Prince Wimbledon Tennis Ball Guess Contest

During Wimbledon this year Prince has a little contest going on that seems to be getting a bit of hype. Prince has got a container and filled it with tennis balls and all you have to do is guess how many tennis balls are in the container.

If you head to the Prince site here you can enter until the 5th July, but unfortunately this competition is only for USA citizens. This is the internet age Prince, get with it, anyone anywhere should be able to enter!

Prize = Autographed Prince racquet signed by Maria Sharapova. Approximate Retail Value of prize is $300.

If you want to see the container for yourself then you need to head to the HSBC Wimbledon in Rockefeller Center (June 22 – June 26).

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Darren Cahill’s Thoughts On Rafael Nadal’s Injury

Here is Darren Cahill’s take on Rafael Nadal and his injury.

Marin Cilic and Sam Querrey Best Match Wimbledon 2009 So Far

The match of the tournament so far has just completed at Wimbledon 2009. Marin Cilic defeats Sam Querrey in 5 sets and 6-4 in the fifth set. Final score was 4-6 7-6 6-3 6-7 6-4.

Querrey started the match in great form getting a set up and 5-2 up in the second, but really let Cilic back into the match. In the last three sets it was easily some of the best tennis I have seen at Wimbledon 2009 so far.

The final set was very tight with both players barely losing a point on serve. However, when push came to shove it came down to Cilic leading 5-4 with Querrey serving. The first few points were tight and then Cilic was up 15-30 and Querrey then seemed to choke and decelerated his serve to double fault for only the 3rd time in the match, which gave Cilic a great opportunity to close out the match and that he did.

Cilic now goes on to play Tommy Haas in the third round, in which Haas is my outside pick for the tournament.

Why Do Lower Level Players No Receive The Coverage They Should Be Getting?

Im sitting in my living room at the moment watching Marin Cilic and Sam Querrey play in the second round of Wimledon 2009, and thinking that it was only a couple of years ago when I saw both these top players playing in the junior event.

I find it funny how the average person who watches tennis really only knows and likes the top players. I wish there would a lot more tennis on tv especially here in the UK and home back in Australia, but I wish they provided more of an acknowledgement to the lower level players and even juniors at these major events and any other event for that matter.

I honestly am really not sure what The Tennis Times will eventually turn in to, but im very keen to provide as much coverage as possible about the players you have never heard of.

Grunting Female Tennis Players, Stop!

There has been a lot of talk about grunting at this years Wimbledon. I saw on the news the other day that Nick Bollettieri mentioning that he will be providing grunting lessons at his academy after the tournament. I do think that with Maria Sharapova, Michelle Larcher de Brito, Serena Williams and others, there is just too much grunting on court at the moment.

I previously I used to grunt a little bit myself and found that it was more habit than anything, but it was always a small noise compared to Sharapova is producing these days.

So what do you think about grunting and its current situation in the game?

Svetlana Kuznetsova To Give Away Here French Open Winnings To Her Church

Svetlana Kuznetsova is planning on giving away most of the prizemoney from her French Open title to her church!

“I am planning to buy an accommodation in Moscow, I am still renting an apartment. Also, I have promised to myself to buy a good expensive watch. The majority of the money I am going to donate to my church. There the director of orthodox temple is my spiritual father. I try to to be there as often as possible, to think about something personal, something eternal. But I have a very busy schedule. Occasionally, the father himself visits me. … No matter how strange it sounds, I am a very religious person and try to attend church even in other countries.”

Is it just me or does this simply sound crazy. Maybe it is time I started the next religion and then got people to give their money to me.

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Here are Prizemoney Breakdowns for Wimbledon 2009

Wimbledon 2009 Prize Money

Singles Prize Money (£) Doubles Prize Money (£)
Winner 850,000 Winner 230,000
Finalist 425,000 Finalist 115,000
Semifinalist 212,500 Semifinalist 57,500
Qtrfinalist 106,250 Qtr.Finalist 30,000
4th Rnd 53,250 3rd Rnd 16,000
3rd Rnd 29,250 2nd Rnd 9,000
2nd Rnd 17,750 1st Rnd 5,250
1st Rnd 10,750 - -
Q3 6,700 - -
Q2 3,350 - -
Q1 1,675 - -
Mixed Doubles Prize Money (£) Invitation Dbls Prize Money (£)
Winner 92,000 Winner 17,000
Finalist 46,000 Finalist 14,000
Semifinalist 23,000 Second 10,500
Qtrfinalist 10,500 Third 9,500
3rd Rnd 5,200 Fourth 9,000
2nd Rnd 2,600 three events -
1st Rnd 1,300
WC Doubles Prize Money (£)
Winner 6,750
Finalist 3,750
Third 2,250
Fourth 1,250

Dinara Safina’s Outfit for US Open and Fall 2009

I have received an inside tip this morning that this will be the outfit that Dinara Safina will wear during the US Open 2009.

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Rafael Nadal Press Conference for Wimbledon 2009

Here is the official Rafael Nadal press conference about his plans for Wimbledon.

Nadal Out of Wimbledon and Roger Could Become Number 1

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Rafael Nadal is out of Wimbledon and he stated it was one of the toughest decisions of his career. He has a huge amount of points to defend here at Wimbledon and this is really going to affect his ranking and could even give Roger Federer a chance to catch up.

Now that Rafael is out of Wimbledon he cant defend the 2000 points he received from Wimbledon last year thus meaning that Roger needs to win the tournament and gain his record 15th Grand Slam title.