After Melanie Oudin lost in the second round of the Bank of the West Classic, she had a press conference to discuss her match. When asked about how she felt about her fans’ comments during the match, this is what she had to say:
"It's kind of annoying sometimes when fans are like ‘Pull it together Melanie,' and they yell at me kind of. Really? You get down here and play."
Maybe the teenager shouldn’t be so quick to push her fans away before they all lose their respect for her! And did she really say "You get down here and play"? How juvenile is that?
"I know they mean it in a good way, like to say 'C'mon Melanie,' but you don't have to say 'Pull it together,' like 'Get your energy up!' That's what some lady was telling me."
Okay, she was probably just a little frustrated with her loss when she said those things. But still, it’d be funny if Oudin was genuinely annoyed with her fans and didn’t want them to cheer her on or motivate her anymore.
Don't make Melanie Oudin angry!
Posted to Serving Up Top Tennis Players by
A.Yen on 8/3/2010 3:36:18 PM | with 0 comments
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The President stops by the tennis courts
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Sam Querrey and Bob and Mike Bryan participated in the QuickStart USTA program as part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign this morning at Washington. They played and taught tennis to about 100 local Washington children.
While they were there, President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to meet the three tennis players. After greeting Querrey and the Bryan brothers, Obama had this to say about the twins:
“These guys are the best doubles players in the world. I read a great article about you in Sports Illustrated.”
Not a bad thing to hear from the President of the United States. Obama then took the opportunity to support his wife’s campaign and talk to the kids and encourage them to be active during the summer and not to “just sit in front of the TV all day.”
The Bryan brothers' didn't sound as excited as you would think to meet the President on their Twitter page, however.
"Back from a morning at the White House. Hit balls with kids on the South Lawn and hung out with the President."
"It was very exciting to meet him. He thanked us for coming out and hitting with the kids. It was an honor to meet him and pretty exciting that he just popped in like that,” said Querrey.
The three were then invited to the White House for the rest of the morning. What a day for the twins and Sam Querrey!
Posted to Serving Up Top Tennis Players by
A.Yen on 8/3/2010 4:34:53 PM | with 0 comments
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Serena asked to pay for her attendance at an ATP match
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After helping the Farmers Classic get some publicity by taking some pictures for them, Serena Williams decided she wanted to stay in town and watch an ATP match. Farmers Classic still wanted to her to pay $100 for the admission fee though. No big surprise, Serena felt like she did not need to pay for the ticket. Bad PR for both sides.
Serena’s battle with Farmers Classic has been talked about a lot already, and fans are all on Serena’s side. Yes, it was pretty stupid of Farmers Classic to want to charge her, because such a big name would surely give them publicity.
On the other hand, Serena showed her "I'm too cool for school" side again. She’s too good to have to pay for a ticket like everyone else. Is it really about the principle and not the money? If that was true she should’ve just walked away. Instead, Serena took to the Internet. Within 5 minutes, like an outraged teenage girl, she posted this on her Twitter:
farmersclassic = use serenajwilliams than over charge her to see tennis! Lol. Anywho don't go if u r in LA
farmersclassic = use serenajwilliams than over charge her to see tennis! Lol. I would have paid been happy to $1000 If I did not plug them
Omg! The farmersclassic tennis tournament in LA is charging me $100 a ticket... After I plugged them!!! Lol ill send a bill for my plug!
That was pretty childish of Serena to tell her fans not to go to the tournament and to boycott it. Don’t even bring up all the spelling mistakes ('then' not 'than'). She comes off as extremely immature and sounds just like a teenager. Just dig in your True Religion jeans for a spare $100 bill and pay for the ticket! What a diva.
Posted to Serving Up Top Tennis Players by
A.Yen on 8/4/2010 5:51:13 PM | with 0 comments
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Isner doesn't want to talk about his epic match anymore
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John Isner and Nicolas Mahut's Wimbledon marathon match is still pretty fresh in everyone's mind. People love to talk about it, make jokes from it, and both players are getting more attention than ever before. It's the very thing that made Isner famous and a household name. But now he is sick of talking about it.
Let's be honest here, did you even know who John Isner was before that match? Probably not.
When Isner was asked about how he was recovering both mentally and physically from the epic Wimbledon match, this is how he responded.
Reporter: "I suppose you'll never be able to escape 70-68..."
Isner: "Yeah, I'm trying to ... Mentally, I'm a bit worn out. Answering questions and hearing jokes, every single day about that. It kind of wears on you."
Are you kidding me? This is the most attention he'll probably ever get. No offense, but winning multiple Grand Slams probably won't be on his Wikipedia page, but the marathon match will most definitely be. Don't shut out something that has made you famous, embrace it! Not everyone gets a chance to be on the Letterman show!
And put yourself in Mahut's shoes. I'm sure everywhere he goes he gets asked the same question too, but he actually lost the match, and nobody likes to keep discussing a loss.
Posted to Serving Up Top Tennis Players by
A.Yen on 8/5/2010 6:21:00 PM | with 1 comments
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Delic chooses a different remedy for his injury
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Amer Delic, a Bosnian-American tennis player, is probably best known for his third round appearance in the 2009 Australian Open. In doubles, he and Jeff Morrison upset doubles superstar Leander Paes and Nenad Zimonjic. Delic is known to be a good friend and practice partner of John Isner.
However, due to a knee injury (two tears in his patella tendon), Delic hasn’t played tennis since July 2009. He’s been in rehabilitation ever since and has been keeping his fans updated every step of the way!
Amer recently tried a new, unconventional method to healing his knee- acupuncture. It sounds odd, yes. But acupuncture has been said to be very relaxing and effective during the healing process. While the needles were in his leg, Delic updated his Twitter twice and even gave us the privilege of posting a picture along with it!
@Amer Delic: Getting jiggy with the needles... Yes, I said jiggy.
@Amer Delic: Had a morning practice session. At the acupuncture office now poking on my knee! Always wonder about the needle to the forehead.
Maybe he’ll try acupuncture on his forehead soon?
Posted to Serving Up Top Tennis Players by
A.Yen on 8/10/2010 12:09:36 PM | with 1 comments
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Read some fun facts about your favorite tennis players!
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There are tons of interesting and fun facts about famous tennis players out there that you have probably never even heard of, so let me take a second and share some of them with you.
Andy Roddick:
-When Andy Roddick and Brooklyn Decker had their very exclusive wedding in Austin, Texas, they had Elton John perform for them.
-Roddick played varsity basketball at Boca Raton Preparatory School along with current pro tennis player Mardy Fish. No wonder he put up a such a good fight against Dwayne Wade!
-People magazine named Roddick the Sexiest Athlete in December 2003 and one of 2006's Sexiest Men Alive.
-Besides Chris Evert, Roddick is the only tennis player ever to host Saturday Night Live.
-Roddick is a huge fan of the Cornhuskers, the University of Nebraska’s football team.
-His favorite movie is the Shawshank Redemption.
Rafael Nadal:
-Nadal won the gold medal in Men’s Tennis Singles at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
-Nadal’s uncle, Miguel Angel Nada Homar, is a professional soccer player who played in three FIFA World Championships.
-Miguel’s brother, Toni, is Nadal’s coach.
-Despite being insanely rich, he still drives a Kia and borrrows his father's boat to go fishing. (under investigation)
-Nadal quit soccer because his coach didn’t want him playing both sports at the same time. Nice choice!
-There is a Facebook page dedicated to Nadal titled: “I worship Rafael Nadal’s biceps.”
The fun facts on tennis players that are famous just keep getting better! These next two girls are a pretty big deal.
Ana Ivanovic:
-Ana is superstitious about walking on lines on the tennis court.
-She sometimes gets ready for matches by working out a Sudoku puzzle in the locker room.
-Ivanovic is the most downloaded female athlete in the world, and her website is the most visited website out of any female in all of sports.
-Ivanovic is childhood friends with Novak Djokovic, and they’ve been friends since she was 5 years old. -The President of Serbia went to her 20th birthday party.
Maria Sharapova:
-The highest paid female athlete in the world.
-Named one of the “coolest girls in America” by YM magazine.
-Favorite book is Sherlock Holmes.
-One of Maria’s second serves at Wimbledon clocked in at 102 mph.
-Sharapova has the loudest grunt in all of tennis at 101 decibels. A jet take-off is 125 decibels loud.
-Her coach, Robert Lansdorp, also coached Pete Sampras and Lindsay Davenport.
Who knew famous tennis players were just like you and me, i.e., having Elton John attend your wedding, or the Serbian President go to your birthday party, or winning a gold medal at the Olympics!
Posted to Serving Up Top Tennis Players by
A.Yen on 8/11/2010 6:11:03 PM | with 6 comments
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The two tennis stars invent a new sport
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After a practice a few days ago at the Rogers Cup, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic played a different sport- a combination of soccer and tennis. In front of a crowd of fans who cheered them on, they used a tennis ball as a soccer ball and played a friendly game of "soc-nis."
The two may have recently lost their highly anticipated first doubles match together, but the World's number 1 and 2 tennis players still got together and had a little fun to cheer each other up.
And they're actually pretty good for a couple of tennis players. Both Nadal and Djokovic have good headers and are super quick on their feet. Nadal, of course, played soccer as a child until his soccer coach told him he had to choose between being serious about playing either tennis or soccer, not both. It looks like it wouldn't have mattered which sport Rafa chose, he would've been good at both! It's not like Spain needs help though...
I'm not sure who the other two people are in the video, maybe their coaches? It appeares Djokovic's team won in the end according to their "friendly" celebration when Team Nadal loses a point.
You can see the video for yourself here:
Posted to Serving Up Top Tennis Players by
A.Yen on 8/12/2010 5:53:21 PM | with 1 comments
Tennis players look pretty crazy when they're playing tennis and about to smack a ball, here are some of my favorite faces!
Posted to Serving Up Top Tennis Players by
A.Yen on 8/12/2010 6:55:36 PM | with 4 comments
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Paes branches out to another hobby
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Leander Paes is well known for his multiple doubles Grand Slams. His highest ranking ever achieved was the World’s number 1 in doubles player in 1999. He recently won the doubles titles for the Australian Open and Wimbledon. Needless to say, Paes is looking pretty good in the tennis world.
“One of my strengths is to be able to connect with people, so I look at different mediums to do that. Tennis is one such medium and now, movies will be,” he adds.
His cause seems pretty noble- Leander says that he lives by Gandhiji’s saying to “Be the change that you would like to see in the world.” Pretty deep stuff Leander! But what if his change in career choice is bad and his acting is terrible and his movies don’t go anywhere?
“I’m already living a sport where my position changes every Monday. I’m already in a cut-throat business and that too on an international stage. But I’m fearless. No matter what happens, the audience will get passion, dedication and hard work. Whether I’m an actor or not is left to be seen. I’m starting at zero."
‘Fearless?’ We’ll see how the tennis star does at acting in Rajdhani Express, where he plays your common, everyday man. That’s pretty much the opposite of his actual life, where people ask to take a picture with him and sign an autograph for them everywhere he goes. As for the second film, Leander says he can’t say much about it, just that it won’t be the Leader we’re used to.
We’ll just have to wait to watch his movies; hopefully they don’t turn out like Wimbledon…
Posted to Serving Up Top Tennis Players by
A.Yen on 8/14/2010 5:06:44 PM | with 0 comments
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Nadal never had to switch his “handedness”
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There have always been rumors about Rafael Nadal; that he originally played tennis right handed but switched to left handed when he was young and trained with his Uncle Toni. But after his match versus Kevin Anderson in Toronto, Nadal was asked to discuss the topic during a press conference, and he was finally able to lay that myth to rest.
Q: “When you were younger and you switched from hitting with your right hand to your left hand, how did your uncle Toni come up with the idea to try that? And how difficult was it for you at that age to switch from hitting right handed to left handed?”
Nadal: “That never happened. It wasn’t an idea of Uncle Toni and for sure it was impossible to change the right for the left. I started playing tennis with two backhands – playing two hands forehand and two hands backhand. And one day had to start playing but we didn’t decide I have to play with the left or the right.”
So when Nadal was younger, he played with two hand forehands and two hand backhands…that’s pretty interesting. Maybe we should all learn from him if we want to play like Rafa!
“The natural thing for me was to play with the left. I play futbol with the left all my life. . .The feeling to give something or take something, I do everything with the right, no? But the feeling for the sport I always have the feeling for the left.”
Here’s a video of Nadal and his Uncle discussing this issue. There’s even a video from Rafa’s earlier years, and he's still playing with his Babolat! It’s interesting to see that even though he always played soccer with his left side, when a ball is thrown to him or he throws a ball, he always uses his right hand. His handwriting is pretty ugly though when he uses his left hand.
Posted to Serving Up Top Tennis Players by
A.Yen on 8/15/2010 1:55:24 PM | with 0 comments
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Keep your hands to yourself, Roddick.
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Andy Roddick withdrew from the Rogers Cup in Toronto because he wasn’t feeling too well. Andy was worried because he wasn’t sure what he was getting sick with. But now Roddick knows it’s not too serious, just a case of mononucleosis, which isn’t long term.
"It's weird, the fear of kind of the unknown and not knowing what's going on," said Roddick. "There were some days where it was good and some days where it was real bad. So it was like you would have one of those two or three good days, and it was like, 'OK, you're just being kind of a wimp.’
He felt so bad that he had to cut back on his training routine, as well as withdraw from the Rogers Cup. After a few tests were run on Andy in Washington, D.C., and Texas, the doctors finally concluded that it was just a bad case of mono.
How do you get mono? It’s often called the “kissing disease,” and is spread by saliva and close contact. I consider this an awesome side effect of getting to kiss Brooklyn Decker all day. Roddick should consider himself lucky, he got the best sickness ever!
"I'm just glad that we found out something that was causing it. It's nice to have a little bit of clarity moving forward. It's not something that's going to affect me, anything super-serious. They think I'm most of the way through it, if not all the way through it."
Posted to Serving Up Top Tennis Players by
A.Yen on 8/16/2010 2:15:15 PM | with 0 comments
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Fashion and tennis go hand and hand
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At the Rogers Cup Player Party on Sunday night, many of the top womens tennis players were invited to take part in the very exclusive, all-Canadian fashion show. Tickets were around $300 per person and the show benefited Community Tennis, which helps promote playing tennis at schools.
Several big names were there including Julie Coin of France, Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic, and Aleksandra Wozniak from Canada. They were all dressed in very high end clothes, glammed up, hair done by professional make-up artists, and expensive shoes.
Needless to say, in a tennis world all about fashion these days, the women loved every bit of it.
"We're girls and we like clothes," said Wozniak. "It's so much fun being a diva. It's also fun seeing what everybody else is wearing."
The show provided clothes from Montreal based Chiccane.com. I've never heard of it, but apparently it's a pretty big deal in the fashion world? Or in Canada? But the founder of Chiccane.com is very well known, and was abolutely ecstatic to have the women's tennis players be in the fashion show.
"The top-ranked female champions will be wearing clothes from Chiccane. com," giggled Annick Charbonneau, founder of Chiccane.com
A total of eight players from the Rogers Cup participated in the show, plus a few professional models from Folio. (Again, never heard of it.)
Here's a few pictures from the event:
Julie Coin
Annick Charbonnea and Aleksandra Wozniak
All the tennis ladies
Posted to Serving Up Top Tennis Players by
A.Yen on 8/19/2010 10:18:46 AM | with 1 comments
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