Mesh Tennis

ROCKET Man Elton John became a racket man at a top charity tennis match.

But while the rock knight showed he was no slouch on the court, the real smasher was former pro Anna Kournikova, now retired from the game.

Anna teamed up with Elton, who at 59 is still a passionate player and takes his tennis coach on tour, at the WTT All-Star Smash Hits event in California.

And fans were delighted to see the Russian star, 25, appear to be back to her sporty best after shedding a lot of weight just after she quit the pro game.

The event was co-hosted by Elton and tennis superstar Billie Jean King in aid of the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Daily Record

Marco Baghdatis withstood a tough third set Saturday to beat Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 and advance to the China Open final.

Baghdatis, a Cypriot who is seeded third, will play for the championship Sunday against fourth-seeded Mario Ancic of Croatia.

Ancic, sidelined since June after injuring his knee while on a yacht, rallied past eighth-seeded Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.

Lee upset top-seeded Ivan Ljubicic in Friday’s quarterfinals while Russian No. 2 Nikolay Davydenko retired with dizziness while trailing 6-2, 1-0, allowing Srichaphan to advance. USA Today

Top-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia beat defending champion Lindsay Davenport 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5) Saturday to reach the Wismilak International final.
Kuznetsova, the Wismilak winner in 2002 and 2004, will play for the title Sunday against sixth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France. Bartoli defeated second-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland 6-4, 6-4 in the other semifinal.

Entering Saturday, Kuznetsova had lost three of four matches against Davenport. USA Today

I don’t see how Kuz could lose this one.

nasdaq 017

Originally uploaded by commander robyn.

Spending her formative years as a classical pianist became the ideal preparation for handling the pressurised world of the women’s tennis tour, said Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova.

The world number 19, seeded fifth for the Bali International this week, spent her early days at the keyboard and her deft fingerwork before large audiences proved a formidable learning curve ahead of her experiences on the tennis court.

“I did some pretty big concerts, and I can tell you I’ve never, ever been so nervous in my life,” Hantuchova told Reuters.

“When I was about 13, 14, a couple of hundred at least would be watching, maybe a thousand. It was scary stuff, but it prepared me well for the tennis circuit so it was good,” said Hantuchova, who reached the heights of world number five in January 2003.

“I really enjoyed playing. It was very difficult time-wise because I had my school in the morning, tennis practise, then piano, then tennis again and then study in the evening. So I was finishing my day at 11, 11.30.

“Every day was like that from eight o’clock in the morning, and I loved it because there wasn’t any one second I had some free time.”
A winner in Indian Wells in 2002, Hantuchova also overlooked a promising academic career in order to pursue her first love. The Guardian

It is about time that it was recognized that the umpiring seemed oddly lopsided.

The U.S. Tennis Association will increase the number of women and minorities working as chair umpires at its tournaments following an investigation into possible discrimination.

The agreement was reached in late August but announced by the state attorney general’s office Thursday, days after the U.S. Open.

The decision “should help dispel any notion that women are incapable of competently umpiring or officiating men’s events, which is so pervasive throughout professional sports,” said Juanita Scarlett, spokeswoman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Spitzer’s office began an investigation of the USTA late last year after complaints from current and former umpires.

Investigators found that while women chaired about half the women’s matches at the U.S. Open from 2003-05, only five women were assigned to officiate at the 567 men’s matches. No female umpire was assigned to a later-round men’s match while male umpires were assigned to about 20 percent of the women’s late-stage matches. The investigation also found few minorities have been selected to umpire at the U.S. Open.

The settlement requires the USTA to assign more women as chair umpires to men’s matches at the U.S. Open and other tournaments, adopt anti-discrimination policies to make sure all officials have the same opportunities to umpire matches and hire a consultant to develop a nationwide program to boost the number of female and minority chair umpires.

The USTA also will have to keep better records to let the attorney general’s office monitor compliance with the agreement. Yahoo News

These two just can’t leave drama and controversy behind.

A judge ordered Venus and Serena Williams to turn over tax returns to prosecutors who claim the documents prove the tennis stars lied about their father’s involvement in their careers.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Winikoff said Thursday that portions of the tax returns are relevant to a multimillion-dollar breach of contract lawsuit the sisters and their father, Richard Williams, face for pulling out of a 2001 tournament.
Promoters Carol Clarke and Keith Rhodes, principals in the CCKR company, allege in the lawsuit against the women, that their father committed them to play in a 2001 “Battle of the Sexes” match and they backed out of the deal.

“We believe these tax returns will say that he is in fact their business manager,” CCKR attorney Judy Hyman said. “We’ve already seen that in Richard Williams’ tax returns.”

The sisters’ lawyer said the tax returns are irrelevant.

“There is nothing unusual about two successful daughters paying their father for coaching and for creating them,” F. Malcolm Cunningham said. “Those payments have nothing to do with whether or not the dad had the authority to commit them to play in a battle of the sexes.”

The case against the sisters initially ended in a mistrial in December. Fox Sports

As much as I don’t like Richard Williams, I can’t help but feel bad for all of the problems that the Williams sisters have faced over the years in dealing with their dad, the breakup of their parent’s marriage, and crimes/death of close relatives.

roland garros 2006 369

Originally uploaded by robyn.

To see my collection of photos from a few days I was at the Frech Open, click here .

The photo to the right is one of my favotires from the collection - Rafael Nadal is serving as the sun is going down. When you access the set, you can search the photo tags by player last name to find your favorites.

Watch for future posts about the photos I have taken as I bring all of the sets up to date and travel more.

Dmitry Tursonov answers fan questions on his ATP blog. This guy is pretty funny, and it is worth the read. I’ve put a good excerpt below:

Derek Mamour, Lisbon, Portugal
Privet Dmitry! I’d like to know what your last locker-room prank was.

Answer: Hi Derek! Love the name!
There has been too many pranks to name. I would have to update this daily. Last week I threw an apple at Grosjean at US Open. He deserved it though! Pulling out of doubles like that! In Toronto I hid Roger’s bag before the match! It actually worked! I got a set off the guy! You might also want to ask Big Poo (Philippoussis) if he has enough bananas in his bag. At the Open I put around forty bananas in his bag before his match.
Now that you mentioned it… It’s been a while! Got to find another prey this week! Mwuahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The ATP, as part of sweeping changes aimed at making tournaments more attractive to fans, television, players and tournament directors, plans to play early rounds of tour events as round-robins to ensure that marquee players remain throughout the week.

Davenport said the idea, due to start next year, could lead to tactical play.

“There’s [the potential for] a lot of fixing if your friend needs you to win or lose or whatever. A lot of things could happen. There are some kinks to be worked out for sure,” the American said on Monday.

Players might also not compete so strongly if they knew they would not be eliminated with one defeat, Davenport said.

“That could happen, although in women’s tennis I don’t see it happening because everyone’s so neurotic about always winning.”

The ATP announced the change last month and said it would also abolish best-of-five-set matches at tour events next year and phase in plans for eight-day events, beginning on a Sunday instead of a Monday. ESPN

For the US/Russia match, we have a lot of rematches going on:

Three players who reached the semifinals at the U.S. Open will meet next week in the Davis Cup semifinals.

Mikhail Youzhny should get a rematch against Andy Roddick when Russia faces the United States from Sept. 22-24 in Moscow on indoor clay. Both players were officially selected to their teams Tuesday, the International Tennis Federation said.

Nikolay Davydenko, who lost to eventual champion Roger Federer in the Open semifinals, was also chosen to play for Russia. He and Youzhny will be joined by Dmitry Tursunov and Marat Safin.

Roddick will team with U.S. Open quarterfinalist James Blake, and the No. 1-ranked duo of Bob and Mike Bryan.

Last week, Roddick beat Youzhny 6-7 (5), 6-0, 7-6 (3), 6-3 to reach the U.S. Open final, while Davydenko lost to Federer 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 in the other semifinal. Blake reached the quarterfinals in New York, but also lost to Federer. ESPN

By far, the better matches in terms of pure drama will end up being those between Australia and Argentina. In the past, Hewitt’s attitude and arrogance has gotten to his Argentinean opponents - resulting in Chela spitting at him on court once.

Argentina will host Australia in the other semifinal on outdoor clay in Buenos Aires.

Lleyton Hewitt, Mark Philippoussis, Wayne Arthurs and Paul Hanley will represent Australia, while David Nalbandian, Agustin Calleri, Jose Acasuso and Juan Ignacio Chela were chosen to play for Argentina.

Hewitt, whose 28 singles victories make him Australia’s most successful Davis Cup player, was reluctant to commit to the semifinal series because of a knee injury and an aversion to clay.

Hewitt has also had on-court clashes with several Argentine players, including Nalbandian and Chela, and had spoken of his apprehension about the reception he might receive in Buenos Aires.

Davis Cup site