Sports fans and the athletes they worship are all about records being set, broken and re-written.
If you don’t believe me, you’ve clearly forgotten about Roger Federer and his fancy “15” jump suit that was displayed in all its glory last year at Wimbledon when he broke Pete Sampras’ Grand Slam record.
More often than not in sports, it’s hard to justify that the person with the most of anything is therefore the best. Pete Rose is baseball’s all-time hit leader with 4,256. Even before he was revealed as a gambling sociopath, there was no one alive who thought that Rose, a .303 lifetime hitter, was better with a bat than Ty Cobb, who finished second in hits (4,191) but first in batting average (.366).
The same holds true in football, where Emmitt Smith is the all-time rushing leader with 18,355 yards. Saying that Smith was a better running back than Walter Payton or Jim Brown however will get you laughed out of any sports bar in the country. To my point, I give you Bob and Mike Bryan, who won the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles on Sunday for their 62nd tour-level doubles title, breaking the previous record of 61 held by Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde.
The audience that pays close attention to doubles tennis is minimal. If the Bryans weren’t good-looking, personable American twins, the attention to their record chase would rate about an eight-second mention in the 59th minute of your morning hour-long SportsCenter.
The doubles tour is to the singles tour as Arena League Football is to the NFL. Yes, they’re playing approximately the same sport, but it’s not the top level of competition. If I’m channel-surfing, I might watch 15 minutes of it at midnight, but there’s no chance in hell I will ever DVR it.
Simply put, the best players on earth don’t play doubles regularly. Other than Jurgen Melzer, that’s not a single player in the ATP Top 30 doubles rankings who is also in the Top 30 singles. That’s not the Bryans’ fault as they can’t control who plays and who doesn’t. But it definitely waters down the “impressive achievement level” when there’s no Nadal, Federer or Roddick on the other side And where’s the Grand Slam dominance gone?
The Bryans have won the Australian Open each of the past two years, but fallen short at the other three Slams regularly. They haven’t won the French since 2003 and failed at Wimbledon since 2006.
With the twins now 32 years old, the window of opportunity should start closing bit by bit. Skipping a few lesser tournaments in the years to come to focus on shoring up their Grand Slam winning percentage is the key to giving themselves a true legacy past just a number.

Just because Serena Williams didn't want to fork over the exorbitant price of $100 for a ticket to the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles last week -- and oh by the way, proportionately that's like a person who makes $40,000 a year barking about paying 93 cents -- doesn't meant there weren't plenty of celebrities spotted in the crowd.

Other sports luminaries, including Boston Celtic warrior Kevin Garnett visited with James Blake after his second-round victory. Garnett, whose squad lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals six weeks ago, obviously didn't mind a trip into enemy territory.




Also on hand from the world of sports was all*-time* home* run* champion* Barry* Bonds*.  While Bonds' head appears to have shrunk roughly 40% from the height of his alleged steroid abuse, it was nice to see a California guy come out to take in the best of the net game.



The world of music was represented at the tournament by Bush lead guitarist Gavin Rossdale, himself a 4.5 singles player, and the United Federation of Planets provided shore leave for James Tiberius Kirk (aka William Shatner) to get in a little downtime.




Got pics or stories from celebrities you've encountered at tennis tournaments? Share it with us in our forums!

“I definitely get angry at myself, frustrated at myself. … I’m a competitor. I’m going to want to win everything I play, whether it’s tennis, golf, cards, checkers, chess. Anything. I want to win. So if I’m not winning, I’m getting frustrated.”

That was American James Blake's reaction to losing in the first round in Washington D.C. Monday, but it could have been taken from any of his six first-round exits on tour this year. A knee injury cost Blake three months of his season this spring, and since returning, it’s been one disappointment after another for the former No. 4 player in the world.

Things seemed to be improving for Blake when he reached the third round at the Farmers Classic last weekend, but it looks like that mini-run was the exception, not the rule for the frustrated former American superstar. The quarterfinal appearance at Farmers saw Blake surge 12 spots in the ATP rankings to No. 105.

Hopes of cracking the Top 100 in time for the US Open fell apart fast on Monday when American qualifier Ryan Sweeting rallied past him 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. It was particularly painful given that Blake’s first-ever ATP title came at Washington back in 2002.

While Blake is likely looking at the rest of the US Open Series and the final Grand Slam of the year as an opportunity to regain his form, he should instead look at it from his couch.

James, it’s time to call 2010 a learning experience and shut it down for the rest of the year.

Blake makes no bones about being a headstrong, angry competitor who is his own biggest critic. It looks like those characteristics, along with a knee that might not be quite healed yet, are dragging down his confidence along with his ranking.

Blake started the year ranked 44th in the world, but  tumbled to 115th after falling in the first round at Wimbledon to 151st-ranked Robin Haase of the Netherlands. It was his lowest ranking since he sat 127th in May of 2005. He hasn’t won a singles title since 2007.

Shutting it down now has nothing but positives for Blake. He can make sure his knee is completely healed, and not worry about staying fresh for each subsequent tournament. The media and fans will stop buzzing about what’s wrong with him, and he can come back strong in 2011 under the radar with some much needed time in the therapy room and the practice court under his belt.

As if you weren’t already on your IPhone all day telling your friends about all of TennisNow.com’s great features (shameless, I know), now there’s a new app on the way that will let you play your favorite sport virtually against anyone in the world.

Ace Tennis 2010 is being hailed as a cross between an arcade game and a simulator in an attempt to build a perfect imitation of the game. Developed by Eurocenter, the app allows you to play one of two ways – either by using the accelerator to push the ball in the direction you want it to go, or by using your finger to slide the on-screen controller.

Because your lunch break usually isn’t long enough for an Isner-Mahut marathon, the game’s rules are simplified so that sets only last one game.
And because the game is not sanctioned by the ATP or the WTA, you’ll find yourself playing in tournaments like the “France Open” against players such as “Iguessi”, “Riddick” and “Murrais”. Hopefully you’ll be able to crack this DaVinci-esque code and figure out to whom the game is referring.





The game is currently available for purchase.

I was checking out some YouTube tennis videos when I noticed the one for Jan Silva, then five years old, smacking balls from under his golden locks and Nike headband.
That video, first put on the Tube in March of 2007 now has nearly 165,000 views of it. Silva, now an ancient eight years old (he turns nine in November), is currently living in Elk Grove, California, and playing in the USTA's Northern California region.
In the three years since he was first flung into the national spotlight by USA Today and others, little Jan has experienced the life that is often the bane of child prodigies. His parents moved the entire family to France so he could train at Patrick Mouratoglou's academy. 
The live in Paris apparently didn't agree too much with the Silvas. They moved back to California in 2009, and Jan's parents are getting divorced, a painful experience for Jan, his older brother and younger sister.
Jan's father, Scott, insists that he's not now nor is he going to turn into a monstrous tennis parent (see Capriati, Stefano), but when you go on the Today Show and proclaim you're "going to be courtside at Wimbledon in 10 years."
Great job, Dad. He also told USA Today that Jan began playing tennis "just after the age of one."
Come again?
I'm pretty sure just after the age of one, my main priorities were 1) Where is my mom with my food? 2) How many more hours before Bert and Ernie appear in the magic box in the living room again? and 3) How did my Dad get my nose, and when is he giving it back?
Children with interests or gifts in any field should be encouraged and when available, given the opportunity to nurture and grow those interests.
Silva appears to be a very good young player. He won the Gold River Junior Open B10s title in late June, his second final of the year. One encouraging thing that suggests that his parents have realized they were overexposing him is that his web site appears to have been taken down.
In his year and a third of playing since returning to the United States, Silva is 26-32 overall, hardly the mark of the next Agassi, Sampras or Roddick. For now, he's a eight-year-old boy who likes to play, and whatever ridiculous extremes his parents took in the past, or 10 years from now he upsets the No. 1 player in the world, that's all he should be for now.

I know it seems like kicking someone when they’re down, but Jelena Jankovic’s upset at the hands of Russian Alisa Kleybanova Wednesday at the San Diego Open means her name is in the news and gives me a chance to get something off my chest.

I hate seeing  Jankovic’s “glamour shots” all over the web. She looks totally unnatural, uncomfortable and out of place. That’s not to say I think she’s an unattractive woman. When she’s on court, she’s a gorgeous, graceful athlete, and when she’s in her element, she seems easy going and friendly, with a beautiful smile.

But since she’s a top woman player, her management team feels the need to dress her up like a doll for various photo shoots. It reduces a woman whose beauty runs way more than skin deep to a modern-day Stepford Wife.

In hindsight, Anna Kournikova might have been the best and worst thing that ever happened to women’s tennis. Her role as a sex symbol brought the sport overwhelming attention in an era where it had significantly diminished. But it also turned the sport into a beauty pageant, with the invariable unspoken response from fans of, “This unknown player won a major tournament … I wonder if I can find shots of her in a bikini on the Internet?”

Kournikova took the ball and ran with it, ending up vastly more rich and famous for it. Maria Sharapova followed suit after winning Wimbledon in 2004. Now she’s the richest female athlete in the world, despite winning just one Grand Slam title in the past four years.

At 5-feet, 9-1/2 inches tall with long legs and a exotic European look, Jankovic probably could have been a model if she wasn’t so damn good at tennis. And that’s sort of the point here.

She might be the least-known No. 2 player in the world of all time, sandwiched in a Top 4 with Diva Serena in front of her, and blue-eyed blonde Caroline Wozniacki and Diva Venus right behind.

The need for more exposure and more hype seems to drive players to build a Web site, get a Twitter account and pose in various states of undress that have nothing to do with the game they play.

Can you imagine an advisor telling Martina Navratilova she could make more money if she posed in a cocktail dress or a two piece between tournaments? That would have been a good way to get a Yonex RQ-180 shoved where the sun don’t shine.

Be yourself, Jelena - a bad-ass woman who rocks at tennis and stop letting your handlers turn you into the Barbie from Belgrade.

First Serena Williams looked like a baby on Twitter, now it’s Andy Roddick’s turn.

On Tuesday, Roddick re-Tweeted a message from one of his account followers with the handle “@annahandzlik” who wrote

“This may not be very American of me but I will root against @anyroddick any match, any time. Not a fan.”

Roddick then Tweeted his commentary that “There were about 5 more like this … am I crazy for thinking that one should probably not follow someone that one doesn’t like?”

Kudos to Roddick for his excellent use of grammar, something Serena could definitely learn from, but  Ms. Handzlik came back with the shot of the month, Tweeting  “Maybe @andyroddick should spend less time searching his name on twitter and more time on winning something … anything.”

As Homer Simpson once said, “It’s funny because it’s true.”



It also gives Mr. Roddick an object lesson in what happens when you try to be reasonable with fans of your sport. Anna Handzlik is clearly a tennis fan and has been in attendance at the Legg Mason Classic of late, posting a number of photos from the tournament via Twitter and pointing out Roddick exhibiting “elitist” behavior and calling his on-court attitude “disastrous.”

Tennis fans have been criticizing players since Day One of the Tour, and it does seem extremely odd that Roddick took offense to the point of getting in a brief “Twit War’ with her.

Now personally, if I played a game for a living, raked in millions a year in endorsements, and oh by the way, went home to Brooklyn Freakin' Decker every night, I think I would have better things to do than snipe at people I’ve never heard of for calling me mean names.

Fortunately Roddick, who is supposed to be in the middle of the tournament, was able to shake off the mean girl’s remarks and Tweet throughout the day Wednesday on such engaging topics as Brett Favre’s retirement and who would win a fight between Chuck Norris, the guy on the Old Spice commercials and the “Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign from the Dos Equis campaign.

For most of us, there's a certain guilty pleasure involved in looking back at old photo albums or wedding videos and trying to decipher exactly what we were wearing or for the love of god, what have we done to our hair.

With the proliferation of the Internet these days, things change fast, and trends come and go in the blink of an eye. Sure the Fauxhawk seemed cool when Sanjaya was rocking it way back in 2007, but who would be caught dead in one today?

Web sites are the same way. We were all babes in the woods at the turn of the millenium, carefully making our text bigger, smaller and in a hue of different colors via HTML, but if your site looks plain and basic these days, forget about pulling in customers or visitors.

Don't believe me? The case in point comes to us direct from super sisters Serena and Venus Williams, who these days own sites that are as much about presenting a complete brand image as they are about letting you find out information regarding your favorite tennis player.

But it wasn't always that way for the Dynamic Divas, as this photo look down memory lane can attest to:

In the beginning, there was the Coming Soon page, and it was not good. For starters, the word "coming" was spelled wrong, which was unfortunate since it's the first word you see when you get to the site.

This was soon replaced by the first real Venus and Serena page, which has the design similar to the girl band B*Witched from back in the 1990s.

The sisters split to their own individual sites after that, but kept the pink color theme intact (unfortunately). Serena kept up the super flirty girl look with such riveting drop-down menus as "Club Serena", "411 on Serena" and "Serena's Scene."
Venus branched out from pure pink by adding green and yellow, perhaps a tribute to the packaging of Hubba-Bubba Watermelon Gum.

In 2008, Serena decided to get sophisticated and put up a new Coming Soon page, with toned down colors (boring blue) and a far more mature picture of herself, dressed in black with a shorter haircut. Unfortunately, the text accompanying the more elegant Serena must have slipped through a copy editor or 12 on its way to print, as the message from the diva to her fans would have a grammar school teacher insane and, set to music, would probably be a pretty good Goth-rock hit.

My wife brought our her collection of Swatch watches last night with the ambition of finding out how much they were worth and potentially cashing them in on Ebay for some extra walking-around money.

I’ve been both a buyer (hello, Houston Oiler games on VHS) and seller (goodbye collection of 1980s Transformers) on Ebay in the past, but it’s been a while since I’ve surfed the virtual fantasyland of the late, great Fred Sanford.

On a whim, I punched “tennis” into the massive search engine to see what the most interesting and expensive baubles up for bid are. Once I weeded out all the tennis bracelets, the remaining results were a delightful bunch.

● One ticket to the US Open Championship Session 24 Men (Section: Luxury Suite, Row Corner). Asking price $72,800. But then they gouge you with the $15 shipping fee.

● Sam Robot Tennis Ball Machine. Asking price, $28,500. For 28 large, Sam Robot better be a combination of HAL, R2D2, the maid from the Jetsons, and Optimus Prime.

● 60’ x 120’ Multi-Sport Tennis Court (7,200 square feet). Asking price $20,000. No, you’re not getting a court that already exists, you’re getting 7200 square feet of GC-75 modular tile sent to you. And yes, assembly is required.

● Rafael Nadal autographed Wimbledon Shoes. Asking price $10,000. For 10 grand, I’m going to need Rafa to fly me in a private jet to Spain and let me beat him in singles in front of everyone both he and I know as well as a national TV audience. And after that, he has to undergo surgery to transplant his abs to me.

● US Open Tennis 4’ x 6’ Oil Painting by Hall Groat Sr. of Arthur Ashe defeating Jimmy Connors in the 1975 Finals. Asking price, $9,500. Perfect as a gift for a tennis-loving friend, unless that friend happens to be Jimmy Connors.

● Original advertising sign from 1972 Virginia Slims Tennis Tournament of “Ginny” dressed in original yellow and black outfit. Asking price, $4,675. Made of cast iron, it includes original photographs of celebrities at the event including Chris Evert, Jimmy Connors, Billie Jean King and Don Shula. The 1972 Virginia Slims was the first major tournament won by Evert, who was 16 years old at the time.

● Joola City Outdoor Table Tennis Table. Asking price, $3,999. I have no idea where Joola City is (or if the grass is green and the girls are pretty), but apparently someone there thinks having a fully weatherproof ping pong table is worth four grand. So bid away if you need to play table tennis outside without worrying about typhoons and hurricanes, or spend $150 and put the table in your garage like the other 6.8 billion people on this planet.

● Rights to domain name “TennisOutlets.com.” Asking price, $3,995. The same seller also is also auctioning the domains “TennisFreaks.com” and “BritishGirlsTennis.com” which can be used either as sites for the sport or as the kind of thing you look at if you live in your parents’ basement.

● Cast bronze statue of boy playing tennis, 50 inches tall, 153 pounds. Asking price, $3,740. I won’t lie, this thing creeps the hell out of me. There’s a matching girl statue for the same price. I guarantee that if you buy these,  lightning will strike them, or there will be a weird chemical spill near your home, and they will absolutely come to life and kill you in your sleep.

● 60 tennis balls (used). Current bid $1.04. You really need to click the link to see the picture, because there is no way in there are 60 tennis balls in that box (I counted 26).

Have you ever bought any amazing tennis items off Ebay? Share your thoughts below!

First it was Christina Milan, now Serena Williams is stepping out with the ultimate do-nothing celebrity, Kim Kardashian.


Clad in a Wimbledon white dress (certainly too short to pass muster at Centre Court), the No. 1 medical boot-wearing player in the world was spotted with a black-clad Kardashian at Il Sole restaurant in Los Angeles.

It was a busy night for Kardashian, who also appeared at the 2010 Teen Choice Awards. And if there’s one person you want on stage with the ear of a national audience of teenagers, it’s definitely Kim Kardashian.

Her family reality drama “Keeping up with Kardashians” took home the award for “Choice TV Reality Series,” proving once again that the end is near.


While the players distantly trailing her duke it out in the US Open Series, Serena seems comfortable resting the foot during the day, then rehabbing it by going out partying at night.

It’s not the first time Kardashian and Williams have hung out. Kardashian Tweeted last month on her excitement at being invited to Serena’s Pre-Espy House Party.

Kardashian attended the event with Dallas Cowboy Miles Austin, who is not only decent looking, but also actually a good football player, not just a return specialist / draft bust like ex-beau Reggie Bush.

Meanwhile, the Internet remains abuzz with the prospect that Serena herself is dating “Greek” actor Gregory Michael, who was seen dancing with the ace in her VIP section at last week’s Flo-Rida concert. Michael, who I would not suggest doing a Google Image search on while on the job unless you work in a liberal office or want to get fired, is quasi-famous for supposedly hooking up with non-attractive former “The Bachelor” fiancée Vienna Girardi last month.

Talented people seem like they're good at everything. Ronald Reagan was an actor before he became our least-embarassing president of the past 50 years. Jim Brown was a legendary college lacrosse player before he made mincemeat of NFL defenses. Alan Thicke wrote the theme to "Three's Company" before he became the dad on "Growing Pains."

Not surprisingly, many future stars of screen, sound and stage competed athletically growing up. Of course, somewhere along the way, the acting bug, lure of heavy metal or the need to fight in the Clone Wars took over, and they deviated from the net to pursue other career options.

Here's a look at some of the more interesting tennis back stories of modern-day celebrities.

Lars Ulrich: Before he started bitching about Napster and file-sharing, Ulrich (pictured at left with his dad) was a tennis prodigy whose father Torben was the top senior player in the world in 1976 and played for Denmark's Davis Cup team from 1948 to 1977. Father and son moved to Los Angeles from Denmark when Lars was 17 to train.
But fate intervened when Ulrich, a passionate drummer, put the following ad in a Los Angeles newspaper "Drummer looking for other metal musicians to jam with Tygers of Pan Tang, Diamond Head and Iron Maiden."
Two other musicians - James Hetfield and Hugh Tanner -- answered Ulrichs' request, and two years later, the group recorded the pleasantly-titled "Kill'em All" album. With an estimated net worth of $175 million, it appears Lars made the right decision.

Matthew Perry: There's an episode of "Friends" when Chandler tanks a game of tennis to kiss up to his boss (and royally pisses off uber-competitive wife Monica in the process). In real life, Matthew Perry wouldn't dare throw a match, particularly given that at age 13 he was the No. 2 ranked player in all of Ottawa. He eventually became the No. 17 singles player in Canada, and was ranked No. 3 in doubles.
He moved to California to pursue both acting and tennis, but in 1984 he suffered a devastating upset loss at a tournament, prompting him to quit the sport and focus on acting. Two hundred and thirty-eight episodes of friends later, and dalliances with WTA star Jennifer Capriati, Julia Roberts, Amanda Peet, Heather Graham, Elizabeth Hurley and Yasmine Bleeth later, and Perry still picks up the racquet for celebrity tournaments.

Shannon Elizabeth: Before she was the object of Jason Biggs' obsession in "American Pie," or the murder victim of a killer snowman in "Jack Frost," (seriously, it's a real movie), the leggy model/actress was a potent high school tennis player in Waco, Texas.
Standing 5 feet, 9 inches tall, Elizabeth has told interviewers she had the ambition of going pro, possessing both a killer forehand and backhand.
But cursed with her ridiculous good looks, she instead had to settle for becoming a model and moving to New York, then becoming an actress and a lousy contestant on "Dancing with the Stars."



Hayden Christensen: Raised in Vancouver, the 6-foot, 2-inch Christensen played hockey and tennis growing up. He began acting when he was 12 years old, and had been in five movies by the time he graduated high school in 1999. He was considering an academic and tennis scholarship from Harvard University when he got the fateful call that he had beaten out 350 other candidates for the role of Anakin Skywalker in the second and third Star Wars prequels. Tennis remains a big part of Christensen's life, as he has appeared as the featured model for LaCoste's cologne campaigns, and recently played an exhibition match against Mats Wilander.

You know what the best thing about Roger Federer’s wearing of the pink shirt is?

People are just talking about the pink shirt. In other words, Federer’s diminishing returns on the court and his change of coach aren’t hot topics of conversation, which goes a long way toward establishing just how big of a component fashion has become in the world of professional tennis.

It’s sort of like when a baby is starting to feel hungry and sleepy, so you distract him with your car keys. The keys are shiny and different and interesting to the baby, just like King Roger’s Pepto-Bismol togs are shiny and different and interesting to the tennis-watching world.

Federer is nothing if not a showman, but he’s also very savvy, and news of the pink shirt’s debut has been public knowledge for nearly a month. So far, the reviews have been good.

An informal poll on one Tennis forum had 53.7 percent of the voters calling the shirt “nice,” while 23.9 percent opted for “ugly” and the other 22.4 percent hailing it as “gay.”

From a fashion sense let’s face it, Roger Federer is going to look good in pretty much anything, ditto Rafael Nadal, Caroline Wozniacki and Maria Sharapova. When you’re that good looking and in such incredible shape, you make the clothing look good, not the other way around.

The USTA has launched a new Web site dedicated to its members, http://Membership.USTA.com.

The original USTA site (USTA.com) has some overlap with the new site, but USTA.com focuses more on the pro game, with news, polls, live scores and schedules.

The new site focuses more specifically on becoming a member of the USTA – along with improving and playing the game as an individual in terms of finding courts, coaching, joining teams and leagues and making tennis into a family activity.

Membership starts at $19 for junior players, $42 for adults and $68 for families.

There aren’t a lot of good tennis movies out there.

Kristin Dunst was about as believable as a pro in “Wimbledon” as she was as a red-head in the “Spider-man” flicks. And don't get me started on some of the "action scenes" with her or Paul Bettany playing. I've seen more realistic tennis scenes in that one episode of "Seinfeld" where Kramer tries out to be a ballboy at the US Open.

Since the Hollywood execs are too busy cranking out products like a big-screen adaption of the board game Battleship (as usual, I wish I was kidding, but I’m not),  and the tennis stars of today are concentrating on that whole “US Open Series” thing, the task falls to me to think up a few feature films to promote our favorite sport.

Rather than come up with the plots and the titles, I’ve taken this summer’s list of films and reworked them to fit tennis plots. Let me know where to pick up my Oscar statue in 2011.

The Other Guys – every single male player in the Top 50 besides Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer walks down a street in the average American city. None of them are recognized.

Despicable Me – John McEnroe is caught inside a House of Mirrors and goes insane while surrounded by all those loud-mouthed psychopaths.

Step Up – The entire tennis fan base of the United Kingdom has a message for Andy Murray when it comes to Grand Slams.



Dinner for Schmucks – Every person gets to invite their favorite tennis pro to a dinner. Whichever netter says the dumbest thing is declared the winner. Here’s a look at the early favorites.

Anna Kournikova: “It's not really a shorter skirt - I just have longer legs.”

Tracy Austin on Steffi Graf circa 1982: “We've got hundreds of kids like her back home."

Martina Hingis: “I'm No. 1 in the world, so I should have the right to say what time I want to play on the Centre Court.”

Jim Courier: "My best surface is my bed."

Serena Williams: “I'm really feeling my balls right now."

Venus Williams: "The disappointing part is this was a match I could have won, a match I normally would win, a match I definitely should have won, I think. I definitely think I'm better, I know that."

Sesil Karantantcheva: "I'll keep training, I'm only 16. I'll be back, and my return will be thunderous."

Jennifer Capriati: “She [Serena Williams] played some great shots, but so did I, and that was the only difference."

Kathy Rinaldi: "I started when I was four, but I didn't play seriously until I was eight."

Virginia Wade: “She [Monica Seles] has so much control of the racket with those double-handed wrists."

Maggie Maleeva: “I want to thank myself for having such a good week here."

Martina Navratilova: “I had a feeling today that Venus Williams would either win or lose.”

And a special wild card entry for Christina Aguilera, upon being introduced to Tiger Woods: “Sorry, I don’t know much about you. I don’t follow tennis.”

The burning question on plenty of WTA fans' minds, and definitely on Jelena Jankovic's, this afternoon is: Who the heck is Akgul Amanmuradova?

Well, if you had read my boy Albert's blog back on July 28, you'd already know she's one of the two tallest female players in the world.

At 6 feet, 3 inches and 188 pounds, Amanmuradova is an intimidating physical specimen who didn't start playing until she was 10 years old in her home city of Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The 26-year-old right-hander uses a Babolat Pure Drive racquet but has never made it past the third round of a Grand Slam singles event. She entered the Cincinnati tournament with an overall record of 11-19, but had lost six of her last eight matches.

She ended 2009 ranked 85th in the world in singles, but had slipped down to 114th as of Monday. She upset 59th-ranked Kimiko Date Krumm of Japan, still going strong a month short of her 39th birthday, 6-1, 6-2. She then faced off against fellow qualifier Bojana Novanovski of Serbia, routing her 6-2, 6-0.
Novanovski had reached the second round by upsetting 14th-seeded Aravane Rezai.

Previous to this week, Amanmuradova has had little success in singles, but a modicum of it in doubles, winning the 2009 AEGON international title with Ai Sugiyam. She's currently ranked 58th in doubles.

She now advances to the quarterfinals to take on Ana Ivanovic.

First the pink shirt, now the red-letter number.

Roger Federer, fresh off another win at the Rogers Cup Thursday, made it known that his sights are set on retiring with 20 Grand Slam singles crowns. That means he’ll have to win four more before he hangs up the “RF” playing gear for the final time, a lofty goal even by his standards, considering he just turned 29 years old.

To do so, Federer will have to do what only two men have done in the Open Era – win at least four Grand Slam titles after turning 29.

The two?

Rod Laver, who did all his post-28 damage in the beginning of the Era, and Andre Agassi, who defied all logic and reason to win five Slams between the ages of 29 and 33.

The biggest obstacle to Federer’s new quest isn’t his age, his health or even his mental game. It’s a fellow by the name of Rafael Nadal Parera, who has piled up five Slams in the last three years, and who at the tender age of 24 is the only realistic possibility to catch Federer’s career mark of 16 majors won.

Nadal’s presence is the fly in the ointment of Federer’s plan. As much as I admire what Agassi did in his later years, he was able to pile up a lot of titles in a dead zone in the ATP. We can consider the span from 1999-2003 as the eye between two huge hurricanes.

Pete Sampras had slowed down and Federer hadn’t quite ascended the throne. It was the perfect time for someone else to swoop in and clean up.

Jimmy Connors won three Slams after age 28, but his endurance and durability might have been unprecedented in all of tennis history. Hell, the guy made the semifinals of the US Open at age 39! Ivan Lendl and Sampras won two each Slams each after age 28.

Federer has proven himself one of the greatest players of all-time to reach 16 Grand Slams. To make his new goal of 20, he’ll have to be even greater.

Watching the 2012 Olympic tennis competition will have purists tearing their eyes out.

The All England Tennis Club announced today that it will waive the all-white dress code for the 2012 Summer Olympics being hosted by London.

Since the Club is only hosting the Olympics and it's not officially a Wimbledon event, officials have decided that the stringent fashion rules won't be enforced.

All England Club chief executive Ian Ritchie says the Olympics are "not meant to be a repeat of the Championships and could attract a different audience."

While I agree with the principle, the timing of this announcement is terrible. The players you worry about dressing like idiots now have almost two years to think up an outfit for the Summer Games.

Now you'd think most players would try to tone it down since they'll be representing their countries on the world's biggest stage, but don't say I didn't warn you when Venus Williams struts out in the Apollo Creed get-up from "Rocky IV."

The hottest new video of Roger Federer on the Internet isn't of him vacationing with his wife or taking off his shirt.


Instead, Federer appears to be launching a serve while dressed in a suit coat nailing a bottle off the head of a stage hand during the filming of a television commercial.
The video is supposedly behind-the-scenes work from a recent Federer Gilette commercial, but it's debatable whether the outtake is real, staged or even using computerized special effects.
Effects have gotten so good these days, it's hard to tell what's real and what's not, as in Andy Murray's "Walking Around" video from earlier this year where he appears to paint a smiley face in paint on a wall, and pick off skeet in mid-flight with his serve.



Then there's the less-successful "special effect" spots, like this one starring Novak Djokovic and the HEAD Youtek Speed Pro Tennis racquet. The special effects ain't great, and Novak's acting makes Joey Lawrence look like Laurence Olivier.







Are they real? Are they fake? Does it even matter? Let us know what you think about Roger's new video.

You wouldn’t expect to find too many tennis balls in play during a college football team’s off-season workouts.

But Central Florida head coach George O’Leary has always been a forward thinker. O’Leary had his Knight receivers catching tennis balls as if they were footballs during off-season workouts this past summer in a series of drills designed to make it easier to catch passes.

The theory, as told by senior wide receiver Brian Watters, is that catching something small will make catching a larger object much easier.

Coach O’Leary said the drills, which involved the receivers throwing the tennis balls at every conceivable angle while standing 10 yards apart, has paid off.

“I think they’re holding onto the ball better,” O’Leary said in an interview. “I think they’re catching everything that’s thrown out there.” The Knights threw for just 210.3 yards per game, 69th in the NCAA (out of 120 teams).

You have to love doubles, or just really, really love tennis to have heard of Rohan Bopanna, currently ranked No. 33 in doubles and No. 480 in singles.

Ditto Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, ranked 35th in doubles and a distant 1,060th in singles. Neither one will ever be Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer on the court.

Off the court however, they might be even bigger. The 30-year-old Bopanna is a native of Bangalore, India. The 30-year-old Qureshi was born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan. The pair plays doubles together. That’s the Indian and the Pakistani.

If your knowledge of international politics is largely based on what hotels are the closest to the All England Club and Roland Garros, this would be a good time to explain that India and Pakistan generally do not get along.

India has a population of 1.18 billion, 80 percent of whom are Hindi. Pakistan has a population of 170 million, 97 percent of whom are Muslim. The two countries have fought four major conflicts since 1947, mainly because of disputes over who owns territory of Jammu and Kashmir, The last major conflict came in 1999, but after a few years of good relations, terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008 restored tensions.

Despite their countries’ clear differences, Bopanna and Qureshi have been doubles partners and best friends since 2003. They wore matching warm-up suits at Wimbledon emblazoned with a message for not only their home countries,
but the whole world: “Stop War. Start Tennis.”




Neither player is active politically, but both realize that the better they do together, the more acceptable the idea becomes of their two nations being neighbors without bloodshed. Amazingly, fans of the pair – known as the Indo-Pakistan Express – have taken to painting their faces with the Indian flag on one side and the Pakistani flag on the other.

This would be tantamount to American fans during the 1960s painting the stars and stripes on one side, and the USSR’s sickle and hammer on the other.

The pair is scheduled to take the court in two weeks at the US Open.

Playstation has your solution for those long, cold winter nights between the Grand Slams.

Sega, Playstation’s parent company, released its first screenshots of Virtua Tennis 4 on Tuesday, showing a staggering attention to detail and realistic tennis action. The game is due out some time in 2011.


The accompanying press release claims that “it’s about the angle of the racquet, the spin and speed of the ball and the power of the shot.” With advanced motion sensors of PlayStation Move, the game can track movements on the controller to measure accuracy of a player’s shots. In addition, Virtua Tennis 4 will support 3D technology to ramp up the realism.

The screenshots released of an Andy Murray- Roger Federer match are extremely impressive.  Federer looks a lot more like himself than in he did in Virtua Tennis 3, where he sort of resembled a sickly Antonio Banderas.

Virtua Tennis, which apparently is prejudice against the letter L, began in 1999 on Sega, later ported to Dreamcast, Microsoft Windows and Game Boy Advance.  In 2005, IGN ranked Virtua Tennis at the #91 video game of all time.

Its sequel emerged in 2002 as Tennis 2K2 in the United States and featured female players for the first time.

Virtua Tennis 3 was released in 2009 across multiple platforms including PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Much like NCAA College Football’s series, Virtua Tennis 3 allows you to create a player and enter a “dynasty mode,’ where you try and take him or her from rookie to the top of the heap. 

Federer, Rafael Nadal and Murray grace the game’s new cover, proving once again that having a hard-to-pronounce name keeps you from the really big endorsements (I’m looking at you, Novak Djokovic).

Andy Murray just won his second straight Rogers Cup title last week and now he's received another honor, biggest dork to ever appear in Vogue Magazine.

The online preview of "Murray Mania" made its way online today at Vogue's web site with four preview images from his photo shoot and an excerpt from his interview given earlier this summer.

The worst thing Vogue does with this excerpt is not update it. Granted the  interview took place at least a month ago, but when you call Miles Maclagan his current coach and list Roger Federer as the #3 player in the world on your Web site, you're not exactly convincing anyone that you're anything but a fashion magazine pretending to know about sports.



I feel like I can retain my man card while saying that Murray looks pretty good in the first photo while dressed in a tuxedo and a pair of adidas. Of course, almost every guy looks good in a tux. That's why we wear them on our wedding days. It's a great way to fool our wives into thinking we have a sense of fashion before retiring to our "jean shorts and T-shirt I bought in high school that doesn't fit" ensemble for the next 50 years.


When the photo shoot shifts to Murray's home, things go badly astray,
sort of like when he reaches the latter rounds of any Grand Slam event. Dressed in way-too tight white pants and a rather odd Tweed-looking coat, Murray is placed at a ping pong table and photographed while grimacing and straining.

In one shot, he's flexing his entire upper body to the point where I feel the next picture is surely of him transformed into the Incredible Hulk.




I'm not sure what instructions the photographer in charge of this thing gave him before snapping each frame, but Murray's final images give me a strong feeling he could have challenged either Hansel or Derek Zoolander in a walkoff.



UPDATE!!!!
My blog buddy Lauren sent me this masterpiece a few minutes ago, showing Mr. Murray deciding to show off his midriff with what appears to be a catcher's chest protector on.
At first I couldn't place where I had seen this look before, but then I realized it's the same sort of get-up worn by the team from Average Joe's Gymnasium when their uniforms get mixed up with those of a leather-wearing S&M gang in the 2004 mastperiece "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story."
The look can best be seen here, modeled by actor Alan Tudyk, who was robbed by not being nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his captivating role as "Steve the Pirate."

I hate to sound like I’m on an anti-James Blake rant here, but how in the world did he get a wild card invitation to the US Open?

Actually, it takes just one second to realize why. Click on the US Open’s web site and read the headline “Fan-favorite Blake among US Open wild-card recipients.”

In case you don’t have the large corporation universal translator in front of you, “fan favorite” is synonymous with “money making.” It’s a straight cash grab by the US Open, which is really ridiculous when you consider how much top flight talent will be on hand starting Aug. 30.

Not only will Rafael Nadal be seeking his third straight Grand Slam, but you’ll have Venus and Serena Williams back on the court for the first time in forever. Blake has no business being in the US Open.

He hasn’t won a big match in forever and he’s just taking up space that could be used to showcase an up and coming player. The background of Blake’s fellow wild card receivers makes it all the more obvious that he’s there to put some butts in the seats of an early-round match.

The other Americans to garner wild cards are 20-year-old Bradley Klahn, who won the NCAA Division I singles title this year while a sophomore at Stanford; 17-year-old Jack Sock of Nebraska, the UTSA Boys 18s National Championship last week; 23-year-old Ryan Sweeting , who is ranked No. 111 and has won three singles titles on the USTA Pro Circuit and 21-year-old Donald Young, who is ranked No. 101 and is a two-time junior Grand Slam tournament champion.

Among those guys, Blake is a 30-year-old dinosaur. Giving him a wild card is like inviting Dominique Wilkins to compete in next year’s NBA All-Star Slam Dunk competition. Sure, he was an amazing dunker in his day, but when you put a broken-down body around all the up-and-comers, you just hope he doesn’t tear an ACL while warming up.

Blake is 10-13 following his loss on Monday in the first round at Cincinnati. By the time the Open actually starts, he’ll have probably dropped even farther.

Since making the third round at Indian Wells in mid-March, Blake is 3-7, with his wins coming against players ranked 331st, 61st and 67th. Among his losses are #151 Robin Haase at Wimbledon, #94 Taylor Dent at Atlanta and the aforementioned Sweeting at Washington D.C.

He’s largely a fan favorite at the US Open because he grew up in Yonkers, about 18 miles from the stadium. For his 10 titles and 14 other finals, not a single one of them has been in a Grand Slam, much less the Open itself.

Every single person in professional tennis always talks about growing the game, getting younger players involved. Giving out a free wild card to an unworthy veteran based on where he was born is a good way to stunt that growth.

The world's two greatest male tennis players are together again, but not how you think. A video of outtakes from a commercial for the Cincinnati ATP event starring Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal has surfaced online, with the two stars getting serious cases of the giggles. Enjoy!

The Roger Federer Gillette trick shot video has now surpasses 2.2 million views, but at least one former tennis pro isn’t buying the authenticity of it.

Recent Hall of Fame inductee Todd Woodbridge was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald Thursday as saying “So my question is: I’m one of Roger’s biggest fans and in my view I think he is the greatest tennis player of all time - no matter what - but that [YouTube clip] exceeds even my expectations.”

In the video, Federer knocks a bottle off the head of a staffer twice in a row by serving a ball at him. The video is filmed as if shot spontaneously between takes, something that has become a hallmark of viral videos in recent years. The Sydney paper has a poll on its web site, asking readers if Federer’s commercial is real or not.

With 7,345 votes logged, 68 percent of the voters believe it is. "I think it was very Roger," Woodbridge said. "I like seeing him and how he reacts away from a real tennis court like that. But what I would say is that I know he’s good, but is he that good?

When asked about the commercial, Federer was playful and evasive in his answers. : "Well, there's a lot of the debate at the moment. You know how it is with magicians. They don't tell how their tricks work, you know. I don't do it that much, but, yeah, it was shot in one piece and it was ... the guy took a chance. It worked out. I'm happy.”

So what do you think, TennisNow Nation? Is King Roger's sleight of hand real or fake?

If becoming a top-flight athlete and well-known around the world isn’t enough motivation to become one of the best women’s tennis players on earth, here’s a little cherry on top.
You’ll get rich.

Forbes’ Magazine released its list of the Top 10 Highest-Paid Female Athletes late Wednesday, and not surprisingly, the list is littered with tennis players.

Russia’s Maria Sharapova leads the way, thanks to her big-time endorsement deals with Nike, Sony, Ericsson and Tiffany. Sharapova pulled down just $1 million in prize money last year, but added another $23.5 million in endorsements and appearances.

Serena Williams is No. 2 on the list after earning $20.2 million in 2009. A record $6.5 million of that was in prize money thanks largely to her two Grand Slam titles. She and sister Venus invested some of their earnings by buying minority ownership shares in the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.

Venus is third at $15.4 million, most of that coming in endorsements – Orego, Powerade, Tide and Wilson.

Fourth on the list is the first non-tennis female, NASCAR’s Danica Patrick, who is probably more famous for her GoDaddy.com commercials than her actual driving.
  At No. 5 is figure skater Kim Yu-Na, who raked in $9.7 million in endorsements at the tender age of 19. She was the 2010 Olympic gold medalist.

 No. 6 is golfer Annika Sorenstam, who made $8 million in 2009 despite retiring in 2008. She endorses Callaway, Lexus and Rolex, as well as making money from a winery, golf academy and doing golf course design.

Tennis players are back in the mix at No. 7 thanks to Ana Ivanovic and her $7.2 million earnings in 2009. She’s struggled on the court for a couple of years, but her web site is still big-time.

Current world No. 3 Jelena Jankovic is eighth at $5.3 million, thanks largely to her apparel and shoe deal with Anta sportswear.

Golfers Paula Creamer and Lorena Ochoa round out the Top 10

I sent out a call last week to our blogging team to make their on-record picks for the US Open, our version of "putting your online rep where your mouth is" considering all the trash talking about favorite players and favorite villains that goes on all day long in our war room.

As usual, the results I was returned were full of strong opinions and crazy beliefs as I asked for two winners and two dark horses in the singles' field.

Blogger: Lauren
Blog: Tennis Gets Me Giddy
Men's champ: Rafael Nadal
Women's champ: Kim Clijsters
Men's dark horse: Mardy Fish
Women's dark horse: Victoria Azarenka

Blogger: Howie
Blog: Net Notes
Men's champ: Roger Federer
Women's champ: Clijsters
Men's dark horse: David Nalbandian
Women's dark horse: Azarenka









Blogger: Nick
Blog: Tennis 'n' Stuff / Legends of the Game
Men's champ: Federer
Women's champ: Venus Williams
Men's dark horse: Jurgen Melzer
Women's dark horse: Maria Sharapova

If you'd rather see what legends of the game have said about the tournament, check out their picks.

Then, visit our forums to let us know who your picks are to take home the men's and women's titles at Flushing Meadows.

It seems like every week, Roger Federer is the star of a new Internet sensation video.

First he was knocking bottles (maybe) off crew members' heads, then he was cutting up with on-the-court rival Rafael Nadal.

Now, Federer is the star of a new commercial for his latest commerical endorsement, Lindt Chocolate.

 
 In the commercial, Federer and two cute Swiss  Miss-looking security guards at an airport discuss the contents of his carry-on, and how they should proceed to make sure he's not a threat.

Some days I feel like this is turning into the "OMG! Roger Federer Video" blog, but it's not every day when you see a guy put up a  shot like this. This one might be even more amazing than his between-the-legs winner at the 2009 US Open because it has so much zip on it.

Poor Brian Dabul, bad enough he should draw Federer in the first round of the Slam, but then to be the victim of this kind of majesty, it's just not fair. The ATP should consider putting a cap on Federer's between-the-legs shot - he can't do it to another player unless that player is at least ranked No. 50 in the world.

For a guy like Dabul, who is now a whopping 5-4 on the year, this is the equivalent of Dwayne Wade blocking the kid's shot in the charity basketball game. It's just not fair.

 

  I'd never say I was tired of Brooklyn Decker  because that would be like saying I'm tired of pizza, or ice cream, or the Dave Chappelle skit where Rick James slaps Charlie Murphy in the face. (He's a habitual line stepper)





But on Monday morning, I happened across this photo of Mrs. Mardy Fish, formerly known as Stacey Gardner, and realized, well maybe I am a little tired of seeing Brooklyn Decker everywhere, especially when her lesser half is still sitting on that one Grand Slam title from way back in 2003, a time when I had never heard of Twitter, couldn't care less about someone referring to himself as "The Situation" and when I could still call myself a "20-something" (although just barely).


  Mrs. Fish is an attorney from California and used to be a "briefcase model" on the NBC game show "Deal or No Deal" hosted by Nikolay Davydenko ... I mean, Howie Mandel.

 It might be that too much Brooklyn Decker isn't a good thing, or that she's gotten over-exposed. If you type her name into Google Image Search (not advisable at work), there are more photos of her in a bikini, half a bikini or a quarter of a bikini than there are stars in the Milky Way.

Mrs. Fish on the other hand gets bonus points for working the LA Dodgers cap while not at a baseball game. That equals sports fan and that equals extra hot points.

Throw in the fact that she married Mr. Fish way back in 2008 when he hadn't gone on his famous diet, was still over 200 pounds and used the time-honored training regiment of "eat whatever I want no matter what time it is," and she definitely seems more approachable than the super duper SI model.