Black tennis players

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Everyone had the same question when the Australian Open draw was revealed: What were the odds that Coco Gauff and Venus Williams would face each other again in the first round at a Grand Slam tournament? “I was a bit shocked,” Gauff said, “I’m sure everyone was a bit shocked.” SIGN […]

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — A tennis club for African American players that hosted International Tennis Hall of Famers Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe is being honored with a historic marker. The marker will be dedicated Thursday at the site where the Algonquin Tennis Club was created in 1922 by the American Tennis Association, which was […]

NEW YORK (AP) : Sloane Stephens knocked off 2014 Australian Open runner-up Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 to reach the third round of the U.S. Open. Stephens is a 24-year-old American who is ranked only 83rd after going 11 months without entering a tournament because of an injured left foot that required surgery. She returned […]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Tennis star Serena Williams should file a police report after she said someone tried to steal her cellphone at a restaurant, San Francisco police said Thursday. Officer Grace Gatpandan said police would like to know if they are dealing with a serial cellphone thief. Williams said on her Facebook page that […]

  This week in 1992, tennis great Arthur Ashe became a champion both on the court and off when the legendary athlete announced he was stricken with the AIDS virus. Flanked by his wife, Jeanne Moutoussamy Ashe, Ashe bravely stood in front of the media on April 8 of that year and promised to combat […]

In the movie Wedding Crashers Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson crash weddings to pick up women. In real life, celebrities go to fabulous places and sometimes, they run across people getting married. In the latest edition of Celebrity Wedding Crashers, a couple taking pic on Miami Beach ran into none other than Serena Willliams and her […]

PARIS (AP) — Instead of looking forward to playing each other this week at the French Open, Serena and Venus Williams will both be heading home early. The American sisters both lost in the second round on Wednesday, each being outplayed by little known opponents at Roland Garros. Serena, the defending French Open champion and […]

Robert “Whirlwind” Johnson is considered the Godfather of Black Tennis. The Lynchburg, Virginia physician was a tennis master who taught black tennis champions. Johnson’s sports career began at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he was an All-American running back. It was at Lincoln that he earned the nickname “Whirlwind” for his speed on the field. […]