Tennis at the Opening Ceremony

Tennis was well-represented during the Summer Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in London last night. 8 of our beloved tennis players were flag bearers for their respective nations. Nole, Masha, Aga, Baghs, Horacio (lookin’ hawt), Steph Vogt, Stan The Man and The Beast all led their countries’ delegates during the parade of athletes.

I’m sure they all felt equally happy and proud but Nole showed it the most. As per yoosh.

Max pulled off the hat quite well. And so did Masha.

Actually, Masha made the Russian’s official wardrobe look good. Who knew a little sleeve fold could make a difference? Oh, right.

Aga and Horacio both cleaned up nicely. Very, very nicely.

 Images © AP, Getty

Australian Open 2011: A look ahead to Day 4

Rafael Nadal, Kim Clijsters, Vera Zvonareva, Robin Soderling, Andy Murray and Jelena Jankovic are some of the top players scheduled to take the courts on Day 4. I expect nothing but drama from today. I mean, after yesterday, I will now fiend for it until January 30.

Matches!

• Rafael Nadal [1] vs Ryan Sweeting
  I like both guys. I hope Ryan can make it competitive. But he can’t win because if he does then he might no longer play the Calabasas challenger. That would suck for me.
• Juan Martin del Potro vs Marcos Baghdatis [21]
  One thing: Please play well enough, DelPo.
• Bernard Tomic vs Feliciano Lopez [31]
  I need for Feli to win. Is that too much to ask?
• Bojana Jovanovski vs Vera Zvonareva [2]
  May or may not be tricky for Bepa. I honestly have no clue and that’s why I will be watching it.
• Andreas Seppi vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga [13]
  Jo better have found his game already. I don’t want another 5-shitter.
• David Nalbandian [27] vs Richard Berankis
  I have a newly found like for Berankis. (I just jinxed him forever, BTW, for making that statement public.) I kinda want him to win this even though I like Nalby.

Complete Day 4 schedule here.

Image via Australian Open / © Ben Solomon

US Open 2010: Day 2 wrap

Day 2 provided some great drama after yesterday’s snoozefest. Plenty of top seeds and favorites were pushed in their opening round matches.

Li Na is the first top seed out of the tournament. For different periods of time there, Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic looked like they wanted to follow Li out of New York City. Then, Maria Sharapova was stunned by her opponent in the start of their match and almost sent me to my death. *Flashbacks to Melbourne* Yeeesh. I thought Rafael Nadal was going to make easy work of his opponent. Nope.

But today’s big star? The motherf***ing heat. There were atleast 50 tweets from spectators/journalists about how hot it was in New York today. Tough. However, I think the players prepare themselves for these types of conditions and shouldn’t be an excuse for poor play. And there weren’t plenty of poor play today. All the matches I followed provided quality tennis and some entertainment.

Notable wins and losses:
Kateryna Bondarenko def. Na Li [8] 2-6, 6-4, 6-2
Andrea Petkovic def. Nadia Petrova [17] 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(4)
Urszula Radwanska def. Anna Chakvetadze 6-3, 6-3
Maria Sharapova [14] def. Jarmila Groth 4-6, 6-3, 6-1
Jelena Jankovic [4] def. Simona Halep 6-4, 4-6, 7-5

Complete Day 2 results here.

Image via Getty

US Open 2010: Day 2 preview

Day 2 is packed with interesting match-ups. A few of my favorites are playing like Maria Sharapova, Rafael Nadal, Fernando Verdasco, Ernests Gulbis, Maria Kirilenko and Sabine Lisicki. Twitter favorite, Andrea Petkovic, is also scheduled to take the court.

Complete Day 2 schedule here.

Image via Getty

Trophy case: August 8, 2010

I’m always late. I know.

Caroline Wozniacki defeated Klara Zakapalova 6-2, 7-6(5) at The Woz Open finals. Oh, it’s not called that? Why?! Okay, it’s the e-Boks Sony Ericsson Open in Farum, Denmark. This is Caro’s second SEWTA title of the year and eighth of her career.

Look, Ma! One hand!

Svetlana Kuznetsova is back to winning form! She defeated Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-3 in the finals of the Mercury Insurance Open in San Diego to claim her first title since winning Roland Garros last year. Sveta hasn’t had very good results after winning RG until now. She looked solid and confident (well, minus the little brain fart in the finals) all week in San Diego. I expect her to make a good run at the US Open Series and be in contention to win in New York City again.

This is her 13th SEWTA title.

David Nalbandian defeated Marcos Baghdatis 6-2, 7-6(4) in the finals of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, DC. It’s great to have a winning Nalby back as well. I hope he continues on this form throughout the entire US Open Series and maybe have another shot (although a very long one) at getting to a Grand Slam final again.

This is his 11th career ATP World Tour title.

Images via Getty

Roland Garros 2010: Day 6 wrap

Maria Kirilenko takes down another former champion in a Grand Slam event. Is this going to be an every slam thing? Kiri defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova in their third round encounter. I told  you so. Well, everyone saw this coming for miles away. Sveta hasn’t exactly looked like her slam-winning self and Kiri’s always a threat.

Aravane Rezai and Nadia Petrova played a drama-filled match with both players wasting 3 MPs. Play was suspended at 7-7 in the third set due to darkness and will resume tomorrow on Philippe Chatrier. Just like that Gael Monfils / Fabio Fognini match, it’s going to be a match of who can win two games in a row. My brain hurt-ed while watching, can’t imagine what Nads was going through. I don’t care about Aravane.

Notable wins and losses:
Justine Henin [22] def. Klara Zakopalova 6-3, 6-3
Maria Sharapova [12] def. Kristen Flipkens 6-3, 6-3
Svetlana Kuznetsova lost to Maria Kirilenko 3-6, 6-2, 4-6
Caroline Wozniacki def. Alexandra Dulgheru 6-3, 6-4
Andy Murray [4] def. Marcos Baghdatis 6-2, 6-3, 0-6, 6-2
Tomas Berdych [15] def. John Isner [17] 6-2, 6-2, 6-1
Fernando Gonzales [12] lost to Oleksandr Dolgopolov, Jr 3-6, 4-6, 3-6

Complete list of today’s scores here.

Image via Getty

Roland Garros 2010: A look ahead to Day 6

A fistful of matches to be completed from Day 5 are scheduled in almost all courts. Some mid-way through while others didn’t get a chance to start at all. It will be one busy weekend in RG! Although, the weather forecast looks good for tomorrow, rain will come again on Saturday and Sunday. Eeeek!

Catch some matches before it starts raining again:

• Aravane Rezai [15] vs Nadia Petrova [19]
  Ah, the seeds start to clash. Aravane’s been playing well. It was only 11 days ago that she defeated Venus Williams to win the Madrid title while defeating Justine Henin along the way. Nadia hasn’t been playing as well but still good enough to have a chance to win this. Nads defeated Serena Williams in Madrid en route to the quarterfinals where she fell to Lucie Safarova.
• Andy Murray [4] vs Marcos Baghdatis [25]
  C-Note vs Tracey. That’s nice. A week ago, I would have given Marcos all the advantage in this match-up but Muzz seems to be building on his matches this week and is starting to look more comfortable out there.
• Svetlana Kuznetsova [6] vs Maria Kirilenko [30]
  Dare I say, upset special? Kiri’s been flying under the radar in RG, she hasn’t dropped a set in both her matches. Sveta, on the other hand, had to fight off 4 match points in her previous round against Andrea Petkovic. She also has not looked very defending champion-y.
• John Isner [17] vs Tomas Berdych [15]
  This is fun. I no idea what to think about this one but I like both players and would love to see either of them move on to the second week. I do know that their H2H is 1-1 and Berd won their most recent meeting in Düsseldorf last week on clay.

Then there are the completion of some interesting matches (Haha!):

• Maria Sharapova [12] leads Kristen Flipkens 6-3, 2-2
• Justine Henin [22] leads Klara Zakapalova 6-3, 3-2
• Ivan Ljubicic tied with Mardy Fish 6-2, 6-7(8)

Complete Day 6 schedule here.

Image via Getty