Pro Tennis Fan

The Women and Weight: the Obsession with Serena & Hantuchova

Good piece on the NY Times blog about the media's focus on weight re: the WTA. Sorry about the erratic posting; it's been busy over here!

Vince Spadea Rapping on My TV.

Oh the humanity. Dear God, make it stop.

In other news; Luis Horna played some inspired tennis v. Nadal earlier and was rewarded with a standing ovation as he left the court, defeated. And Serena WIlliams just came back in the first set to take out an unraveling Hantuchova.

US Open Blogs: Ana Ivanovic and the NYTimes

I'm kind of loving the NY Times' coverage of the US Open this year, and I am really enjoying the blog. Interesting tidbits: Andrei Pavel's emmy-worthy performance as foil to the American hero; TIF (The Immaculate Federer) was the one major player who came over to Donald Young to wish him luck in the locker room; Ljubicic's sorry support; and Federer = what musician?

Here's Ana's blog.

Wednesday's Insane OOP; LIVE STREAMS

Tomorrow is apparently Tennispalooza. I hate anyone who is going to be kicking it at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center tomorrow. Here's the line up. David McPherson at theworldoftennis.com is seeing red re: the American bias in scheduling.

Also, Lynn over at offthebaseline.com has a great page on live streaming options.

Maria Sharapova's "I Feel Pretty" Ad

It's actually pretty damn good. Shocking! A Sharapova ad that's watchable! ;-)

Tuesday at the US Open

I'm very curious to see if Michaela Krajicek, who's having a pretty good year, can trouble the single-mindedness and focus of Sharapova; and to see if Philippoussis' serve gives Nadal any trouble. Other matches I'd love to see: Santoro v. Verdasco, and Grosjean v. Thomas Johansson.

Here's the schedule for today, US Open radio (which isn't bad; though the guy I listened to during Lopez-Ljubicic/Baghdatis seemed to be having baseball flashbacks) if you want to listen at work, and live video streaming if you want to watch on your computer.

US Open Day 1: Ljubicic Loses; Agassi Wins

Match of the day? Agassi, Agassi, Agassi. From what I saw of it, Andrei Pavel was playing some great tennis; and Andre Agassi did well to dig out of  0-4 in the 3rd set. "You want to to be everything you hope it is," said Agassi. "It was perfect." Indeed it was. But can he take out Baghdatis, too? Here's a match review and Agassi's press conference.

Feliciano Lopez finally got his own back against Ivan Ljubicic and logged the upset of the day 6-3 6-3 6-3. LaLo had lost to Ljubicic at the Australian Open, and then again in a brutal 5 set match at Wimbledon. This win takes Lopez to 3-2 over Ivan lifetime. Poor Ivan is still getting no love from...well, anyone. This first round loss won't help.

Interesting factoid: Lopez never faced a breakpoint all match and didn't lose a single point (!) on serve in the 2nd set. Here's a match review.

In other news, 2004 champ Svetlana Kuznetsova escaped an upset in her three set win against a German qualifier; Lindsay Davenport's shoulder is feeling ok; Elena Dementieva got through despite 30+ errors; and Andy Roddick radiated confidence all over the court in his win over Florent Serra. Serra's no pushover, but I'm very eager to see what happens when Roddick comes up against a tougher challenge.

Be sure to check out press conference video and transcripts as well as the daily highlights video at the US Open site. Shame on the US Open for not even including tWorld Number 3 Ivan Ljubicic's interview transcript.

So It Begins...

The last slam of the year. Slight rain delay, but here we go. Justine's up first; then Andy Roddick. If anyone's watching matches this afternoon, leave your thoughts here!

Here are live scores. Also, watch the Open for free online here.

Helen Mirren, I Love You

Totally not tennis related, but who cares. My god, that is the woman I want to grow up to be. :worship:

US Open Previews

Here are a couple of good looks at the Open: Here's Eurosport's look at potentially exciting first week match ups, Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim's Mens and Womens seeds reports, The World of Tennis' look at the Mens' Draw and look at the Women's Draw,  the NY Observer on "The Boring Women of the Open" (Martina Hingis is crazy).

In other news: the BBC is crazy.