Roger Federer and the Nike Zoom Vapor 9 Tour
Roger Federer introduced the new Nike Zoom Vapor 9 Tour tennis shoe. Seems like an awesome new shoe!
p.s. Nike when are you going to send me a free pair to review?
Archive for: tour
Ernests Gulbis Back Working With Guillermo Canas and Already a Success
Guillermo Canas is back coaching Ernests Gulbis. Canas was working with Gulbis at Wimbledon and has not started to help him train again.
Canas was known for being one of the fitest players on tour and hopefully he can instill such a work ethic into Gulbis. Gulbis of late has been one of the players on tour I expected a lot more from, but he has never lived up to expectations.
Gulbis just stopped a five-match losing streak with a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 win over Xavier Malisse at this weeks Farmers’ Classic in Los Angeles.
Thomas Muster Scraps It Out for Fun on the Challenger Tour
Thomas Muster has decided to play a few professional matches on the Challenger tour for a bit of fun. His latest match was at the NORD/LB OPEN Challenger event in Braunschweig, Germany earlier this week. Unfortunately Thomas lost 6-2 6-1 to Conor Niland of Ireland.
Its great to see the classic players still loving tennis and even wanting to scrap it out for fun on the lower level tours. I think it really shows the type of person Thomas Muster is!
WTA Tour Ladies Strut Their Stuff in FHM
Victoria Azarenka, Dominika Cibulkova, Anna Chakvetadze and Alona Bondarenko appear on this month’s French edition of FHM men’s magazine. The article, which coincides with the tournament of Roland Garros being held in Paris, includes interviews with the tennis players and very sexy pictures in bikini.
Vera Zvonareva Now Promoting Gender Equality
Vera Zvonareva has been named a “Promoter of Gender Equality” as part of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s partnership with UNESCO.
Here’s what the world No.6 Russian said about the honor:
I think that the UNESCO-Sony Ericsson WTA Tour partnership is incredibly important and this is a role that I value highly and will work extremely hard in helping young girls and women all around the world to gain better opportunities to succeed in whatever they wish to do. In particular I very much believe in the importance and value of education and the rights of all women and girls to have equal access to it.
Other WTA players that already have that role are Venus Williams, Tatiana Golovin and Zheng Jie, as well as Tour founder Billie Jean King, who was named “Global Mentor for Gender Equality” in November last year.
Marin Cilic and His Quick Rise To The Top 20
Marin Cilic is a young player from Croatia who currently finds himself at number 14 in the world singles rankings. Marin has had a very quick rise to the top. He was playing junior tennis up until 2006 in which he then received his highest ranking of the world number one junior. While at the same time as holding this junior ranking Marin was also trying to build up a senior career and as many points as possible.
After moving away from junior tennis in 2006 Marin focused on building up as many points as possible on the ATP and ITF tours so that he could really make a living from tennis and live up to his potential. Within his first season on the ITF tour he finished 2006 ranked 173 in the world. This season really pushed his career and pretty much put him where he is today. At the start of 2006 Marin was receiving a lot of wildcards into major tournaments in which he would not have received unless he was the top junior in the world, and he made the most of it. Following in 2007 Marin continued his rise to finish the year at 71 and to now be on the ATP tour fulltime. Finally the growth continued even further to finish 2008 at number 22 and top be now a top player who everyone else wants to beat.
It is amazing how Marin Cilic has risen in the world of tennis and this has really been a steady growth from the age of 16. Marin is now a top 20 player in the world who no matter what tournament he plays is seeded. Im a firm believer that when a player progresses from juniors to seniors they deserve a few wildcards in major tournaments to help them get experience and raise their rankings fast at the same time. However, at the same time the player needs to keep his eye on the ball and actually get strong results on the ITF tours, cause that is really where you learn as a player to fight for every point and every match.
Kim Clijsters Has Announced She Will Be Returning To The Womens Tour
A few days ago it was announced that Kim Clijsters would be returning to womens professional tennis. Kim has had a few years away from the game and im sure she will come back with a bang. I hope Kim performs a lot better than Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis when they return from retirement.
In the couple years Kim was away from tennis she has got married and even had a baby. So this time round she will have a lot more life experience and maturity on court and hopefully this will lead to more outstanding results.
The Belgian has mentioned that it will be a tentative return. She will play three tournaments—Cincinnati, Toronto and most notably, the US Open.
Overall it will be very interesting to see how she fair against the like of the Williams sisters and the young girls who are currently on tour.
Dinara Safina Replaces Serena Williams as World Number One
Dinara Safina is now officially the womens world number one tennis player. On Monday Dinara Safina has now joined the group of world number one tennis players. Dinara and Marat as the only brother and sister combination to have every been both world number one.
Safina is still yet to win a Grand Slam title but she has twice reached the final. Dinara Safina is the 19th woman to top the rankings since they were introduced in 1975.
Safina won four titles last year, but lost to Serena Williams at the Australian Open this year, who she replaced as world number one.
It is good to see however that Dinara is still in search of more and more titles.
“He has two Grand Slams,” Safina said of her brother in a video posted on the WTA’s Web site. “He’s still much better than me, so I have to catch him.”
Jonas Bjorkman Retires From Mens Professional Tennis Tour
Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman has bowed out of professional tennis after a glittering 17 year career that earned him nine Grand Slam doubles titles.
Bjorkman, 36, was treated to a special ceremony at Qi Zhong Stadium after he and partner Kevin Ullyett were knocked out of the Tennis Masters Cup doubles.
“They reminded me a little bit that this is obviously maybe my last match,” said Bjorkman, who noticed preparations for the farewell ceremony during the match.
“You know, I was trying to do everything possible to stay alive one more day, or maybe two.”
Bjorkman won all four doubles Grand Slams as well as the 1998 Davis Cup with Sweden and also reached the 1997 US Open singles semi-final and the last four at Wimbledon just two years ago.
Bjorkman and Ullyett fell to Poland’s Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski as the Swede failed in his bid for a third year-end title.
“I still think it’s great to end my career in the biggest event of the year, even if I would have gone further. But you can’t have everything,” he said.
“I’ve been mentally prepared for this because I’m mentally very ready to retire. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to play for so long.”
Bjorkman, who will now concentrate on editing a Swedish tennis magazine, cited the 1997 US Open loss to Britain’s Greg Rusesdski as his biggest regret.
“Obviously losing to Greg Rusedski in the semi-final was a tough loss because I think that was a chance for me maybe to go all the way,” he said.
Ana Ivanovic and Fernando Verdasco Have Been Taking In Some Football
We have previously reported about the relationship between Ana Ivanovic and Fernando Verdasco and this time they have been out and about together.
It is good to see Ana and Fernando are just being open about their relationship. Ana has to be one of the best looking female tennis players on tour and Fernando is just Spanish. Stay tuned for more photos and more information in the coming months as the Paps start to follow them. Oh and by the way they were watching Real Madrid play against Real Union.
Daniela Hantuchova Confirms For Brisbane International
Slovakian glamour girl, Daniela Hantuchova, is the latest to confirm her attendance at the Brisbane International in January.
The world number 19 was a semifinalist at the Australian Open in 2008 and broke into the top 10 when she reached number 5 in August 2002.
She will be joined by French Open Champion Ana Ivanovic and reigning Australian Women’s Hardcourt Champion Na Li in the women’s draw.
The men’s draw boasts Novak Djokovic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Marcos Baghdatis, Gael Monfils, Richard Gasquet and Mardy Fish with the player cut off date, for the tournament ,on the 21 November.
Daniela Hantuchova said “I am really excited about returning to Australia and playing a strong field in the lead up to the Grand Slam.
“I took home some really nice memories last year. It was something very special for me.
“With my preparation this year and the quality field at the Brisbane International, I will be even more ready.
“I love Australia and have played in tournaments there since 2001. I am looking forward to playing in this new event and challenging some high quality players in the lead up to the Australian Open.”
The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Have Released Season Ending Rankings
The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour has released the official 2008 season-ending tennis rankings.
Jelena Jankovic has ended the tennis year as the number one tennis player in the world, followed by Serena Williams, Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva, and Ana Ivanovic.
2007 POINTS DROPPED ON NOVEMBER 10: Madrid (SEC)
Top 20 Rankings (November 10, 2008)
1. Jelena Jankovic – Serbia – 4710
2. Serena Williams – United States – 3866
3. Dinara Safina – Russia – 3817
4. Elena Dementieva – Russia – 3663
5. Ana Ivanovic – Serbia – 3457
6. Venus Williams – United States – 3272
7. Vera Zvonareva – Russia – 2952
8. Svetlana Kuznetsova – Russia – 2726
9. Maria Sharapova – Russia – 2515
10. Agnieszka Radwanska – Poland – 2286
11. Nadia Petrova – Russia – 1976
12. Caroline Wozniacki – Denmark – 1678
13. Flavia Pennetta – Italy – 1670
14. Patty Schnyder – Switzerland – 1590
15. Victoria Azarenka – Belarus – 1494
16. Alize Cornet – France – 1492
17. Marion Bartoli – France – 1410
18. Anna Chakvetadze – Russia – 1363
19. Dominika Cibulkova – Slovakia – 1337
20. Katarina Srebotnik – Slovakia – 1272
SONY ERICSSON WTA TOUR RANKINGS
The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Rankings is the worldwide computer ranking for women’s professional tennis.
The ranking system is a 52-week, cumulative system in which the number of Tournament results that comprise a player’s ranking is capped at 17 Tournament results for Singles and 11 Tournament results for Doubles.
The results used to determine a player’s ranking are the Tournaments yielding the player’s highest Ranking points over the past 52 weeks.
Martina Hingis Still Proclaims She Is Innocent Over Drugs Ban
Martina Hingis has been a player at the top of the women’s game since she was only 16. Currently the star in serving her two year suspension for having cocaine in her system during Wimbledon back in 2007. Hingis claims she’s completely retired with no chance of returning after her sentence is served out.
She still proclaims her innocence, saying she has no idea how the banned substance entered her system, but gave up the court battle after losing her appeal in front of the International Tennis Federation in December 2007. Her suspension will last through October of 2009 and by then, she will be 29, not an age when she wants to start a third comeback.
Serena Williams Is No Longer World Number 1, Jankovic Takes Over
Serena Williams has lost in the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, which will see Jelena Jankovic now be the number one player in the world. Li Na was the lady who beat Williams in the second round 0-6 6-1 6-4.
Previously, we wrote about Carlos Rodriguez and his thoughts on the state of womens tennis, and it seems he has a point with already four players holding the number 1 ranking this year: Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams.
Venus Williams (USA) Player Profile
Name: Venus Williams
Country: USA
Birthdate: June 17, 1980
Birthplace: Lynwood, California, USA
Residence: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA
Plays: Right Handed (Double Handed Backhand)
Highest Singles Ranking: 1 (February 25, 2002)
Highest Doubles Ranking: 5 (October 11, 1999)
Scouting: As we all know Venus is the older of the two Williams sisters. Venus has been one of the most influential female tennis players in history. Between Venus and her sister Serena they have made womens tennis a lot competitive and exciting.
Venus has a very solid all-round game. One of her key strengths is her movement around court. Venus is a very agile and fast mover around court and with a very potent forehand and backhand to match. Under pressure Venus tends to break down in two key areas, her second serve and forehand. Her backhand is very consistent and can also hurt you on short balls. Players need to look to take advantage of her second serve and move forward into the court. When playing big points from the back of the court make Venus hit as many forehands as possible and if coming to net on her forehand make sure you cover the line, because that is her favourite passing shot.
Serena Williams (USA) Player Profile
Name: Serena Williams
Country: USA
Birthdate: September 26, 1981
Birthplace: Saginaw, Michigan, USA
Residence: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA
Plays: Right Handed (Double Handed Backhand)
Highest Singles Ranking: 1 (July 8, 2002)
Highest Doubles Ranking: 5 (October 11, 1999)
Website: www.serenawilliams.com
Winner US Open 2008
Scouting: Serena is one of the greatest women tennis players of all time. She has been at the peak of the sport for nearly a decade. Between Serena and her sister Venus they have nearly completely changed womens tennis for the better. Womens tennis is a lot stronger, faster and more exciting since they came on to the scene.
Serena has a very powerful all-round game which consists of strong ground strokes mixed with a powerful serve. Her serve is very compact and tends not to break down. Both forehand and backhands are equally powerful and dangerous. Serena is quite good at moving forward into the court but still doesn’t have the volleys to play a lot from the net. This is really the key weakness in her game. However, that being said she is very hungry to win, but some days in lower level tournaments she just doesn’t come out to play and tend to slip. When it comes Grand Slam time however wait to see her in the closing rounds.
