IIWAPE

Let us (me) play a game called: If I Were A Photo Editor. Here are some of the photos I’d use to wrap the London 2012 Games.

A typical tennis audience size. Juuuuuuuust kidding.

Pins are apparently all the craze at the Olympics. I’m assuming Vee received the coveted RF pin.

A glitch in the system! This rare hair moment during the semifinals should have set off alarms that things were going to be very messy.

See photo. Use photo.

“Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka shared a laugh together.” Nobody would have believed me if there wasn’t photographic evidence.

Sisters.

My new life goal is to smack an Olympic gold medalist’s face with a flag. Because why not?

Goodnight.

Images via AP, Getty

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

Top 5 moments of 2008

The Davis Cup final tie between Spain and Argentina officially closed out the tennis year last week. Now, we look back at the moments that shook the tennis world. Some were inevitable while others left us all in shock but these moments mostly reminded us of why we fell in love with the game. From the top players producing some sort of magic on court to the up and comers throwing everything at their opponents, it’s been one heck of a year and I look forward to an even more interesting one to come.

#5 – Dinara Safina comes of age

Dinara Safina broke out this year tearing up the clay and summer hardcourt seasons with key wins over Justine Henin and Serena Williams in Berlin, Maria Sharapova and Elena Dementieva in Paris and Jelena Jankovic in Los Angeles. She won 4 WTA titles this year with back-to-back wins at Los Angeles and Montreal. Dinara’s newly found composure on court has certainly helped with her achievements this year. Marat’s baby sister has come out of his shadows and is making statements of her own.

#4 – Justine Henin’s sudden retirement and the rest of the top 10 battle for #1

Who would have thought that the best player on the women’s tour would no longer be stepping on centre court even before this year’s French Open when the tennis season is just settling in. Justine’s sudden retirement left the entire tennis world in total shock. Even the rest of the women’s field did not know what to do with themselves that it seemed as if nobody wanted to assume the position as the best in the world. Every week for what seemed like an eternity, we had a different number 1 player until Jelena Jankovic, sans a grand slam title, took it upon herself to rack up the points and end the year as world number 1.

#3 – The Russian women win it all at the Summer Olympics in Beijing

Given that half of the top 10 women on the WTA tour are Russians, it hardly came as a surprise when the medals at this year’s Olympic games were handed out to the ladies in red. Elena Dementieva, Dinara Safina and Vera Zvonareva won gold, silver and bronze, respectively.

#2 – Rafael Nadal: Finally!

After trailing the world’s best, Roger Federer, in the ATP ranking for about 3 years, Rafa finally took the top spot on August 18, 2008. He did it in superhuman fashion too. He won all but one tournament in the clay court warm-ups leading to the French Open, won the French Open, won his first grass court title in Queens and then won Wimbledon. Rafa became an all-court player this year and defeated Roger 4 consecutive times en route to his claim of that seemingly inaccessible top spot.

#1 – Roger vs Rafa at Wimbledon: Greatest match ever?

I do not know of any sports fan who did not watch tennis that Sunday. Saying it was an epic match is almost an understatement but most of us are at a loss of words on how to put it. Classic? Larger-than-life? Blockbuster? All these words came up while I was trying to write about it. Well, it was all of the above and then some. I’ve never seen a match where both players were playing at their best and willing to do anything to win. There was a lot at stake for both, Roger was trying to resurrect a mediocre year (in Roger’s standard, anyway) and was gunning for his 6^th consecutive Wimbledon title while Rafa had his sights on world number 1 and his first grand slam title outside of clay. There was definitely something in the air that day and I hope that air shows up again sometime next year.

Here’s to a good 2009 and to more great tennis moments in the coming months!

Trophy case: August 17, 2008

Juan Martin Del Potro won his 4th consecutive title at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, DC. In his 19-match winning streak, he has only beaten one Top 10 player in Andy Roddick so we have yet to really see how he’ll be able to handle a Djokovic or a Rafa.

Nadia Petrova won her 1st title of the year after she beat Nathalie Dechy at the Western & Southern Financial Group Open in Cincinnati. Petrova’s been on a comeback trail since Wimbledon and hopefully she’ll be able to do well at the US Open.

Women’s doubles medalists; Team China (Yan Zi and Zheng Jie) won bronze, Team Spain (Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual) won silver and Team USA (Venus and Serena Williams) won gold.

Men’s doubles medalists; Team USA (Bob and Mike Bryan) won bronze, Team Sweden (Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson) won silver and Team Switzerland (Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka) won gold.

Women’s singles Team Russia medal sweep! Vera Zvonareva won bronze, Dinara Safina won silver and Elena Dementieva won gold.

Men’s singles medalists; Serbia (Novak Djokovic) won bronze, Chile (Fernando Gonzales) won silver and Spain (Rafael Nadal DUH!) won gold.

As much as I’d love for Rafa to win the USO, I just don’t think he’ll have enough to do it but we will see!

Russian women grab all the singles medals

Half of the top 10 ranked women in tennis are Russians so it’s no surprise that they grabbed gold, silver and bronze at the Olympics. What’s surprising is the gold medal winner, That Elena Dementieva, whose lack of mental toughness and a serve has kept her in the shadows of her Russian compatriots. She was able to stop a surging Dinara Safina who had just won back to back tournaments before heading to Beijing. The Olympics brings some sort of spark in Elena’s game though, winning silver in Sydney and finally getting gold this year. Vera Zvonareva, who replaced Maria Sharapova on the Russian team(!), won over Li Na for bronze to keep that medal podium all Russo. Davai ladies!

Roger, thanks for the memories!

The Fed was upset by James Blake 6-4 7-6 today at the Olympic Games in Beijing crushing Fed’s hopes of ever winning a medal. I was really hoping for Roger to make some kind of move here but I guess that steady decline is on cruise control. Well, it’s been one heck of a career for Roger and there’s really no need for smug faces. Kay, Rog?

As one American went one step forward to a medal, two took too manys steps back. Favorites to medal at these games, Venus and Serena were defeated by Li Na and That Elena Dementieva, respectively.

Olympics watch: Kuznetsova and other seeds fall

Count on the Olympics to always bring early round upsets and surprise winners when it comes to tennis. I’m sure Massu winning gold in Athens made you think “WTF?” just like these early round exits:

• Svetlanta Kuznetsova was defeated by Li Na in the 1st round 7-6 6-4.
• Daniela Hantuchova was defeated by Caroline Wozniacki 6-1 6-3. Something’s very wrong with Danka, I hope she fixes it ASAP.
• Andy Murray was defeated by Yen-Hsun Lu (SRSLY!) 7- 6-4. Where the heck did this come from? Yes, only in the Olympics. Maybe Andy was too spent from winning his first AMS shield and wants to recharge for the USO. I hope that’s his plan because this is just.. no.
• Defending gold medalist Nicolas Massu was defeated by David Nalbandian 7-6 6-1. Well, this is a new year so new surprises are in store Nicolas, sorry but you are so 2004.
• Stanislas Wawrinka was defeated by Jurgen Melzer 6-4 6-0.