(Well, they certainly look trust-worthy.)

Depending on which one you talk to, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are either embroiled in a battle for the year ending No. 1 (Federer) or just in London to have some fun (Nadal). Fibs or frankness? You decide.

Here’s Federer talking to reporters during the World Tour Finals Media Day on Wednesday (via the AFP):

“I am aware of it (the race to finish world number one) and I would be lying if I said I was just here to play well.”

“Definitely I am here to win the tournament and to try to stay number one in the world. It is obvious.”

“The competition is really stiff so it is not going to be easy for me or Rafa if he wants to get it.”

But Rafael Nadal says he’s actually not too interested in the whole “battle for the year end No. 1” thing. (via AFP)

“For me the main thing is to be here and enjoy this experience,” Nadal told reporters. “Playing the tournament in London will be amazing.”

“The rest, finishing number one doesn’t matter. My only goal is to try to play my best tennis here in London.”

“If I win the tournament it doesn’t matter if I am number ten. The ranking is important yes, but not the most important thing for me.”

“For the last five years I was two and one in the rankings, so I have had this experience for a long time.”

“If I am competitive to try to win then I am more than happy. If I win this tournament it doesn’t matter if I am one, two or three.”

Click here to see how the No. 1 ranking may shake out in London.

On a side note, Federer also told Reuters that he’s “looking forward” to playing Andy Murray this week – and improving his 3-6 record against the Scot to, say, 5-6:

“I hope so,” the 28-year-old replied when asked about the prospect of playing Murray in the round-robin and then again in the final. “If I beat him twice, that means I’m in the finals, he’s in the finals and everybody is happy. Right?”

Well maybe not everybody, Rog. But I like the way you think.

Action beings on Sunday at the O2 arena: Andy Murray plays Juan Martin del Potro and Roger Federer plays Fernando Verdasco.  Rafael Nadal begins his bid for year-ending No. 1 – or not, whatever – on Monday when he plays Robin Soderling. It’s Djokovic vs. Davydenko on Monday evening.

Click here for the ATP World Finals website. Click here for the U.S. TV schedule and here for tennis live streaming options.

This is all kinds of awesome! Roger Federer submits to a fit of giggles while being interviewed by CNN in Switzerland last week:

If Roger wasn’t so adamantly pro-WADA, I’d swear. . .

Yes! The ATP World Tour Finals can’t start before the requisite Men in Suits photo session. Along with the British press, another overlooked benefit of hosting the ATP World Tour Finals in London is seeing Federer, Nadal and the rest of the top guys in bespoke tailoring (at least I’ll pretend it is.) Here are some photos from Class Picture Day – I mean ATP World Tour Media Day at the County Hall Marriot Hotel.

These school assemblies are always so boring. . .

AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth via Daylife

Really, how lucky are we to have three ATP Top Models in the final 8?  Federer, Djokovic and Verdasco are obviously engaged in a heated pose-off in the photo below. While I love Roger’s masculine bearing, Nole takes it with his casual Gene Kelly elegance. Verdasco gets points for coaching del Po and Soderling has an honorable mention for his Swedish Sears catalogue look. Davydenko is obviously in character for the starving P.O.W. role he’s playing next week in the West End.

How the heck did Andy Murray get Dr. Ivo’s pants?

Who will be head of the class?

Nice trophy, right? It was made in England by expert silversmiths. You can check out the video on the ATP website.

Some year book photos:

Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images via Daylife

Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images via Daylife

Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images via Daylife

Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images via Daylife

AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth via Daylife

Candids! This one’s begging for a caption:

And thanks to “Tem” for passing along the Bryan Bro’s snapshot:

I’m a little concerned about Rafa’s hair:

I think Roger is, too:

Yes, Roger is deep in thought about it.

CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images via Daylife

CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images via Daylife

Rafa’s like “awkward!”

CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images via Daylife

What ho! Is that Halley’s Comet or ATP CEO Adam Helfant? The players record this momentous occasion:

Here is a sampling of sites offering live online streaming of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London.

The tournament runs from Sunday, November 22 – Sunday November 29. Generally, the day matches start at 12:30pm GMT/7:30am EST and evening matches begin at 7:00pm GMT/2:00pm EST.

Click here to visit the World Tour Finals website. Click here for the U.S. TV Schedule.

2009 BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALS LIVE ONLINE TENNIS STREAMING

Tennis TV is offering a tournament-long subscription package for $24.95. It’s high quality, legit and fairly dependable, but might not be available in all areas (so read the fine print before you pay):

TENNISTV: Premium Paid Live Streaming
http://www.tennistv.com/

For free live streaming options for the ATP World Tour Finals, check out the sites below. But proceed at your own risk, as we can’t vouch for quality, content or non-sketchiness:

CHANNELSURFING Free Live Tennis Stream
http://channelsurfing.net/

MYP2P stream Free Live Tennis Stream
http://myp2p.eu/competition.php?competitionid=∂=sports&discipline=tennis

ATDHE.net Free Live Tennis Stream
http://atdhe.net/index.html

LiveScoreHunter
http://www.livescorehunter.com/Livescores/Livescore-Tennis.html

Also. . .

GOTOTENNIS TENNIS PARTY (From time to time we’ll host a tennis party and put up a stream on GTT)
http://www.gototennisblog.com/tennis-party/

Roger Federer was interviewed by CNN in anticipation of next week’s ATP World Tour Finals. He chats about the twins, his rivalry with Rafael Nadal and Andre Agassi’s recent drug-related confessions. I love Roger’s Scooby Doo imitation at the start: “Whuhhhhh?”

Thanks, Rog, for giving us the image of Mirka dashing around in the middle of the night. It’s all about the footwork!

Someone’s in a good mood – not too worried about Andy Murray, Rog? Click here for the WTF draw.

AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes
The AP reports that Sam “Samurai” Querrey returned to the practice courts last week after a freak accident at September’s Thailand Open came close to ending his tennis career. The 6′6″ American fell through a glass table in the tournament’s locker room while sitting on it to tie his shoes. A shard of glass cut through 30% of two different muscles in his serving arm, nearly severing a nerve (check out the scar in the above photo). He required emergency surgery in Bangkok and wore a splint for two weeks afterwards. Though he has suffered pain and uncertainty, he says that his training is going well.

”My shoulder, it takes a while to warm it up and get that (service) motion going,” Querrey said. ”Other than that I feel no difference in any part of my game.”

Querrey says there was one upside to the injury, which cut his career-best season short: an encouraging email from Roger Federer.

”That was the greatest,” Querrey said, smiling. ”I was so happy. It made my day. It was almost worth it.’‘

Looks like we can add yet another ATP member to our roster of Fedophiles!

Source: New York Times and GTT reader Liz for forwarding the tip!

As the first round of news stories rolls in in anticipation of next week’s ATP World Tour Finals, I’m realizing that there’s a hidden bonus to staging the event in London: the British press! And as with any tournament that pits Great British Hope Andy Murray vs. the Great-White-Chocolate-Loving Roger Federer, the U.K. papers have started stirring the pot.

Here’s Federer quoted in Tuesday’s Independent (I believe these remarks were taken in Paris or Basel, not sure):

“I had a lot of trouble against those baseliners (like Nalbandian and Hewitt) early on just because they were too consistent. They could always get one more ball back. Maybe they didn’t have the best serve, but I wasn’t the best return player, so I couldn’t take advantage. My serve wasn’t solid enough yet, so I would always get tangled up in those horrible baseline rallies.

“Murray can still do that to some degree, but when I play too well or too offensively I can take time away from him now. And I’m too physical, whereas in the beginning I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t get around backhands like I can now. Now I can mix up my game too well for him to get under my skin.

“I know what I can do and I know what he can do. When we both play well it’s a close match, but I always feel it’s the attacker who holds the key to success, so it’s up to me whether I win or lose, not up to him. That’s why I don’t mind the match-up, to be honest.

“It’s like when [Pete] Sampras and [Andre] Agassi played. Agassi was more aggressive [than most counter-attackers], but still Sampras held the key because he was serving, pushing the limits, taking the risks. Which Murray doesn’t do so much – though that doesn’t take anything away from Murray. That’s just his game style.

“Everybody has his own game and you can’t change the way you play. It’s just something you’re born with. He comes to the net more, for instance, than other players. I think if you look closely, every player needs to have something aggressive in his game to play well. If you want to be a top player you need to have offensive skills.“

I know, I know. Sometimes Roger just can’t help himself. Since ascending to the throne as King of Tennis, there’s always at least one Impertinent Prince that gets Roger’s goat (GOAT?), whether it’s the “unimpressive” Novak Djokovic or the “one-dimensional” Rafael Nadal. Murray should take Roger’s trash talk for what it is: a compliment. (Backhanded, of course.)

Murray leads Federer 6-3 in their head-to-head. Roger trounced Murray the last time they played, in straight sets this summer in Cincy. Before that match, Murray had beaten Roger four consecutive times, including in last year’s round robin portion of the year-ending finals. That loss knocked Roger out of the tournament, though Murray had already qualified for the semis and was psychologically playing a dead rubber. (Roger’s other loss at last year’s WTF was to another counter-puncher, Gilles Simon. )

Thanks to Judy for the tip!

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) and Tennis Industry Association (TIA) announced today that U.S. tennis participation is the highest it’s been in 25 years, with over thirty-million Americans hitting the courts in 2009. This is a whopping 12% increase vs. 2008 and a 25% improvement since 2003 (the year Roger Federer won his first Wimbledon. . .coincidence?)

Here’s more from the official press-release:

The USTA and TIA announced today that tennis participation in the United States topped 30 million players for the first time in more than two decades. The annual phone survey of 6,000 Americans showed that tennis participation grew in all age groups under the age of 50 and within all ethnicities. With 30.1 million people hitting the courts, tennis participation has grown 12% over 2008 and climbed 25% since 2003. The survey is conducted annually by the Taylor Research Group on behalf of the Tennis Industry Association (TIA) and the USTA.

New players comprised 7.1 million of the total, and the majority of tennis players consider themselves “regular players” (14.8 million). Though 15 of the 17 USTA sections were affected by record rainfall in the spring, total play occasions surpassed 560 million for only the second time in more than 20 years. The greatest percentage growth in participation was in players 12-17 which grew from 15.7% of the total participants in 2008 to 20.5% of the participants in 2009.

The TIA/USTA survey results include:

Total participation broke the 30 million mark in 2009 (a 12% increase to 30.1 million, against 26.9 million in 2008).
New players reached 7.1 million (up 19.5% from 5.9 million in 2008).
Regular Players, those playing 4 to 20 times per year, increased 26% to 14.8 million players in 2009.
Participation in 2009 is up in every major ethnic group, but especially among African Americans (+19%) and Hispanics (+32%)
Age groups comprising the greatest percentage of players are:

• 12-17 years at 20.5% of the total (more than 6 million players)
• 18-24 years at18.4% of the total (more than 5.5 million players)
• 6-11 years at 16.25% of the total (4.9 million players)

Tennis is doing a better job at retention with continuing players up 6.3% to 16 million
Former players rejoining to the game is up for the third year in a row, with nearly 7 million coming back to tennis

The TIA/USTA results compare favorably to other recent research released from industry organizations over the past 12 months. In the 2009 Sports and Fitness Participation Report conducted by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA), results showed tennis was the only traditional sport to enjoy growth in grassroots participation.

While it’s hard to put too much stock in a single survey, I’m thrilled to hear some good news about tennis in the States. I wonder what’s causing the uptick? Is it the USTA’s outreach efforts? Parents wanting their kids to be the next Serena and/or Maria? Roger’s hair? Nadal’s guns?

I credit Roger for reigniting my own passion for the game. Before he won Wimbledon in ‘03, I was an on-again/off-again fan. As a kid I idolized Pete Sampras, but my interest waned during the early 2000s (Lleyton Hewitt just didn’t do it for me, I guess.) Watching Roger have so much fun on the tennis court inspired me to buy a racquet and give the game (another) try.

Photo via www.tennis-russia.ru

There are so many talented tennis players in Russia, that the country has its own awards ceremony to honor them. Last night’s Russian Cup awards, hosted by Anastasia Myskina at Moscow’s Radisson Slavyanskaya hotel, honored Nikolay Davydenko as Tennis Player of the Year (for being the top male Russian player for the 5th year in a row), Dinara Safina for “Achievement of the Year” (obtaining the No. 1 ranking) and Svetlana Kuznetsova for “Success of the Year” at Roland Garros.

The “main event” of the evening belonged to Marat Safin, who won an award for “contributions to the development of the world and Russian tennis.” I love this (google-translated) description of Marat’s special contributions (via www.championat.ru):

“12 years of tennis fans on all continents admire this guy. He was loved by almost all, even though everyone tried to see in him something of themselves, their dreams. The girls saw in him the ideal man, or, if you want, a sex symbol. Coaches thought he was a talented athlete with a unique physique. Opponents tried to guess the direction of his serve or backhand. Journalists of all countries noted his charisma, eccentricity and inimitable sense of humor. And, finally, for the audience it has always been a man-feast at all his tournaments which had full stadiums all these years, no matter at what ranking he was.”

(Yes, I know that the translation probably shouldn’t be “man-feast”, but it works for me. An alternate translation got “man-holiday” which also sounds appropriate.)

Speaking of man-feast:

Photo via Mens Tennis Forum

Notice in the photo, above, how packed the auditorium is. It looks like the Oscars! With Marat as the Clooney/Pitt/diCaprio stand-in, or course.

Marat has that post-retirement glow:

Photo via www.championat.ru. Click here to visit a photo gallery from the awards ceremony.

In disappointing news for tennis fans everywhere, the London Times is reporting that Andy Roddick has withdrawn from the ATP’s year-ending championships in London next week:

The American world No.6 has withdrawn from the eight-man extravaganza – which starts on Sunday at the 02 Arena in south-east London – having been unable to overcome the knee injury that forced him to pull up lame against Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland in his opening round of the Shanghai Masters last month. It had been feared for some days that the 27-year-old would not have enough time to recover sufficiently to give his all and he had to bow to the inevitable today.

Andy Roddick will reportedly stop by the O2 Arena to say hello to some of the British fans who fell in love with him during this year’s Wimbledon final vs. Roger Federer.

Robin Soderling will fill in for the ailing Roddick and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will become first alternate. At least the Sod is sure to add a little drama to the affair – especially if he’s in Rafael Nadal’s round robin group. The two have avoided playing each other since the Sod took Rafa out of this year’s French Open.

The World Tour Finals draw will be held tomorrow morning at the London Eye. Click here for the WTF website.

(BTW: Andy Roddick’s foundation fundraiser with Elton John is scheduled for November 30, the day after the WTF final. Click here for more info.)