Nadal Wins Another Clay Court Tournament, Passes Borg

From the BBC: Champion Nadal passes Borg mark

Rafael Nadal beat Tommy Robredo 6-4 6-4 6-0 in the final of the Barcelona Open on Sunday to claim his 47th clay-court win in a row.

The victory put Nadal ahead of Swedish legend Bjorn Borg into second place in the all-time list for consecutive wins...

45 and Counting for Nadal

Nicolas Almagro next will be tough.

From the AP: Nadal wins 45th straight match on clay

Rafael Nadal won his 45th straight match on clay Friday, a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Jarkko Nieminen that sent the top-seeded Spaniard into the Open Seat Godo semifinals.

Guillermo Villas holds the Open era record on clay with 53 consecutive wins in 1977. Bjorn Borg is second with 46 straight in 1979.

"Borg's total motivates me," said Nadal, the 19-year-old defending champion. "It thrills me to think it's there, but we'll have to see what happens."...

Federer to Rejoin Swiss Davis Cup Team

From Reuters: Federer confirms Davis Cup return for playoff

Roger Federer will return to Davis Cup duty in September when Switzerland will aim to preserve their place in the World Group.

Federer confirmed his decision during an exhibition tournament in Switzerland on Friday.

"He took us all by surprise," Swiss tennis association spokesman Daniel Monnin said in a statement on the association's website.

Nice Elena Dementieva Article

ESPN has posted a really good (and lengthy) article on Elena Dementieva.  It's well worth clicking over there and reading the entire article, but here's the beginning.

From ESPN: Good to a fault

Elena Dementieva had just returned home to Moscow after a tournament in Paris last September when Igor Nikolaev, one of her country's biggest pop stars, called. "Just listen to this," he said, and played her a new song. "Very nice," she offered, truthfully. "Good," replied Nikolaev, a huge tennis fan. "Now be the star in my video."

A week later, Dementieva was in St.Petersburg giving an MTV-worthy performance: waking up in bed, her long blond hair falling sensuously over bare shoulders; sauntering in skimpy jammies; pouting from behind the wheel of a silver Mercedes McLaren; purring over Nikolaev's piano.

James Blake Tennis Magazine Article

For those of you who don't get Tennis Magazine, James Blake's semi-official site has kindly posted the article about him in the May 2006 edition online: The Leading Man

Agassi Pulls Out of Rome

Since Andre Agassi had already announced he plans to take the clay court season off, his withdrawal from the Rome Masters event isn't exactly a surprise, but it's now official.

From Tennis Week: Agassi Withdraws From Rome

Since the start of the year, Andre Agassi has suggested he would likely skip the clay-court season and now it seems certain Agassi will not land on a court until after Roland Garros concludes. Today, the 2002 Rome champion withdrew from the Rome Masters Series event set to start on May 8th due to his  chronic sciatic nerve pain.

Clijsters May Skip Fed Cup Semis vs. U.S.

In a new diary entry on her website, Kim Clijsters mentions the possibility of skipping Belgium's Fed Cup tie vs. the United States - unless it's played on hardcourts.  So now the U.S. knows how to get Clijsters off the Belgian team, but are they willing to play on clay or grass?

From Clijsters' website:

"I would love to be part of the team when we will play against the US, even though the date is a bit of a problem as it is right after Wimbledon and before Stanford. However, should we be playing on hard court, that Fed Cup tie would be an easy transition and a great preparation for the hard court summer."

Almagro Defeats Coria

From Reuters: Double-faulting Coria hammered in Barcelona

Third seed Guillermo Coria double-faulted his way out of the Barcelona Open on Thursday when he was hammered 6-2 6-0 by Spaniard Nicolas Almagro in the third round.

On a day when 2002 French Open champion Albert Costa bowed out of professional tennis, the Argentine looked a shadow of the man who reached the French Open final in 2004. He produced 14 double faults won just six points in the second set.

Spectator Interrupts Nadal Match

Odd - very odd.

From Reuters: Handcuffed spectator interrupts Nadal's progress

Rafael Nadal's smooth progress into the quarter-finals of the Barcelona Open was briefly interrupted on Thursday when a female intruder handcuffed herself to the net post.

The top seed was leading Spanish qualifier Ivan Navaro-Pastor 6-4 4-0 when the interloper entered the court. After a brief wait she was cut loose and taken away by security guards.

Wimbledon Pay Controversy

There are a ton of articles out today on Wimbledon's decision to pay the women less than the men (most against, a few for) but I like this one the best. 

You can't beat the part where Wimbledon chairman Tim Phillips claims that to award equal prize money to men and women would be "fundamentally unfair to the men". 

Do you really think Roger Federer is going to be bothered if the women's champion is paid the same as him if the cash isn't coming out of his pocket?  (Theoretically, of course, someone besides Federer could be the Wimbledon champ.  But I'm not betting on it.)

From the International Herald Tribune: Wimbledon brings up the rear

So often the leader in tennis, Wimbledon finds itself the laggard this time, and at such a late stage in the game, the only point it is really proving by refusing to award equal prize money to the men and women is that All England club leaders still have a stubborn streak.