Heard Around November 25, 2007

by Savannah

Shahar Pe'er is now being coached by Gabriel Urpi who will still be working with Flavia Pennetta, and The Moonball Princess Conchita Martinez. Shahar made the decision after what is being called an intensive three weeks of training in Spain. First reaction? What the hell does Conchita know about attacking tennis? She's the main reason I was so turned off women's tennis for a long time. The link is in Hebrew.
Shahar's New Coaches

Fernando Gonzalez is going to be playing an exo in Chile on December 6. Playing with him will be Gisela Dulko,
Carlos Moya and Martina Navratilova.
The link is to a nice fan blog about Fernando.
Fernando Gonzalez

I have to give it to Martina Hingis fans. Despite everything many are holding out hope that somehow things will be reversed and she'll be back in the good graces of the WTA tour. One fan, when told that Martina's ranking had been removed from the WTA site said that was because she had retired forgetting that what usually happens is that the players ranking is allowed to fall after retirement until they're no longer on the ranking chart.
I don't say this to gloat. As I've said before I've never been a fan of Miss Motormouth but she has her place among the greats of women's tennis. To blow it all, literally, is a shame not only for her but for women's tennis.

Sportingo has a nice look at Jelena Jankovic's career and what she needs to do going forward.

Kevin Kim of the Unites States beat John Isner 6-2, 6-2 and followed that up by beating
Jesse Levine this week. Levine had won back to back Challenger events, one over Donald Young. Mr Levine you will remember is the young man Roger Federer summoned to Dubai to hit with.

Speaking of Roger his fans are going to Rovian (as in Karl Rove) lengths to spin his loss as meaningless in the context of Roger's World. True it was an exhibition match. True Pete had to win one or why bother with any future exhibitions. But if you get a chance watch this highlight film from the second exo. Never a big fan of Pete but watch the shot making and movement. Once a great tennis mind always a great tennis mind I say. Pete was gaining confidence here. And Roger was rattled.
Thanks to tennishead "mewug83" for posting this and other clips from the Asian Exhibitions.


Sampras is saying he will stay retired. Makes sense for him to say that at this time no?

By the way there are some very short clips of Rafa vs Gasquet in Malaysia on YouTube. If a longer clip shows up I'll post it here.


Longtime tennishead Graf_Sampras has posted an interesting article on professional tennis approach to the world of online viewing and the digital revolution on All Court Game. The article is by Lynn Mennillo and is worth a read.

You can tell the silly season is upon us when you find threads dedicated to Roger Federer's left arm, Maria Sharapova's choice of footwear, and who has the biggest boobs. I kid you not.

However, continuing in that vein here is Stella McCartney's 2008 line. These outfits will probably be worn by Maria Kirilenko who is Stella's muse when it comes to tennis fashion.





Only one looks like a tennis outfit but what do I know?

On The Baseline reports that the ASB Classic will feature live streaming on it's website. Hear that USTA?

The Legends Rock Dubai tournament was won by Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands. Congratulations!


Best Pics of 2007

I'll start with some from the WTA. There were some great ones and they can't all be contained in one post so as I see them I'll post them. Thanks to the fans over at
WTAw for the idea and the thread.
I've been scattering them throughout the post but here is a series of them. I'm concentrating on pics taken on the court this go around.
Fed Cup Ceremony

Lindsay and Jagger

Venus and Marion

Serena at Wimbledon

Marion at Wimbledon

Serena Australian Open