Who's your favourite Tennis player? #1

[Scott]

are you all in UK and Europe going to be able to watch the hit for haiti event IW director organised? i think most of the major tennis broadcasters and satellite providers will be broadcasting the event.

andre & pete VS roger & rafa

and women will be

steffi & lindsay davenport VS martina navratilova & justine (my mouth is already watering about this one )

 

[Chaky]

That sounds great. I doubt it will be shown here but I'll have to check. Live streaming may be the only option.

Had to post this about Great Britain's Davis Cup campaign this weekend:

Great Britain reached a new low in the Davis Cup as Dan Evans suffered a five-set loss in the decisive singles match to hand Lithuania a 3-2 victory.

The 6-7 7-5 6-0 2-6 6-4 win for Laurynas Grigelis means Britain must now beat Turkey, who lost to Ireland, in a relegation play-off in July. The loser of that tie will drop into Europe/Africa Zone Group III - the lowest tier of the competition.

James Ward's loss to Ricardas Berankis meant the final rubber was decisive.

Britain began the day 2-1 up but they must now face up to the embarrassment of coming unstuck against a country with only three world-ranked singles players and a team made up entirely of teenagers.

Evans's defeat was his fourth in two Davis Cup appearances and comes against a player ranked 269 places below him at 521 in the world and who has never played a match on the ATP World Tour.

BBC Sport

 

[Scott]

^eeek...

what a superb win for the chileans,btw. to be vulnerable in the wake of this disaster,play there and come out the victor,it's got to be especially sweet for these guys.

 

[miu_miu]

agreed!

did you guys hear about laureus sports awards? kim clijsters won comeback of the year, well deserved and serena won sportswoman of the year.

 

[Scott]

^indeed. and i'm happy they went against the usual hype-machine crap that the espy's do and went with somebody who actually came back and won something big.

 

[Scott]

some awkaward moments between the guys last night during the hit for haiti match....andre took a couple of pretty below-the-belt shots at pete. definitely made things rather uncomfortable for a couple moments. all in all though very fun match. roger was pretty comical in his own right.

the women's match was very fun as well. martina was the mouthpiece of the evening and was very funny. twice steffi went for shots and her battery pack to her mic fell out whilst she was running. she was so funny when the guy was replacing it and affixing to her bloomers so it wouldn't fall off again and she said something to the affect better not let andre catch you doing this. it's really nice to see steffi on the court again...i didn't get to see steffi full-on during her career as i got into tennis just as she was about to retire and what i remember the forehand is still pretty strong. and even after having two children,she's still pretty zippy.

 

[Scott]

oh my god....did anybody watch rafa's match yesterday? was that really mario ancic or a body double? that boy has got gorgeous!!! he just did not look the same to me whatsoever. i like him better this way....

 

[Chaky]

Been a bit busy so not really following Indian Wells. But I wasn't too pleased to see Roger get knocked out by Baghdatis. He had 3 match points too.

 

[miu_miu]

oh my god....did anybody watch rafa's match yesterday? was that really mario ancic or a body double? that boy has got gorgeous!!! he just did not look the same to me whatsoever. i like him better this way....

Regular readers will know me as a long term fan of Mario so when I read this I did have to run over to getty & take a look

....because when he was off all the time injured this profile pic appeared

atpworldtour.com

I thought we might never see the cute Mario of old again, like this....

gettyimages.

He looks much better but still needs some work
These shorts however, there's no helping....


DISLIKE.
gettyimages.

 

[Scott]

oh yeah definitely not there yet with the form yet,but egads has he filled out in a good way

anyway

lena lost today to a somehow even more exceptionally clever radwanska. lena just could not get a foothold on anything especially in the second. very disappointing actually because with so many seeds gone lena was looking like the favourite. but aggie played probably better than i've seen her play...really within herself.

disappointing loss for suarez navarro too. she actually played very well this week and was up a set and 4/1 on kleybanova before alisa clawed her way back. alisa is no chump by any means but to have such a commanding lead like that is really terrible. i will say the way alisa has been playing not only this week but the last month,i would not be surprised if she ended up fighting her way to her biggest final perhaps even her biggest title.

 

[Tinna]

Ivan Ljubičić is great! He defeated Nadal

The American will play for the title Sunday against Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, who rode his big serve to a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (1) victory over defending champion Rafael Nadal -- the first time in 26 years that both men's semifinals went three sets.

 

[Scott]

hurrah for JJ!! i'm happy to see that she's back in a winning position again. i knew from the beginning much of her struggle had so much to do with a lack of confidence and i think getting past these players this week has given her some positive energy and it was clear against caroline today. she looked like the old JJ that we all know. if only this could inspire ana ivanovic.

 

[Scott]

ahh...fantastic for ivan!! who would have ever thought? after some disappointing performances the last few months he comes her upsets nole and is on fire the rest of way. super win. i've always enjoyed the way he plays. probably the only person of his kind this side of roger federer.

btw,regarding the women,caroline will rise to 2 in the world in tomorrow's ranking. sam stostur who also had a very good tournament will debut in the top 10. and if i'm not mistaken alisa kleybanova will be in the top 20. brilliant run she had as well.

 

[Chaky]

Impressive for Wozniacki. She's really consistent and deserves her #2 spot. But she was totally outplayed by Jankovic in today's final. And Jelena couldn't lift the trophy afterwards. Not so good to design a fancy trophy that the winner can't even pick up because it's too heavy.

 

[Scott]

so once again,elena dementieva has been drawn to face justine henin...in the second round. i really hope lena knows what to expect from her this time. and i really believe if anybody can turn prior mis-fortune around it's her. she'll be out for a bit of redemption i feel.

 

[Scott]

what a disappointing performance from lena. and so handily too. i just think juju is in her head and she just can't purge it.

btw,there was a bit of news last week during IW that sort of went unheard....nicole vaidisova retired from tennis and is marrying radek stepanek in july. i have to be honest,i am not terribly surprised by this news. her focus for the last two years has been so far and away from tennis,i would have expected it would have been sooner.

 

[AnaBGD]

What?!
I'm not surprised that she's retiring. She was nowhere to be found for a long time, I'm surprised by the other part of the news. HIM? Of all people? I know we already had discussion about him, but... oh well, as long as she's happy...

I didn't follow much of the action after the AO, but I am glad that JJ is getting her form back, I watched Indian Wells final and she seemed very strong. Hopefully it will last.
On the other hand Ana is going downhill at fast paste. I don't even think it's a bad period anymore, it seems now that her success was just a good period, unfortunately...

 

[Scott]

^well they had been together for two or three years now. you know i've defended him in the past but i have to admit ever since that relationship began that's when nicole's focus went completely out the window.

i do feel sad for her though nevertheless. she's only 20 years old and had already had so much success while still a teenager and to see the prospects of what was possibly ahead,is rather disappointing. i mean she could have been holding up a major by now as accomplished she had been in the slams already. semi at australia,semi at RG and two QF at wimbledon....all when she was between 16-18 yr. old. maybe she'll do a kim,juju or alicia molik later but as a fan you hate to see somebody that young decide to end it like that.

i agree with you about ana. and yesterday at miami she was beaten by aggie radwanska in straights....somebody who ana had a solid edge over. it just shows where she is and perhaps where she's going if she doesn't find something. she just doesn't seem have that spark about her anymore. she quite often looks a bit lost out there.

 

[yesitsdagny]

Rafa Nadal. Why? Because he's Spanish and I love everything about Spain

 

[classicalbang]

New thread here.