This and That

by Savannah

Kim Clijsters returned to the WTA tour last night with a victory over Marion Bartoli in straight sets. Lots of us spent a few fruitless minutes looking for a live stream of her return coming away more than a little frustrated.

I'm not a fan of Kim or her style of play but her return, against a top twenty player, is something I wanted to see. It would've been nice to see how she was hitting, her movement on court as well as how she approached Bartoli who is a tricky player. Instead like everyone else I was reduced to scoreboard watching.

In case you're wondering why fans would look for a live stream when TennisTV isn't starting their coverage until later in the week I'll remind you of a certain small tournament in Warsaw where a certain Siberian made her return to the tour. Were there live streams? You bet your ass there were. I'm just saying. I mean Kim has a huge fan base and they, along with the merely curious like me, would've tuned in to watch. But I'm not in Marketing so I'm just that lone voice crying out in cyberspace.

I should mention in passing that I wonder what it means that Clijsters, away from the tour for two years, had such an easy time with a top twenty player. I could go on and on about the talent gap in the WTA but that would be beating the proverbial dead horse wouldn't it?

Anyway it's back to scoreboard watching a WTA Premier event until later in the week.

The "Butt" Off

Serena Williams and Andy Roddick got into it last week about their Twitter avatars. Serena is seen in a jaunty turquoise sports bra in hers while Andy was in a rather bland head shot.

Andy decided to change his picture. Serena is worried she'll have to change hers to keep up.

From the ATP WTF Files

Apparently Nike has decided to butch up their fuschia shirts. Adding a bloody severed hand to the swoosh is obviously the answer to having men wear fuschia colored shirts. Who the hell is running their design department anyway?

Fans of "Will and Grace" will remember when Will sported this look. The last place I expected to see it was at the Player Fashion Show in Montreal.

It was implied that Will wore his smoking jacket by itself. Thank goodness Novak Djokovic accessorized.

In other men's fashion statements this look was seen on the courts yesterday.

Smiles all around indeed.

Tournament News

From Yahoo Sports

MONTREAL (AP)—Canada’s Frederic Niemeyer, ranked No. 487 and playing his final season of pro tennis, set up a match with Roger Federer by defeating Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn 7-5, 6-1 Monday in the first round of the Rogers Cup.

Emphasis is mine. Expect to hear a lot of talk about the twins.

Melanie Oudin lost her opening round match to Ana Ivanovic.
There's no way to judge how Ana is doing unless she makes it to the quarter finals when coverage begins for the WTA Premier event in Cincinnati.

We've been seeing a lot of this from Marat Safin of late but in this case the picture does not tell the entire story.

Gael Monfils dominated the first and third sets of their match to move on to the next round. The second set, which Marat won, featured some of the most beautiful tennis seen on a court this year. Both men played at their best and for awhile it looked as if Marat had decided to draw on the old magic and win over Monfils but it was not to be. Marat will be seen next in Cincinnati where he's been granted a wild card.

End Note

I'll be away for a couple of days attending to some personal business. Craig will make sure you're up to date with the Tennis Follies.