I was in Indian Wells this year shooting for Tennis Panorama. (Thanks, Karen!) Four days in the desert with the two loves of my life, photography and tennis, I had a grand time. Obvs.

Laura Robson vs Sofia Arvidsson was the first match I went to. Laura ran across my frame and I caught this shot 3 minutes in. Not bad. Laura had a pretty good start, too, until…

Oh, well, next time.

Unhappy Pico. Maybe it was because the Argentine fans were on the wrong side of the court.

Rafa is totes judging.

It was great to see Petko back on a tennis court!

You know who else was great to see?

Clueless Pablo is the best Pablo, K?

YOU’RE WELCOME.

BYE.

Okay, Ivo, let’s refocus.

I’m pretty happy about this shot.

Rafa is late.

Masha showing off her shirt that says eternity, time with a circle and a line.
Is that, like, Geometry or what?!

ANYWAY. Some sort of Geometry obviously went into the making of this.

Totes.

Nole being Nole rolling around the grass for no reason.

Sveta being Sveta.

Benoit! Fans!

Petra’s not happy.

Muzz was not happy here either but he was using #sarcasmfont.

GUISE, WHY YOU ALL MAD?

Night time closing in during Masha’s match. She’s ready to sleep.

Rafa under the watchful eye of Mr. Ellison.

Empty practice courts at 11:00PM.

And that’s all I got from IW. I am quite pleased about how Finals Sunday unfolded in the desert. Let’s do it again next year!

Herve Leger and Caroline Wozniacki. Always.

And forever.

You know, I am not going to complain about this Caro-Herve thing as long as it spares us from this.

I have no doubt Catharine Malandrino is a Vika fan.

Lacoste says oversized is in. Surely inspired by their partnership with Andy.

Juan Carlos Obando took some style notes from Sharapova.
(This is still my favorite Masha on-court look, BTW.)

Only fitting that these next 2 were from the US Open:

I take it Anna Sui cannot forget this 2010 US Open moment?

Prabal Gurung was all about leather and bad ass a la Serena from the 2004 US Open.

And last but definitely not least:

Marc Jacobs is a Nole fan.

Vika’s history with pull outs and extreme injuredness did not help her last night. I won’t speculate how bad or not bad her breathing problem / panic attack / nerves (is she from LA?) were because no matter how much we ask and try to come up with answers, she’s the only who really knows. The timing of it all, however, merits all this outrage. According to Vika, her rib started to hurt and she had trouble breathing at 4-2 in the second, yet she didn’t call for the trainer until 5-4, which was 2 TV change overs later. At that time, Sloane was gaining life having just saved 5 match points. It was “bad timing,” she said. OH, REALLY?! You don’t say.

Vika isn’t the first tennis player to call a questionable MTO and probably won’t be the last. So much for that “gentleman’s game” reputation, huh? Not so noble moves are being made. Perhaps it’s time to throw that notion out the window.

Lena D sums up my feelings about Vikagate.

Image © Getty Images

Novak Djokovic in Melbourne, man. Another year, another epic.

My weak self wasn’t able to finish this match. I was struggling to stay awake midway though the second set and after Stan lost the lead and, eventually, the set, I was convinced the match was over. (Sorry, Stan!)

What an effort from the Swiss to claw his way back into the match and give himself a chance at winning it until the very end. He was 2-1 sets down after almost being up 2-0 himself. Against the World No. 1 and someone he hasn’t beaten in 6+ years? A bit of crumbling in the fourth was customary. But he and his backhand didn’t and gifted us all a classic! We should be buying both these guys beers for the rest of the year. Errr… During their days off, of course.

The match in 3 frames:

Images © Getty Images

Almost 7 minutes of “highlights” and I’m sure I’ve seen everything that I need to know about this match. Props to everyone who endured all 4:43. Gold star for y’all.

I’ve seen a 5-2 lead in a set disappear too many times in my career as a tennis fan. We all saw it yesterday when Sam Stosur led by that scoreline in the 3rd set against Jie Zheng before she collapsed in front of her home crowd (where else?), 4-6 6-1 5-7. Although a 5-2 lead can be misleading sometimes, a player can lead by that much with only one break of serve, that wasn’t the case in this one. Sam was ahead 2 breaks and had all the momentum. She was asked about the c-word in her presser and didn’t disagree.

Q. How much of it was mental as opposed to physical?

SAMANTHA STOSUR: Oh, I think it’s a hundred percent. I think, yeah, that’s what it was. I got tight and then you start missing some balls. You probably think a little bit too much. You do it over and over and over again, and then, yeah, you start not wanting to miss rather than wanting to, you know, make the winner.

Q.  Do you think you choked?

SAMANTHA STOSUR:  I don’t know.  Whatever word you want to put on it.  At 5 2 up in the third, double break probably is a bit of a choke, yeah.

Oh, Sammy, why are you so scared of Australia?

Image © REUTERS/Daniel Munoz

The entire tennis community stool still when Serena Williams took a tumble on court today and didn’t move for what felt like an eternity. She rolled over her right ankle while reaching for a forehand during her first round match against Edina Gallovits-Hall. Thankfully, a trainer visit and an ankle re-tape was enough for Serena to play on. Post-MTO, she made it a point to whack the crap out of the ball to end points quickly. She hit clean winner after clean winner and served her opponent 2 lovely bagels.

After the match, Serena said only “something fatal” will stop her from competing.

Q. So Thursday is too early to call, whether you can play Thursday?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Oh, I’ll be out there. I mean, unless something fatal happens to me, there’s no way I’m not going to be competing.

I’m alive. My heart’s beating. I’ll be fine.

Serena’s got a day off tomorrow which should help her recover—she and Venus are not on doubles duty yet. But however severe the injury, she seems determined to play on. She’s won this tournament before while nursing injuries (yup, more than one) so, you know, just do it again.

Q. Would you rather not know what the exact damage is and just play with the pain for the rest of the tournament?

SERENA WILLIAMS: Honestly, yeah, really, because I would really rather not know. I know one year I won this tournament and had two bone bruises in both knees. I had no idea. I just knew I was in pain.

I think sometimes what you don’t know cannot hurt you.

Image © Getty Images

The first day of a slam. It’s all so exciting and you make plans that it’s going to be such a fun and relaxed day of tennis-watching. Two hours go by and suddenly everything is happening at the same time, you can’t keep up and it is now super stressful. We fumble with our keyboards trying to flip streams because Twitter said a good match is going on at Court 18. What if it ends up becoming an epic? No one wants to miss out on an epic. *fumble* *fumble* *bufferiiiiiiing…* “Goddamnit!” Also, World No. 547 is leading the 12th seed over on MCA. “Wait, he was but not anymore? Is my stream delayed?” No. 22 is getting routined over at 4. Your sometimes favorite is in a deciding set against some dangerous floater. There’s an upset alert on Hise… RaaaaaaaaaahIlovetennis!

I tried to absorb as much as I could on Day 1 of the Australian Open. I tried so hard that my brain was starting to tap out before the day session ended then nodded off 2 games into the Hewitt-Tipsarvic match. WEAK. In no particular order, here’s what I remember most about the first day:

• You don’t engage in a long rally with a “rusty” Maria Sharapova because she’ll come alive.
• Venus Williams is looking sharp early on and is on course to meet Sharapova in the 3rd round.
• Sam Stosur won her first match of the year! Phew.
• Agree with Andy Roddick, Novak Djokovic is still good at tennis.
• Patrick McEnroe’s seemingly ridiculous prediction almost came true. That’s what you get for laughing, tennis world. And me, too.
• Grigor Dimitrov flames out to veteran, Julian Benneteau. Kid still has a lot of work to do on the tennis court. *winkyfaceemoji*
• What happened, Juan Monaco? And who is Andrey Kuznetsov?
• Sad we won’t be seeing more of Mona Barthel’s wide array of outfits.
• Ana Ivanovic scored a good win over Melinda Czink.
• Yung-Jan Chan def Daniela Hantuchova 6-1, 1-6, 6-1. Yeeeaaaap, this is Dani’s life these days.

I’m sure I’m forgetting a few notable matches/results because I don’t think this is even 1/4 of the Day 1 happenings. Aaah! Let’s do it again!

Image © Getty Images

Bernard Tomic won his first ever ATP World Tour title in Sydney after defeating Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-3 in the finals and he’s feeling reeeeal good.

“I feel unstoppable. I feel like I’m playing great tennis and when you know no-one can beat you – not even the number one – you’ve got a good feeling and it’s amazing stepping on court, you’re so confident.”

Number 1? As in Novak Djokovic? Because the last time I checked, Bernie hasn’t won a single match against the Serb. In their most recent Tour meeting in Toronto last August, he managed to win only 5 games. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, kid. 42 ranking spots and 33 titles, including 5 majors, separate him and the World No. 1.

Update: Looks like I missed Bernie beating Nole at the Hopman Cup a few weeks ago. They don’t take stuff so seriously there but, hey, a win is a win. Or something. (Thanks, ccmac!)

And Bernie didn’t stop there. There’s also this gem from his pre-tournament presser in Melbourne.

Q. I’m sure you’ll probably say ‘take it one match at a time’. Third round against Roger Federer, can you beat him?

BERNARD TOMIC: Well, I saw the papers this morning (laughter).

Well, if he gets that far. I mean, like I said, the first round is my goal, to beat this guy. I do struggle against some guys out there. I don’t know how this guy can play. If the possibility comes for me to win that first match, I’ll look for my next round, which is also tough.

I would love to get in that position to play Roger in the third round. He has to get there as well. You don’t know what can happen. Tennis is a funny sport. So we’ll see.

I mean, what he said isn’t technically wrong but a little more respect to one of the greatest tennis players of all time would be nice.

Arrogance aside, it seems like the “up and comers” have decided to arrive this year with Bernie lifting his first big boy trophy and Grigor Dimitrov reaching the finals of Brisbane last week. If this holds up, it’s going to be a very exciting year.

Serena Williams started off the new season right where she left off. Errr, that’s winning, if you’ve been living under a tree. As usual, it’s hard to see anyone beating Serena in Melbourne but a Viriginie Razzano could always emerge out of nowhere. And only a Virginie catching Serena on an off day can beat her. Vika and Masha ain’t doin’ it.

Between training, playing and winning, Serena found some time to take a stroll around Brisbane. She looked super relaxed in this cute floral number. (Side note: Florals will forever be this to me.)

Current US Open champ, Andy Murray, successfully defended his Brisbane title. He looked a little off, especially during his opening round, but worked his way through a soft-ish field. Shaky play isn’t ideal but Andy will walk into a Slam grounds as a major champion for the first time ever. That should do some weird (in a good way) things to his confidence.

During his winner’s speech, Andy revealed that he’s been playing with a heavy heart as his best friend and doubles specialist, Ross Hutchins, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma last December. Ross announced via Twitter that he will be taking time off tennis to undergo treatment for the disease.

I am doing well, very positive with excellent medical support,friends and family around me. Looking forward to being back on the court soon!

— Ross Hutchins (@RoscoHutchins) January 6, 2013

I wish Ross a smooth and speedy recovery!

Images © Getty