Hurray! Our favorite tennis stars are never shy when it comes to being silly. Thank goodness. . .

If you follow Andy Roddick on Twitter, you already know that his photogenic dog is named Billie Jean.

Per Andy: “Yes, (BJK) knows and has offered to doggy-sit”

Freaky Frites: “Maybe the dog should have been named Elton, instead?”

Mrs. Decker: “Wow, what a hottie!”

There was even more tennis hilarity this weekend, when comedians Will Ferrell and Rainn Wilson (The Office) paired up in L.A. with Mats Wilander and Justin Gimelstob in an exhibition match benefiting The Swedish School of Los Angeles and The Sweden House (I believe Mr. Ferrell’s wife is Swedish.)

Quick, who is Wilander talking about? “(He) makes me laugh…not because he’s funny but because he’s a bad tennis player.”:

Freaky Frites: “Where the hell can I buy Ferrell’s racquet?”

And, from the archives (courtesy of GTT reader, Henry Ortiz): Novak Djokovic and friends channel Ike and Tina by way of Belgrade.

Here’s hoping Novak Djokvoic hosts a charity Karaoke showdown sometime soon – with both Billie Jeans (and Elton) dressed in pink mesh!

Doggie photos via Andy Roddick and Brooklyn Decker on Twitter. Will Ferrell photos via Tennis.com.

We’ve made the switch over to Wordpress from Blogger!

For all the commentors, you will have to create a login for the new site layout. Just a one-time deal.

Also if you would like a custom avatar for your login, go to www.gravatar.com to upload a pic.

For all the peeps still using our old address http://gototennis.blogspot.com, it still exists and forwards you to our new home.

Unfortunately Blogger.com makes you hesitate by warning you that GOTOTENNIS’s new home “has not been checked for spam, viruses, and malware”. We assure you our new home is as clean a newborn baby and is hosted by a reliable hosting service.

PLEASE IGNORE THIS MESSAGE and click “Yes”.

BETTER YET! Please update your GOTOTENNIS bookmarks!

I felt a little sorry for the poor suckers in the crowd last night who paid good money to watch the sublime Serena dismantle Safina 6-0. 6-3 in the championship match of the Australian Open. It probably took everyone present about twice as long to take the tram to Rod Laver arena, buy a coldie and find their seat as it did to sit through the match (including the awards presentation.)

About twenty minutes into the match (roughly when the second set was starting) an idea floated through my tennis-crazed mind: The women should play best-of-five finals at the Majors.

The final result probably would have been the same if the ladies had played another set, but at least 1. the match would have lasted as long as an episode of Desperate Housewives and 2. Dinara would have had a few more pokes at Serena’s ironclad game.

I’m not pushing for pure equality between the men and women – the way things are trending on both tours, the guys will start playing best of three in the majors before the women go the distance (perish the thought!!!). But I do think that this one change could make a positive difference in how the women’s finals unfold.

What do you think? Would my big idea make the finals more competitive or just more humiliating for the loser?

Hi readers! I'm working at a certain snow bound film festival this
week and won't be posting much until next weekend. Enjoy the first
sunny days Down Under!

Happy holidays and best wishes for a tennis-filled 2009!

To my faithful readers: thank you for your interest, your patience and for all of your insightful comments. Knowing that such smart, tennis-savvy people bother to visit GOTOTENNIS keeps me writing (and on my toes!)

To my fellow bloggers, who are always so supportive: congrats on your hard work. Let’s all pat ourselves on the back for making 2008 one of the richest ever for tennis blogging. You rock!

And to my Fedophile friends: I join you in your hopes, prayers and voodoo rituals for Roger’s upcoming season. May this be the year where he 1. regains Wimbledon, 2. takes back the No. 1 ranking, 3. breaks Pete’s record of 14 slams. That’s not too much to hope for, is it?

See you next year! (The Capitala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi starts on January 1st)

. . .it would be a good investment, right now! It’s always fun to report good news, and I’m happy to pass along this article from Play Tennis Florida. (I guess it could always be a PR stunt, given that the numbers come from the USTA, but I choose to be the bright eyed optimist in this case.)

Here’s the good news:

U.S. Tennis Participation on a 15 Year High
Posted on December 11, 2008

The USTA and TIA announced today that tennis participation throughout the United States continued its growth on every measurable level in 2008, with more players (nearly 26.9 million) taking to the court this year than at any time in the past 15 years, according to the annual research survey conducted for the Tennis Industry Association (TIA) and the USTA by the Taylor Research Group.

The TIA/USTA study showed total player participation in 2008 grew by more than 7% from the previous year (25.1 million), continuing a trend that has shown a nearly 12% increase over the five-year period beginning in 2003 (24 million).

In addition, total play occasions increased by more than 13% to 603 million over the past year, up from 533 million in 2007 and a jump of close to 33% from five years ago (454 million).

“Tennis is stronger and healthier than it has been in decades,” said Jane Brown Grimes, USTA President and Chairman of the Board. “It’s great to see that the collective efforts of the USTA and our industry partners over the past five years are producing such great results.”

“We’ve tried to make tennis as accessible as possible at the grassroots levels, which we’ll continue to do, by promoting initiatives to grow youth and adult participation in order to keep this momentum going,” said Kurt Kamperman, Chief Executive, Community Tennis, USTA.

“By almost every key metric and based on the trends the sport remains poised for growth in the coming years,” said Dave Haggerty, President of the Tennis Industry Association.

The TIA/USTA study also determined:

The percentage of frequent players (i.e. those who played 21 times or more during the year) rose to 5.62 million, up 7% from 2007 (5.25 million) and an increase of more than 23% from 2003 (4.56 million).

The sport is retaining the players it has, as the number of continuing players is up 9% to 15.1 million from 13.9 million last year. A continuing player is defined as one who has played for more than a year.

The percentage of new players rose 3%, to 5.91 million.

Additionally tennis ball unit sales, another important barometer of play frequency, have increased more than 15% since 2003 and are up again by almost 3% through the third quarter of 2008.

The TIA/USTA results compare favorably to other recent research released from industry organizations over the past 12 months. In the 2008 Sports and Fitness Participation Report conducted by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA), results showed tennis had achieved growth of 30.6% in total participants from 2000 through 2007, making it the fastest-growing traditional sport in the country over that time period.

My recent post on Roger Federer’s schedule was my first attempt at using the ATP’s new 2009 tournament categories: ATP 250 Series (e.g. Halle), ATP 500 Series (e.g. Basel), ATP 1000 Series (e.g. Cincinnati).

I don’t have a problem with the 500 Series and 250 Series delegations, as they do help sort the Halles from the Basels, which has always been a point of confusion for me. But the Masters Series brand is one of the few marketing ideas that’s working in pro tennis – so why do the execs insist on messing with a good thing?

Okay, I’ll be honest. My main gripe with the name change is that I don’t know how to use APT 1000 Series in a sentence. Do I say something like “Federer’s playing two 1000s on clay before Roland Garros”? Or does the phrase “two 1000 Series tournaments” work better? Right now, the ATP site is combining old and new with terms like “Cincinnati Masters 1000.” It’s redundant, but at least it allows for the Masters terminology to continue. Meaning that on GOTOTENNIS, Cincy will remain the Cincinnati Masters.

So what do you think, members of the blogosphere? Do you welcome the change, or prefer to stay rooted in the old ways, like me? And what’s your preferred terminology for 2009?

Hey all – I just noticed that my Google Ad Sense ads are getting scary. Meaning that I’ve been getting one about “supporting marriage rights” and other political nonsense that I want nothing to do with (those of you in California will understand when I say I voted NO!!! to Prop 8 today.)

I’ve tried to just remove all of the ads (no great sacrifice – I’ve made about $20 total in my entire blogging career off of them) but of course the intolerant, hateful one refuses to go away.

My apologies for promoting this crap, albeit passively, on my site.

BOO! Ad Sense and BOO! Prop 8.

Okay, back to tennis!

One of my biggest problems with the indoor season is how ugly it looks. And it’s not just the poor broadcast quality – I’ve gone to tournaments at the Staples Center and it feels and smells about as good as Tennis Channel looks. Compared to the Rothko color fields of the European clay courts, the crisp, green grass and tennis whites of Wimbledon, and even the sweaty, fan-waving crowds at the U.S. Open, the indoor venues are indistinguishable from one another. This part of the season is as bright and inviting as a county hospital ward. It’s no wonder Madrid tries to prettify the tournament with model ball girls – but even they look wan and droopy under fluorescent lights.

It’s enough to make me question my love of the game. Indoor tennis is pure, after all, despite its aesthetic shortcomings. There’s no sun, no wind, and few bad bounces – but it’s not enough for me. So do I really love the intricacies of the game or am I just a sucker for pretty scenery?

But then I watched Roger Federer play Radek Stepanek today, and I realized that beauty can exist on an indoor court. Even in funny soccer shoes and with the tiniest swell of an off-season belly, Roger was gorgeous to watch. Heck, Radek Stepanek wasn’t bad, either, with his old school ice pick volleys and cheeky drop shots.

** If your taste runs more bootylicious, click here for our ultimate Serena Bikini photo collection.

I know this is not in depth tennis analysis, but hey, who doesn’t love Serena in bikini bottoms!Guess our favorite U.S. Open champ is taking some time off to learn surfing with boyfriend/fiance Common.

I think they’re in about 6 inches of water in this photo.

Here’s my favorite, where Serena is pretending that she’s a shark, and Maria Sharapova is a baby seal sunning herself on a rock. ROAR!

** If your taste runs more bootylicious, click here for our ultimate Serena Bikini photo collection.