The Advance Sale of US Open tickets begins April 14. The seats suck but they get you in the joint. Once there, if you’ve saved your pennies, starting about Wednesday or so you can turn the shitty seats in for better ones. This is best done during the day sessions. I did end up with great seats last year for the Blake/Federer night match though. Let’s just say what I spent could have bought a steak at Whole Foods.
Tennis Week Magazine
It’s as bad as we thought.
GVGirl on TAT posted the cover of the new magazine landing in subscribers mail boxes starting this week. If I wanted to buy Vogue, Bazaar, InStyle, or any such magazine I would. I subscribe to a tennis magazine for…tennis. Would I bitch if the first cover was of Rafa? Not so much, but the principle is still the same. For you Povanuts, enjoy. Let’s just say her face, in that pose, on the cover of that magazine, is the beginning of the end of one of the better tennis publications.
You should know that the hype machine has already started for the prepubescent cousin of Maria Sharapova, Daria. She's Yuri's brothers daughter. Don't say you weren't warned. They're already calling her Dasha.
In other non tennis news…
Someone in Britney Spears publicity posse thought it would be a good idea for the Sinead wannabe to don a wig, a baseball cap and be photographed playing at playing tennis. I guess it never occurred to them that a proper tennis outfit might make their gushing praise of Britney’s newly acquired interest in sport. If there was any doubt that our beloved sport is not held in high esteem by others this is proof positive. I mean couldn’t they have chosen softball or shown her shooting a few hoops?
Why diss tennis?
Back to tennis…then again maybe not.
Why can’t I find ESPN’s tennis message board?
Andre Agassi is playing an exo on March 30 against Marcelo Rios in Chile. Supposedly the ticket prices are astronomical. The retired Agassi’s former coach Darren Cahill is saying Agassi is in the best shape ever and that he’s looking forward to the event. Rios it seems always played Andre tough and resented being called the left handed Agassi when he first started out feeling comparisons to other players were insulting his uniqueness. Sounds like this is going to be fun huh?
Sybille Bammer is the new fan fave on the women’s side. She’s a mom with an adorable daughter named Tina who is about to enter school. This adorable picture has been widely circulated.
So have some not so adorable ones I won’t post here. Like Haruka said the Australian Open series and the Australian Open usually introduce us to the players we’ll be watching all year long. Anyone remember Marcos Baghdatis from last year?
Fernando Gonzalez looks to be struggling with expectations after his spectacular run in Oz. He played tentative tennis during his stay in Indian Wells and went out rather meekly to Tommy Haas who turned around and lost to Andy Murray. Murray should look at acting for a second career...
On the subject of new talent, young Asia Muhammad, a product of Andre Agassi's work with kids in Las Vegas, has had some nice publicity lately and is playing a limited schedule on the pro tour.
I haven't seen her play yet but the buzz is good. The USTA site says she was born April 4, 1991 in Long Beach, California. She now lives in Las Vegas and plays right handed with a two handed back hand.
Jelena Jankovic, another fan favorite, has a feature out featuring a day in her life. Here’s the link.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1g4q1_jelena-jankovic-2007-cnni-ws-featur
Funny how tennis fans keep embracing female athletes who actually show they love the game and leave it all on the court. We don’t have to be told who to like do we?
Oh, and if you haven't heard, Federer's opening match in Miami is going to look like halftime at the Super Bowl complete with light show and a celebrity singing the American National Anthem. I don't think JoJo would attempt the Swiss National Anthem do you?
From the official site:
Two-time defending champion and world's No. 1 Roger Federer will make his first appearance at the 2007 Sony Ericsson Open on Saturday, March 24 at 8 p.m. on Stadium Court, highlighting a full night of entertainment at the Crandon Park Tennis Center that will include a fashion show, a "FIRE" performance and a special guest anthem singer, Tournament Director Adam Barrett announced Wednesday.
One of the most dominant athletes of any sport, the 10-time Grand Slam champion reached a new milestone Monday when he broke Jimmy Connors' 30-year-old mark with his 161st week at the top of the ATP rankings, a streak that began Feb. 2, 2004.
http://www.sonyericssonopen.com/
I’d like to end by giving a shout out to Venus Williams. While various and sundry people have taken pot shots at the older member of the Williams Sisters Venus has been quietly doing her thing. Both Wimbledon and now Roland Garros cite Venus stance on the equal pay issue in their decision to provide equal prize money for both the WTA and ATP players. Many people wanted Venus to be many things. In the end Venus chose to just be Venus. And that seems to be a very good thing for tennis.
3 comments:
Nice post! So, those photos of Britney ARE recent?
One note. On names. I've been told some people think Maria Sharapova is called Masha because it is formed from the first syllables of her name. That's not in any way true. It's just a short-name or nickname for the name Maria in Russia. Like Tim for Timothy, ot Tom for Thomas, or to make it more applicable Sveta for Svetlana and Nadia for Nadezhda. Similarly, Dasha is a name for Daria, not some sort of weird acronym. People really wouldn't dare call a little girl anything other than Dasha. Doesn't mean she'll make it big, though.
Now, be glad you don't get the Tennis Channel. They have a couple little features, like "Juniors" where they introduce you to "promising" juniors of all ages. Guess where they are all? That's right, Uncle Nicky's. In fact, the two segments they feature the most would be of a 7-year old girl, who happens to be named Maria, who is of course "the next Maria," and it's sort of sad to see her mother tout her as that. Seems the mom's a tad more psyched about Maria's (the one that's a tennis player, not an exploited 7 year old)endorsements not than her tennis. The other one is... Brad Gilbert's son.
I'm glad you said that m8. I thought that Masha was a nick name for Maria and said that but was shot down and told no. That was on TOB where Vlad was a frequent poster and he never corrected the idiots.
And yes, unfortunately those pics of Britney are recent. I expect to see her courtside in Miami though right next to Paris who got a first round bye and Hohan who will of course have just blown in...
didn't you hear? Paris has a new victim. Poor girl, I kinda liked her:
http://www.tmz.com/2007/03/12/hilton-and-cuthbert-shop-u/
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