Hot Ana Ivanovic pictures, photos, & avatars

Ana Ivanovic in a slinky black dress

Ana Ivanovic’s bare feet, some would find this incredibly attractive, but I just don’t think she could find shoes that went perfect with this outfit.Why not add some more pictures of the hot & sexy Ana Ivanovic while we’re at it.  Sorry guys, not adding any nude, naked, or topless shots of her.  Was wondering around the Ana Ivanovic forums and decided to collect some of my favorite pictures & make some cool avatars for her.

Roger Federer is betterer & joins Pete Sampras as a tennis legend

Roger Federer wins the French Open, finally

Is Federer the greatest tennis player ever or just one og the legends now?  Of course, Roger would have preferred to enter history without the retarded Jimmy Jump disrupting his game but old Federer proved he could still even win with a distraction as crazy as that one.

With Robin Soderling about to serve at 1-2, 15-0 in the second set, an intruder ran down a staircase in the lower section of the stands at Philippe Chatrier court, jumped over the barrier and onto Roger Federer’s half of the court. It took guards about 9 seconds to realize they were paid to do more than stand there, & they quickly ran after and apprehended the man.  It’s sad what some people do for publicity.

In the New York Times, Harvey Araton notes that the tennis world agrees not just on Federer’s greatness, but also his goodness. “Count on the sport continuing to root for Federer to climb higher up the mountain of immortality, as it has championed him since he rocketed to the top with the beautiful game and the embraceable persona,” Araton writes. “Even Soderling, who by reputation shuns discourse with most players, became a humble charmer during the awards ceremony, paying his respects. ‘You really gave me a lesson on how to play tennis,’ he told Federer.”

Maria Sharapova loses in the French Open, with only 2 games in her favor

Facing match point in the quarterfinals, Maria Sharapova was no dreaming about winning her first French Open title.  She didn’t want to lose without a single won game.  But her never give up, never surrender attitude at least helped her keep her pride.

Maria Sharapova loses in the French Open against Cibulkova

A tired, rusty Sharapova barely skimmed a shutout but lost Tuesday to Dominika Cibulkova 6-0, 6-2. Cibulkova was one point from victory at 5-love in the second set before Sharapova finally found her form. She won that game and then another, hitting a flurry of winners and saving four match points before Cibulkova closed out the win. Sharapova was playing in just her second tournament after a layoff of nearly 10 months because of a right shoulder injury. The three-time Grand Slam champion had

Rafael Nadal loses to Robin Soderling at the 2008 French Open

Rafael Nadal had seemed undefeatable at the French Open ever since he set foot on Parisian clay four years ago, but the world No 1’s unbeaten 31-match run on these courts was ended by an unheralded Swede who had never previously gone beyond the third round of a Grand Slam tournament. By the way Robin Soderling, looks alot like Lucas Scott on “One Tree Hill” in this picture.

Rafael Nadal screams after loss to Lucas Scott/Robin Soderling

The 24-year-old world No 25 beat the Spaniard 6-2, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 in arguably the greatest upset in the history of tennis.

For the last year it has been Nadal who has been breaking all the records. His 31 consecutive wins is an all-time record at the French Open, while this defeat ended his run of 48 unbeaten five-set matches on terre battue. The pink shirt he wore will no doubt be similarly consigned to history.

In his 31 previous matches at Roland Garros, Nadal had never been pushed to five sets in victory. He had not lost so much as a set in any match here since the 2007 final against Roger Federer, but Soderling changed all that with a varied but consistently aggressive approach: clubbing forehands with or without clear openings, serving big under pressure.

Brother & Sister have achieved #1 tennis ranking, now what?

Dinara Safina yells in victory

Russia’s Dinara Safina has now became the No. 1-ranked women’s tennis player in the world this past Monday, knocking out Serena Williams of the United States. Safina’s brother, Marat Safin, was once the top-ranked men’s player. Thanks to the latest Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Rankings Williams fell to No. 2 after 11 straight weeks at the top. We all know WIlliams has been bothered by a leg injury, lost in two recent tournaments, and withdrew from a third.

The 22-year-old Safina, winner of four WTA titles in the past year, is the second Russian to hold the No. 1 ranking. Maria Sharapova, now famous, previously was top-ranked for 17 weeks. Safina has nine WTA titles overall and has placed second in two majors. Definitely not a shabby record to say the least.

“It’s a great honor to reach the No.1 ranking and it is a dream every girl who has ever wanted to play professional tennis shares,” Safina said. “It is even extra special for me since my brother Marat was able to reach the No.1 ranking and I am happy to share this achievement with him.” Of course, Marat didn’t hold the position very long, maybe Safina can do better. Of course Marat would do well well at prison tennis tournaments.

Russian Elena Dementieva is third in the rankings, Jelena Jankovic of Serbia is fourth and Venus Williams of United States is No. 5.

Who will be the next woman to take the #1 position and hold it for at least a year. This is how legends are remembered. It’s hard to get to #1 in tennis, but much harder to stay their any length of time. Just ask new daddy Roger Federer or Tiger Woods, they’ve been there and lost that. Who do you think Safina will get sponsored by now that she’s #1. She definitely doesn’t have the “marketing appeal” that the mighty Maria Sharapova had so she probably will not land the massive endorsements.

Rafael Nadal & Fernando Verdasco, the greatest tennis match of all time

How many of you saw this amazing semifinal between two great Spaniards? This one is going in the history books as the longest match in Australian Open history (five hours and 14 minutes) and the most memorable yet. With a final score of 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (1-7), 6-4 I know they must have been exhausted at 1am in the morning. I’m only functioning at that time of day even with a shot from a Frappuccino. You can see a hint of what this game was like over at Youtube here.

Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

JANUARY 30: Rafael Nadal of Spain falls to the ground after winning match point in his semifinal match against Fernando Verdasco of Spain at the 2009 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 30, 2009 in Melbourne, Australia. This is the kind of tennis I dream to watch. Every time I’ve gone to a venue in person I’m always watching the “other” match that is not having all of these amazing moments. Thanks God for the internet where we can relive the greatest moments quickly as people post them. I can’t wait to watch the final between Roger Federer and Nadal. I know it will be good but I doubt it will even touch the magnificence of the match that happened last night between Nadal & Verdasco.

What was your favorite point? Do you think Fernando Verdasco is going to break into the top 15 this year?

Time to give thanks for all things tennis

This has been a good year for tennis. Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, whose dazzling five-set Wimbledon final provided tennis with a match for the ages, this match halted Federe’s five-year reign at Wimbledon and supplanted the mighty Swiss atop the rankings, a position Federer owned for a record 4 1/2 years without interruption. Nadal cemented his No. 1 status by dominating Federer with four wins in as many tries in his great 2008.

Rafa also captured three Masters Series events this year and was the runner-up at two other tournaments, as he appeared in 10 finals all told (8-2). All these accomplishments helped him become the first-ever Spanish year-end No. 1. In addition to his Wimbledon setback, the 57-time ATP titlist Federer also lost his two-year hold on the Masters Cup title, which went to Djokovic, who is only a few points behind the Swiss superstar for the second spot on the ATP rankings list.

Honorable mention this year goes to a pair of men who finished just outside the Top 10 — Argentine David Nalbandian and Spaniard David Ferrer. The former Wimbledon runner-up and former Masters Cup champion Nalbandian went 44-16 with a pair of titles in five finals, while Ferrer came in at 44-23 with two titles (and a Davis Cup championship).

Their’s also some I need to highlight NOT in the top 10.  The new Davis Cup champs hail from Spain, which upset the host Argentines 3-1 in the final, with Fernando Verdasco, playing in place of Ferrer, outlasting Jose Acasuso in a five-set thriller in the fourth rubber. The Nadal-less tie featured three of the Top-12 players in the world, but the final match was decided by a pair of players outside the Top 15. Including the doubles rubber in Mar del Plata, Verdasco went 2-0 for the week, as did his fellow lefthander Feliciano Lopez, who played alongside Verdasco in the dubs and won his singles match on Day 1 of the final.

Roger Federer getting old?

Roger Federer losing his edge?

Does it seem Roger is losing his edge.  He has endured much, achieved much, tolerated much and delivered much this season. Do you think he can continue to have the weight of the tennis world on his shoulders, this is Roger Federer, not superman.

The day after his painstaking 5th consecutive triumph in the US Open last month, Roger Federer talked about how he had not felt stronger and fresher for a long time (yeahh…..) – that he believed the old invincibility (not quite) was flowing back. The chirpy champion looked as if he could have slipped straight into his tennis gear and played a few more sets.

Federer spoke, too about the period at the beginning of the year when he was not feeling at all chipper, about the glandular fever that had affected him and how he had worried about how he should tell the world that he had been suffering from it without any of his words sounding like an excuse for the semi final loss to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open and the first round defeat in Dubai to Andy Murray. When Federer said yesterday that he might not play again this year, it was not that much of a shock, because his twin aims for 2009 are to regain his No.1 ranking from Rafael Nadal and collect a couple of grand slam titles so that he can overhaul Pete Sampras’ tally of 14, from which he is currently one removed. This is no time to flog himself to death.

All hype? Babolat Pure Drive Roddick Tennis Racquet

Tennis marketers are convinced that when people watch good players, they want to try their rackets.  THis is also the case with this racket.

When a tennis player finds a “stick” he really likes, he hates to give it up— even when someone will pay him millions to do so. For tennis racket companies, there is another moral: the earlier you can get your racket into the hands of young, promising players, the more likely they are to keep using it as they rise through the ranks.

The background of the babolat pure drive roddick tennis racquet is that Benhabiles’s player was an American junior almost no one had heard of, Andy Roddick. “I didn’t know much about him,” concedes Brownlee, who at the time was working for Prince. Back then, Roddick didn’t have a big reputation; in 1999, he lost in the first round of 2 of the junior grand slam tournaments. Volkl was the only other cooperation willing to give Roddick a racket, but he decided on Babolat because of his coach’s relationship with Appino.

A year later everything changed. Roddick won three out of the four boys’ majors and became the No. 1 junior in the world. Other juniors took notice, especially of his monster serve. Some actually phoned Babolat in France, to see if they too could get “Andy’s racket.” “If he had been out there with a broomstick,” says Rick Macci, who coached Roddick between ages 9 and 14, “I think people would have wanted to try a broomstick.”

Over the next three years, Roddick was the hottest thing in tennis, an electrifying player with a crowd-pleasing personality. And — how blessed can Babolat be? — he was American. If you are going to sell rackets in America, you need an American star.

Needless to say, it wasn’t long before Babolat was doing something it doesn’t often do: paying Roddick to endorse its rackets. His agent, Meyerson, negotiated a small six-figure deal in 2000, shortly after Roddick turned pro, and then a much larger deal in 2003, right around the time Roddick won the United States Open. That deal nets him millions a year. Would Roddick have changed rackets had Babolat low-balled him? Probably not. But the company decided not to take that risk. A happy endorser is always better than a grouchy one. Now the babolat pure drive roddick tennis racket is a hot seller.

I guess the tennis marketers were right.

Can Rafael Nadal win the 2008 US Open?

Nadal roll saround in victory

This first week of September, the tennis community will be biting their nails watching to see whether Nadal will close the deal this summer or whether Federer will be able to bounce back with the mental challenges of having the No. 1 ranking torn from his grasp for the first time in 1/20th of a century.

Nadal has never made it past the quarterfinals at the US Open or Australian Open, which are played on hard courts – (except once). And other players, such as #3 Novak Djokovic, who will be looking to follow up on his win over Federer in this year’s Australian Open, and past US Open champ Andy Roddick, could easily take the trophy for the tournament as well.

New Yorkers finally like Federer

The former #1 who lost his ATP number 1 ranking crown after a 4.5 year streak to Rafael Nadal, showed he won’t be taking Zolof in dispair, crushing Argentine outsider Maximo Rodriguez with the loss of just six games to advance in his first match.

And Federer, freshly crowned Olympic doubles gold medallist, says that he’s perhaps experiencing even more support than ever before.

“It’s never really been too difficult for me. I always thought fans were really good for me, excited to see me.”

The holder of a dozen grand slam titles – he claimed his last at Flushing Meadows a year ago ov

The Venus Sisters Parents, should they be praised?

NEW YORK — It’s easy to take the Venus sisters for granted after all these years. We’re accustomed to their prowess, their nothing-to-something backstory, their celebrity power, their episodic absences and dramatic reappearances. But we shouldn’t. These exceptional players have become exceptions themselves, consistent winners for more than a decade in a women’s sport in which longevity has gone the way of wooden rackets and white balls.

 

Staying healthy is half the battle in tennis. Staying interested is most of the rest. Serena and Venus Williams have managed to do both, taking breaks and feeding other passions along the way, and have largely ignored those who carped at them for being different. Their confidence and their results are directly attributable to the way their parents managed their careers and molded their attitudes.