But although he had been recuperating some form during the match, recovering from a set down against the tricky Pole, the momentum all came tumbling down the wrong way. Dropping the third set 6-3, things went from bad to worse as Monfils, the former junior world No.1, fell 4-1 behind in the fourth set.

Unable to redeem the break, it was simple business for the Pole to serve out the match in four sets, and progress to only his second fourth round at a Grand Slam.

Despite producing less unforced errors and more aces than his opponent, it was Kubot's staggering 50 winners that cost the Frenchman dear, and also Monfils' inability to convert break points when he had the opportunity, managing just three out of nine.

Kubot will next meet Feliciano Lopez in the fourth round on Monday, the winner going through to meet either Andy Murray or Richard Gasquet in the quarter-finals.

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Ladies' Singles 3rd Round

Serena Williams, USA (7) vs. Maria Kirilenko, RUS (26)


Gentlemen's Singles - 3rd Round

Gael Monfils, FRA vs. Lukasz Kubot, POL

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA (12) vs. Fernando Gonzalez, CHI


Ladies' Doubles - 1st Round

Heather Watson, GBR and Jocelyn Rae, GBR
vs.
Sophie Lefevre, FRA and Evgeniya Rodina, RUS


Mixed Doubles - 1st Round

Heather Watson, GBR and Ross Hutchins, GBR
vs.
Rennae Stubbs, AUS and Marcelo Melo, BRA

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA and Wesley Moodie, RSA
vs.
Dominika Cibulkova, SVK and Lukas Dlouhy, CZE

Dustin Brown, GER and Vania King, USA
vs.
Elena Baltacha, GBR and Kenneth Skupski, GBR

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