What’s coming out of the taps in Basel? Whether it’s Lindt chocolate or clean, crisp natural spring water, we have three Swiss players into the Basel quarterfinals on Friday. The last and only other time Basel saw three Swiss in the quarterfinals was eight years ago, when Federer, George Bastl and Michel Kratochvil made it [...]

The AFP reported today that both Yanina Wickmayer and Xavier Malisse have been suspended from tennis for a year (and fined 1000 euros) by the Flemish Doping Tribunal. Wickmayer, world No. 18 and a US Open semifinalist, was punished for failing to report her whereabouts to drug testers on three occasions. Malisse was punished for [...]

I guessed Basel was going to be a Roger Fest, and it hasn’t disappointed me so far! We had that great interview from SI the other day and now this – a phenomenal in-depth chat with Rene Stauffer and Fredy Wettstein of the Basel-based paper Basler Zeitung. It was first published on November 2 – [...]

The Times U.K. reports that Andy Murray has signed a five-year sponsorship deal with German brand adidas, worth over $16,000,000 (£10 million).
Via the adidas press release:
adidas has a new addition to its tennis line-up in 2010 with Andy Murray joining the global sportswear brand.  The 22-year-old Briton will sport the iconic 3-Stripes from January onwards [...]

The ATP’s latest “Uncovered” features Marian Vajda, Novak Djokovic’s coach and “second father.”

Perhaps the deep personal bond between the two explains why Marian is comfortable sharing coaching duties with Todd Martin, who joined Team Djokovic around the time of this year’s US Open.
Novak spoke recently about how the Vajda/Martin tag-team works (Quotes via The Independent):
“He [...]

Roger Federer announced his 2010 schedule via his website. He’s planning to play 18 tournaments and “hopefully” the season ending championships in London.
Roger Federer’s 2010 Schedule: (tournament starting dates noted)
December 31: Capitala World Tennis Championship, Abu Dhabi (exhibition)
January 4: Qatar Exxonmobil Open, Doha (ATP 250)
January 18: Australian Open, Melbourne
Feburary 22: Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, [...]

A lot of interesting stories continue to develop in Tennis Land, so I thought I’d put them all down in one place:
Let’s start with some fun stuff. Reporter Matt Cronin via Twitter: “Sharapova recently began dating the Lakers’ Sasha Vujacic. Now if she can only help “The Machine” get his deadly jump shot back.”
Vujacic [...]

Roger Federer spoke recently to Swiss news magazine Schweizer Illustrierte about some of his favorite things: his twins Myla and Charlene, Mirka and his hair.  I love that the interviewer, Stephanie Ringel, is unable to hide her Fedophile tendencies. Her descriptions (in italics) sometime read like a tennis Harlequin romance.
Here she is, trying not [...]

That Roger Federer is just so full of himself!
After winning his first round match against Olivier Rochus today at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel, Roger Federer bragged to the hometown crowd about his deft hand-eye coordination – at changing diapers:
“I have an unbelievable technique,” he said to laughter – [...]

AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani via Daylife
Andre Agassi wasn’t the only bald tennis-playing daddy making news this weekend. Ivan Ljubicic told his own inspirational story (minus the meth and hair piece), after beating Michael Llodra, 7-5, 6-3 in the finals of the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon. It was the 30-year-old’s ninth ATP title and his [...]

The Times U.K. is confirming Blick’s report that Roger Federer has hired a new physiotherapist, Frenchman Stéphane Vivier, to be part of his full time team:
Federer, the 28-year-old world No 1, has appointed Stéphane Vivier, one of seven ATP physiotherapists, to travel with him full time to make sure that he is in the finest [...]

True story – while playing tennis today, I overheard a woman on the court next to me say: “Forget the crystal meth, the toupee is the really shocking part!”
Agassi’s upcoming autobiography keeps getting juicier. Beyond the drug use, the abusive father and the admission that he hates tennis with a deep, dark passion, Agassi also [...]