Maria is in Madrid this week as the 2nd seed behind Serena.
Maria is in a position to yank the #1 spot away from Serena.
All Maria needs to do is finish the tourny one round better than Serena.
That makes for a very tasty final. Make it happen ladies.
Let's start with the funny first...
Jamie Murray: What’s the 1 thing you would save if your house was on fire?
Andy: Oh, save. I was going to say, don’t think I could get away with that.
I would save my dogs, probably.
Is that wrong that I said that over my girlfriend?
I’d take my dogs, I’d take them for sure.
Well ok then. Read the entire interview HERE.
And now something much more weighty...
David Frost: And when you win the Grand Slam you’ll feel that all those sacrifices in the last few years were hugely worthwhile?
Andy: Yes, and that’s the thing. There have been bad moments, like last year after losing the Australian Open. I had a very low point in my career where I was struggling and I was really down, wasn’t believing in myself, and the results were bad for a few months. And then when I started to work hard again, started to spend hours on the court and in the gym, the results picked up very quickly, so I understand now there’s nothing special you need to do, it’s purely hard work and believing.
Read the full interview HERE.
Someone over at Time is a tennis fan!
Bill Saporito provided the story which included this nugget:
Novak became the world's third-ranked tennis player on July 9, 2007.
For the better part of the next four years he was the sport's top doormat.
First Federer and then Nadal would regularly wipe their feet on him...
En route to major titles; 9 times they stomped him in Grand Slam events.
Read the full copy after the jump.
***
I just happened to walk by a magazine stand and found Nole on Italian GQ.
Dumb: That photo has been so photoshopped it barely even looks like him.
Of course Novak is in Miami looking for his 3rd title: '07 & '11.
Yes, he is the defending champ but so far this year he is 1-2 in defending.
But he did repeat at the big one tho - the Aussie Open.
He'll open against Marcos Baghdatis tomorrow - H2H: 6-0/ND.
And he's in a pretty troicki tricky draw: Troicki, Del Potro, Gasquet, Ferrer.
All surely beatable but tricky none-the-less.
Quote from presser today: I'm here to fight for it as any other player.
Hey Nole, there was little doubt.
"Bedroom action." Hilarious.
This photo was taken for prostate and testicular cancer awareness.
The full image can be seen after the jump.
Continue reading "Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Nude for Cosmo Centerfold" »
It took me a couple days to get to this - but I'd say it was worth the wait.
Marat retired in '09. Crushing the hearts of gals & gays worldwide.
As the French Open starts tomorrow - Marat's best run at RG: Sf's in '02.
Photos: Erez Sabag - Thanks for the heads up On the Go Tennis
And the reminder LA Surf Punk
And then this happen today. You're welcome.
Here is an exceprt from Vicki Woods Vogue Daily article: Easily the world’s most famous living Serb (Q. Who is the president of Serbia? A. Me neither), Djokovic lives in the pretty principality of Monaco, where the tennis club is spectacular, the winters are balmy, and Monegasques are cool. He, on the other hand, is so hot (both on court and in person) that he can visit his native Belgrade only on a quick in and out, lest his countrymen mob him to pieces.
Further in: The best feeling Djokovic has had on the tennis court, he tells me later, was Serbia's first-ever Davis Cup win. I'm surprised because, at his exalted level, tennis is always High Noon, is it not? Two duelists, one winner, roll credits? He says no, nothing compares with the Davis Cup. Not winning two Grand Slams, not "beating the top players, Roger, Rafa." "We’re individual athletes, and everything we do, we do by ourselves," he says. "But the success you have there, you don’t get for yourself. You share it with your people and your teammates."
Photos: Norman Jean Roy
(We need the outtakes please.)
VA VA VA VOOM!
Ana lost 1st round in Madrid to Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
May she have better luck next week in Rome.
YOWZA - you're welcome ladies and gays!
Foto: Guliver/Getty Images/Clive Brunskill
What better way to celebrate International Woman's Day than with a real hero of the gender: Martina Navratilova. Andrew Harmon writes a wonderful article for The Advocate. If you have a few minutes why not give it a read - HERE. Further, have you ever seen a better photo of Martina?
An excerpt: "Goodbye 2010," she wrote on her website as the year drew to a close. "If you were a fish, I'd throw you back."
But talking with her today, it seems almost as though the last straw came when the 54-year-old Navratilova was in a hospital bed in Nairobi, Kenya, watching CNN. "They were showing a five-minute segment on World Sport, about Martina Navratilova and the climb, they talked about what happened, and it was very accurate, and I was like, Oh, that was nice," she says.
"Then on the ticker underneath it says, 'Martina Navratilova Quits Her Mount Kilimanjaro Attempt,'" she continues with a wry smile. The emphasis is hers. It's clearly an unpalatable word, even though she relates this story with a heady dose of humor threaded through the exasperation. "I can say that I quit, but nobody else can say that I quit! Because the only option of not quitting was to go up and die. So it was not a good solution. Quitting suggests that you had a choice. I did not have a choice."
Chris Dufresne writes a clever article on the 50 'coolest' athletes from Southern California. Strange that he omits Serena Williams but he does have 4 other tennis legends on his list. The highest ranked among being Billy Jean King at #5. Who is #1 you wonder... that honor belongs to Dodger Sandy Koufax. You can view his article HERE.
Here is what he had to say about his tennis four:
#5 Billy Jean King: A man raised in the feminist 1970s with four sisters could ill afford to keep King off this list. The Long Beach native didn't seem so cool then with her cat-rimmed glasses and all that jabbering about ERA (wasn't that "earned-run average?"). Her 1973 tennis match against huckster Bobby Riggs turned our house into the Korean border, but her straight-sets victory pretty much set everyone straight. King became cooler with age, especially when we later found out Elton John's song, "Philadelphia Freedom," was dedicated not to the Liberty Bell but to King. Equal rights for women, it turned out, were cool. Billie Jean, royalty on the courts, served society with a brazen openness that turned perspiration into inspiration.
#11 Jack Kramer: Rose out of Montebello High to win Wimbledon in 1947 and become tennis' Arnold Palmer. What a racket.
#16 Arthur Ashe: He ate cool for breakfast and was way more than a tennis star out of UCLA.
#49 Tracy Austin: Won U.S. (tennis) Open in Palos Verdes pigtails but scored her most important victories in charity work.
Photo: Michael Cole/HBO
Just cuz y'all deserve a hot pic today, no?
Photo courtsey of and thanks to Rafaholics.com
I love these types of promotional gimmicks. They're so strange-ish.
Robin & David are both in Group B and will play in round robin this week.
Robin leads H2H: 8-4. They've played 5 times in '10, again Robin: 3-2.
I'm loving that there is a Corona double decker party bus...
AND, I'm loving the Corona's on ice bucket photobomb!
It's been a busy couple of media days... Let's go already.
Photos: Getty Images
Wait, they forgot a word: undisputed.
Rafa has 2 tournaments left to play in 2010 - Paris & London.
In Paris he will also play doubles with Marc Lopez.
In singles Paris is 1 of 3 Masters 1000 Rafa has yet to win.
He was a Sf-ist last year and runner-up to Nalbandian in '07.
He'll then head to the O2 where last year he failed to win a set.
In December Rafa & Roger will play 2 exo's for their foundations.
Then before ya know it - boom, we're headed to Abu Dhabi!
And all that jazz.
Hot damn Vera!!!
It's hard to recognize he without an ice towel on her head.
Clearly Sergey is more that just a hitting partner - modelling coach.
Great photos - loving that farm girl plaid.
Photos: Markus Hintzen
Pierre -VS- Maggie May
Some London paper fun ahead of Wimbledon.
Though I think Novak's dog is cute I certainly prefer Andy's.
No contest.
Posted at 10:20 AM in Andy Murray, Commentary, Grand Slam Tennis, Media, Mens Tennis, Novak Djokovic, Off Court Event, Wimbledon | Permalink | Comments (0)
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