Sunday Stars

by Savannah


Juan Ignacio Chela defeated Sam Querrey in Houston to win the US Mens Clay Court Championship

Flavia Pennetta won her 9th career title in Marbella over Carla Suarez-Navarro

Stan Wawrinka won the ATP tournament in Casablanca, Morocco defeating Victor Hanescu

Caroline Wozniacki defeated Olga Govortsova to win in Ponte Vedra Beach

It's Time To Play in the Dirt

by Savannah

Clay court play is officially underway. That makes me very happy. It'll be think or go home.

Houston Recap

Wayne Odesnik finally lost to Sam Querrey on Saturday thus sparing the ATP and the ITF the embarrassment of someone handing him a check on Sunday. I guess his speech would've been something like FTW. Fortunately for tennis this won't happen. Now someone needs to sit Odesnik down and make it very clear he is not doing himself, or tennis, any favors by not taking the provisional suspension not that I think he gives a rat's ass. If he did he would've taken it to begin with.

Ponte Vedra Beach Recap

Elena Vesnina snatched defeat from the jaws of victory yesterday afternoon in Florida. Serving at 5-3 in the second set for the match I guess the best that can be said is that she had a brain fart and managed to lose it and the match. The loss negates all of the great play by Elena during the match. Caroline Wozniacki will play Olga Govortsova in the final.

Marbella Recap

Flavia Pennetta won a three set victory over Carla Suarez Navarro. Congratulations to Flavia on her ninth title.

Charleston Main Draw

WOZNIACKI, Caroline (1)/ bye

ZAHLAVOVA STRYCOVA vs Barbora-GULLICKSON, Carly (WC)

LARCHER DE BRITO Michelle vs MANASIEVA, Vesna

QUALIFIER vs SCHNYDER, Patty (16)

WOZNIAK, Aleksandra (12) vs OSTERLOH, Lilia

QUALIFIER vs QUALIFIER

RODIONOVA, Anastasia vs KING, Vania

PETROVA, Nadia (6)/BYE

AZARENKA, Victoria (3)/BYE

QUALIFIER vs KUDRYAVTSEVA, Alla

QUALIFIER vs QUALIFIER

CRAYBAS, Jill vs OUDIN, Melanie (13)

BONDARENKO, Alona (9) vs DITTY, Julie

GOERGES, Julia vs MATTEK-SANDS, Bethanie

DE LOS RIOS, Rossana vs CECIL, Mallory (WC)

ZVONAREVA, Vera (7)/BYE

BARTOLI, Marion (5)/BYE

PERRY, Shenay vs PENG, Shuai

SEVASTOVA, Anastasija vs ARVIDSSON, Sofia

QUALIFIER vs VESNINA, Elena (10)

DUSHEVINA, Vera (14) vs GOVORTSOVA, Olga

CHANG, Kai-Chen vs MAKAROVA, Ekaterina

FICHMAN, SharonR vs YBARIKOVA, Magdalena

STOSUR, Samantha (4)/BYE

HANTUCHOVA, Daniela (8)/BYE

DUQUE MARINO, Mariana vs MORITA, Ayumi

KERBER, Angelique vs RISKE, Alison (WC)

QUALIFIER vs RAZZANO, Virginie (11)

CZINK, Melinda (15) vs KRAJICEK, Michaella

RODINA, Evgeniya vs QUALIFIER

GALLOVITS, Edina vs LEPCHENKO, Varvara

JANKOVIC, Jelena (2)/BYE

Monte Carlo Main Draw

[1] Novak Djokovic (SRB)/bye

Florent Serra (FRA) vs Stephane Robert (FRA)

Ernests Gulbis (LAT) vs Marco Chiudinelli (SUI)

Victor Hanescu (ROU) vs [13] Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI)

[12] Tommy Robredo (ESP) vs Horacio Zeballos (ARG)

Viktor Troicki (SRB) vs Lukasz Kubot (POL)

David Nalbandian (ARG) vs Andreas Beck (GER)

[7] Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) /Bye

[4] Marin Cilic (CRO) /Bye

Igor Andreev (RUS) vs [WC] Simone Bolelli (ITA)

Olivier Rochus (BEL) vs Andreas Seppi (ITA)

Albert Montanes (ESP) vs [16] Marcos Baghdatis (CYP)

[10] Tomas Berdych (CZE) vs Feliciano Lopez (ESP)

Qualifier vs [WC] Richard Gasquet (FRA)

Julien Benneteau (FRA) vs Qualifier

[6] Fernando Verdasco (ESP) /Bye

[8] Ivan Ljubicic (CRO) /Bye

Fabio Fognini (ITA) vs Michael Llodra (FRA)

Jeremy Chardy (FRA) vs Qualifier

Qualifier vs [11] David Ferrer (ESP)

[15] Jurgen Melzer (AUT) vs Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA)

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) vs Philipp Petzschner (GER)

Thomaz Bellucci (BRA) vs Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER)

[3] WC Andy Murray (GBR) /Bye

[5] Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) /Bye

Nicolas Almagro (ESP) vs Simon Greul (GER)

[WC] Bernard Tomic (AUS) vs Benjamin Becker (GER)

Qualifier vs [9] Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP)

[14] Juan Monaco (ARG) vs Qualifier

Michael Berrer (GER) vs Evgeny Korolev (KAZ)

Qualifier vs Eduardo Schwank (ARG)

[2] Rafael Nadal (ESP) /Bye

As The Stomach Churns - Sania Mirza Edition

The reports that Sania was moving her wedding day up by six days have so far proven to be false as far as I know.
There are also reports that an official delegation from Pakistan will attend the wedding.

Hey, it's either this or ranting about the Odesnik situation again.

Odesnik and the ITF Speak

by Savannah

From Wayne Odesnik:

"The ITF are presently conducting an investigation of me regarding my possession of HGH while in Australia earlier this year.

"I have never used nor taken HGH, or any other banned substance in my life. I am fully co-operating with their investigation and I will have no further comment on the matter until it is concluded."

From The ITF

"Odesnik has not as yet been found guilty of a doping offence under the rules of the TADP (Tennis Anti-Doping Programme) and therefore is allowed to play.

"In order not to prejudice the player's ability to defend himself in his criminal case, the TADP decided to await the outcome of those proceedings rather than run concurrently, but began the process immediately once the decision of the Australian Court was taken.

"The player is entitled to put forward a defence and this can take some time and he has elected not to take a provisional suspension.

"Whether or not we feel this is good for the image of tennis, he has that right and the ITF and ATP have an obligation to honour it."

"The TADP afford every player the right of due process. We believe this is in the long-term best interests of everyone.

SOURCE

By not taking the provisional suspension as others before him have done all Odesnik is proving is that he has no shame.

The statement by Odesnik, who has hired a high octane lawyer, leads me to believe he plans to argue he never tested positive for any PED - I believe he was only tested once last year - and that mere possession is not grounds for suspension. If someone in an official capacity goes for this okey-doke there are a bunch of guys wearing orange jump suits who'll be very interested. I hope we've come a long way from players testing positive for meth or any other substance can make shit up as they go along and get away with it. I'm just sayin'.

Monte Carlo Masters

Juan Martin del Potro is out.
Robin Soderling is out.
Gilles Simon is out.

All of the above is due to injury of some kind.

Andy Murray has been granted a Wild Card.
Richard Gasquet has been granted a Wild Card.

There are two more WC's available to be given out. MD is on Saturday.
Film at 11.

By the way not one American is listed on either the Main or Qualifying Draw entry lists. Since the United States tennis establishment fought hard to abolish this stop on the tour altogether it's not as if the American's are being hypocritical.

I did smile at the attempts of the USTA to market the men's Houston clay event as the beginning of the Dirt Season though.

Miscellany

Jamea Jackson has officially retired and will become an assistant tennis coach at Oklahoma State University. Injuries hampered Jamea's career although she did try to come back to the tour. She was ranked as high as 45 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and led the 2006 American Fed Cup team to its victory over Germany.

Idle Chit Chat

by Savannah

Fangirl Fantasy Real?

Shoaib Malik, the man Indian tennis star Sania Mirza is set to marry on April 15 is embroiled in a mess created by a woman sending him pictures she said were of her via email and a phone call in which he is said to have married her.

Ayesha Siddiqui and a man alleged to be Shoaib Malik

Shoaib says the pictures the woman sent him turned out not to be her. I'm shocked and appalled that something like this could happen in today's world. Not. What I am shocked about is the marriage by telephone. I mean can you imagine Derek Jeter or any other star athlete marrying a woman he only knew through pictures sent via email? I understand that both Hindu's and Muslims in India engage in arranged marriages and that things like this may be the norm but I emphasize again that Malik is a star athlete in Pakistan. Wouldn't his "People" make sure things were on the up and up before that fateful telephone call? Maybe I'm looking at this through Western eyes but come on guys.
(I guess I'll have to take down those pics of Halle Berry I use as my picture on those dating sites huh? JUST KIDDING!!!)

Shoaib and Sania in Hyderabad

For a woman who constantly proclaims she values her privacy she jumped right into this with both feet. Maybe an agreement ($$$) will be worked out and the wedding will be able to take place as planned.

LTA Woes

British tennis may seem to be in chaos right now but some of it's top players are, well, playa's.

Dan Evans, world No. 365, the third best tennis player in the UK behind Andy Murray and Alex Bogdanovic and member of the Great Britain Davis Cup team is to be questioned by police in connection with an alleged sexual assault.

The appeal said a woman left a nightclub XL in Bath, Somerset in early hours on March 19th with a friend and they began talking with two men before one pushed her on to a discarded mattress and sexually assaulted her.

SOURCE
A mattress? In the street? There is no truth to the rumor that back alleys and pending trash pickups are being searched by LTA officials in an attempt to find the item that motivates it's playa's, er, players, to be more aggressive on court.

The Wild and Wacky World of Advertising

Yep, this is a picture of a watch. Rafael Nadal will be wearing it on court. It's valued at $525,000 dollars. That's right. Half a mil. Better check your change draw guys.

The RM 027 Tourbillon weighs less than 20 grams, including the strap, making it one of the lightest watches ever produced using haute horology techniques.

Nadal was involved in the design and testing of the watch, putting it through its paces in the harshest of environments – the professional tennis arena.

Richard Mille has been exploring the concept of weight reduction in haute horology from the very conception of the brand. The watch maker has been experimenting with materials that combine lightness, strength and durability with the beauty and engineering intrinsic to luxury watches.

The movement base plate of the RM 027 Tourbillon is made from titanium and LITAL alloy, a high lithium content alloy containing aluminium, copper, magnesium and zirconium, possessing a density of 2.55. The addition of lithium, one of the lightest elements, to the alloy mixture, provides strength without adding unnecessary weight.

The result is one of the world's lightest mechanical tourbillon wristwatches with a movement weight of just 3.83 grams.

Description is from Professional Jeweler
Does this mean that those never ending Rolex commercials will stop?

Do you want to smell like Andy Roddick? Think doing so will net you a model wife? Well now you can. Roddick is the image of Lacoste's new "Challenge" fragrance.

“I’m thrilled that Lacoste invited me to be the face of its men’s fragrance, Challenge,” Andy said. “This fresh, and dynamic fragrance represents well the image of Lacoste as a chic, sporty and elegant brand.”

Christophe Chenut, CEO of Lacoste added, “We’re delighted to be working with Andy as the face of Lacoste Challenge as he is the natural embodiment of the brand’s youthful, modern image.”

Challenge mixes the scents lavender and citrus and was previously represented by actor Hayden Christiansen. You can purchase the cologne in most department stores and the price range is $40-$60.

So get to steppin' guys. With Rafa's watch and Andy's fragrance you'll be beating them off with a stick.

Sunday's Stars

by Savannah


Andy Roddick won the men's title at the Sony Ericsson Open defeating Tomas Berdych 7-5, 6-4 before an enthusiastic crowd.


Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta defeated Nadia Petrova and Samantha Stosur 6-3, 4-6, 10-7 to win the women's doubles crown in Miami.

Congratulations to all!

Saturday's Champions

by Savannah


Kim Clijsters poses on a Miami beach with the winners trophy for the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open Women's Final. Clijsters defeated an obviously hobbled Venus Williams in straight sets that weren't even as close as the 6-2, 6-1 score would indicate. The win puts Clijsters back into the Top Ten.

Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy are the 2010 Men's Doubles Champions at the Sony Ericsson Open.

Not The Usual Suspects

by Savannah

It'll be Tomas Berdych against Andy Roddick in the Sony Ericsson Open men's final.

Roddick made the best of his soft draw and is the fresher of the two coming into the Final.

I think it's safe to say that no one expected Berdych to be anywhere near the semi finals let alone be in the final. It's good to see someone who beat a top player follow up on that win.

It should be an interesting match.

End Note

I find it absolutely amazing that admitted HGH importer Wayne Odesnik is playing in Houston next week. Someone should've had the cojones to just say no.

The Celestial Body vs The Saint

by Savannah

Venus Williams will face Kim Clijsters in the Sony Ericsson Open Women's Final on Saturday.

Venus defeated a totally discombobulated Marion Bartoli in straight sets. Marion never let herself relax into the match and Venus, serving well, ran with the match.

Clijsters had a more difficult road. It was not pretty. Clijsters had 63 unforced errors while Henin had 44. Henin had 19 winners compared to Clijsters 37.

During Venus match commentator Lindsay Davenport cited statistics that show Venus is 6-5 against Kim. She's also 7-2 against Henin.
Both women have energetic fan bases. It should be a wild one in Key Biscayne tomorrow.