Mesh Tennis

Attention is really turning to Nadal now!

Here’s a few more Celebrity Gossip photos of Nadal and Xisca.

There are additional photos if you follow the link.

Here’s some more info about Xisca and her relationship with Nadal:

Both have been a pair for three years, but are determined not to become a “celebrity” couple.

Xisca, a student, has always sought to keep Rafa grounded, though he has won four French Open titles and Wimbledon this year.

The Daily Star quoted a pal, as saying: “She likes to keep a low profile – so low that until recently many of Rafa’s pals didn’t even know who she was. Xisca is a quiet girl who likes dinner with her girlfriends, Hollywood movies and just spending tender moments with Rafael. She knows there is a lot of hype surrounding him but won’t let it go to their heads.”

Nadal, 22, said recently of Xisca, whose full name is Maria Francisca: “She is ­perfect for me, because she is very relaxed and easy-going.” MSN

Note- follow links to X17 at your own risk - I had to pull this from an RSS feed because X17 seems to have some ads that prevent me from getting to the actual content for this article.

To see the rest of this photos, hopefully this link will work for you - links from any other sources - news sites, search engines - and refreshing the page did not work for me.

Another link with a photo - Celebrity Gossip

And TMZ jumped in on the coverage:

L. Jon Wertheim, who wrote a cover story about the match for this week’s issue of Sports Illustrated, has signed to deliver Strokes of Genius for 2009. According to Wertheim’s editor, Susan Canavan, the book came out of “one of those rare moments” when you have a writer who’s very much in the right place at the right time.

…

The idea, hatched by Canavan, Wertheim and his agent Scott Waxman, was to examine a single match played Federer in order to get at, as Canavan put it, “the science, the art, the psychology, technology and personality” that come together on the court.

Strokes of Genius will be very similar, but with more space devoted to the Nadal-Federer rivalry and the culmination of it at the Wimbledon final. Canavan said Wertheim will “get inside” the players’ heads and examine their different styles of play. “We were always hoping [the match he covered] would be against Nadal” she said. “But this just lines up perfectly.” Publisher’s Weekly

Werheim has a collection of interesting books he’s been involved in, including authoring books about martial arts and pool hustling.

I think we’re only waiting for Sports Illustrated to make a statement now…I don’t get the feeling that will be happening.

Television commercials featuring Gimelstob promoting the U.S. Open Series are being scrapped by the U.S. Tennis Association because of what he said about Anna Kournikova and other women last month.

“Justin Gimelstob’s recent comments on a Washington, D.C., radio program were derogatory and demeaning to female tennis players and to women in general. The USTA has long championed integrity, inclusiveness, diversity, and equality, and cannot ignore such harmful remarks. More than any other sport, tennis has benefited from the pioneering role and achievements of so many women,” the USTA said in a statement released to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

“As a result of his remarks, the USTA is discontinuing its planned use of Justin Gimelstob in the 2008 Olympus U.S. Open Series television ad campaign. The USTA has met with Justin, who has expressed deep remorse and has issued his sincere apology. We anticipate that he will learn from this experience and that he will be able to contribute to the game of tennis in the future,” the statement said. MSNBC

Andrea Jaeger, now a nun, apparently felt it is time to come clean about her performance in the 1983 women’s Wimledon final. The former tennis player apparently intentionally lost her match to Nartina Navratilova because she had interrupted Martina’s pre-final preparation in order to call a taxi.

Jaeger said she got into an argument with her father the afternoon before the final and fled the home she was renting. She was only 18 in 1983, and she said she went next door to where Navratilova was staying in order to call a taxi. After realizing she interrupted Navratilova’s preparation, she thought, “I can’t go out and try in the final now.” Chicago Tribune

I’m not sure how or why she came to that conclusion, but this was the result:

“During the match I missed balls on purpose. I hit right to Martina and when I was getting whipped in the first set 6-0, I tried to look upset about it,” said Jaeger, who lost 6-0, 6-3. “I glanced at my dad. He knew something was wrong.”

Why bring this up now?

I’m pretty suspicious of the admission overall - she waits this long and then uses this to make it sound as though Martina didn’t deserve the win she got. Realistically, I suspect that she never had a chance of winning, probably in part because she couldn’t get a handle on her fight with her father. Anyone who makes it to that level in tennis seems unlikely to just give up so easily, and with such poor reasoning.

Even if it is true, she should go back to being a nun and stop trying to stir up controversy.

Here are your 2008 Wimbledon champions, Rafael Nadal and Venus Williams, posing together with their trophies. Do you think that coat is part of the Venus Williams Eleven line?

Here’s Rafael Nadal climbing into the stands to see him family and visit the royal spectator box after his defeat of Roger Federer.

I hope the tournament planned on having people walk on some of those structures!

I’ll be watching this a bunch - this is a bit better quality than the youtube version I posted previously, and shows the complete 5th set.

Here you can watch the Wimbledon 2008 trophy presentation that followed the men’s final with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

This is the interview I previously mentioned where John McEnroe interviewed Roger Federer immediately after his Wimbledon finals loss - lots of emotion.