Black Tennis Report for August

BLACK TENNIS REPORT (AUGUST 2006)
2005 Wimbledon champion (30)VenusWilliams has withdrawn from the 2006 US Open due to a lingering wrist injury. She hasn't played a WTA Tour match since her 3rd round loss to Jelena Jankovic at Wimbledon.

Serena Williams won her second round match against (17)Daniela Hantuchova.

(5)James Blake won his first round match against Juan Monaco.

Chandra Rubin lost her first round match against (9)Nicole Vaidisova.

Shenay Perry lost her first round match against Eleni Danilidou.

(27)Gael Monfils lost his second round match to Wesley Moodie. (Maybe it's the hair?)

I may have a second special US Open edition of Black Tennis Report after my trip to the US Open next week. I have tickets for the Monday Labor Day session and Tuesday September 6.

At the JP Morgan Chase Open in Los Angeles, Mad Professah attended Serena's Round of 16 match against Daniela Hantuchova and blogged it extensively. Serena came back from 1-6, 0-1 down to win the match 1-6, 6-3, 6-3. She then played another epic 3-set match against Meghan Shaunessey in the quarterfinals which she won. In the semifinals Serena was blasted off the court in straight sets by the hard hitting Jelena Jankovic. The tournament ended up being won by Elena Dementieva.

Since James Blake earned the #5 ranking in the World he has not won a single tournament. He lost to Marat Safin in Washington, D.C. and he lost to Juan Carlos Ferrero in Cincinnati. He also failed to defend his title at the Pilot Pen tournament right outside his hometown of Fairfield, CT by losing to Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo in a third set tie break 2-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(4) after having service break leads in boththe second and third sets. Hopefully the jinx will end at the 2006 US Open, the site of last year's instant classic quarterfinal match against Andre Agassi as well as his dismissal of World #2 Rafael Nadal.