Winners and Idle Chit Chat

by Savannah

There's been a lot going on in the happy world of professional tennis consisting mostly of pre US Open events. The traditional Pilot Pen tournament was also held. With Pilot Pen out as the sponsor it'll be interesting to see what happens to this event.

First to the winning players.

Sergiy Stakhovsky won the mens championship at the Pilot Pen tournament. He played Dennis Istomin in the final. Tennis nerds know about both men and that they've been sniffing around trophies for awhile now. It was a very interesting match between, as one commentator put it, guile and power. Guile won.
The commentators were making a big deal about Istomin's mother being his coach. As I recall Gloria Connors coached her son and he had a pretty decent career no? And we won't talk about Judy Murray will we?

R Lindstedt of Sweden and H Tecau of Romania are the men's doubles champions.

K Peschke of the Czech Republic and K Srebotnik of Slovakia are the Pilot Pen women's doubles champions.

Caroline Wozniacki won her third consecutive Pilot Pen women's crown. She won after winning Montreal on Monday in a rain delayed final. In New Haven. She defeated Nadia Petrova.
Congratulations to all the winners.

Now to the chit chat.

Well I guess it's not chit chat that Roger Federer has hired Paul Annacone as his full time coach. Annacone had worked with Federer on a trial basis up until now.

As you can see Serena Williams was out and about and knockin' em dead in the NYC area this week. Mary Carillo reported that Serena was at a bar in Germany where the folks were cheering their national team on during the WC when she cut her foot on a broken beer bottle that had found it's way to the floor of the establishment. She still went ahead with the exho she played with Kim Clijsters, something the haters fail to mention in their rush to malign the world number one. Obviously she shouldn't have played.

But that is not what the noise has been about. The British press, as mentioned by vw, is obsessing about Serena and the possibility that she's had a nose job. I'm not good at this sort of thing. The young woman who shares my living space told me it's just makeup and lighting. I trust her opinion since she has often said she admires how Beyonce handled shaving her nose down.

Not to be outdone Venus Williams was looking good in her pre event work.

Justine Henin, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Ana Ivanovic and Andy Murray appeared at the big Adidas event.

Laura Robson of Great Britain out and about on the grounds of the US Open.

Two dudes just kickin' back.

The two teams from the Nike hit and giggle held at Pier 54 in Manhattan. John McEnroe and Serena Williams were chair and MC respectively. The guy with the big grin next to Maria Sharapova is a random fan. He had a ball.

The New York Times Magazine has a great feature on women's tennis. The best thing about it are the photos of the top players accompanying the article. The cover of the magazine features Kim Clijsters as seen below. The link to the other pictures follows it.

New York Times Photo Essay

End Note

I took a mini break this week. With the Open beginning Monday two weeks of pretty intensive blogging will begin. I'm not planning to post every day. I'd like to do a first round synopsis, second round, etc. but of course will post as news warrants.

I also did my fangirl duty and now own a black version of the shirt Rafael Nadal is wearing in the above picture. I'm just saying.