Darren Cahill and Brad Gilbert pay homage to Rafael Nadal in this fun instructional piece on “the power forehand.” Brad-the-Rafanatic even dons the doomed hot pink/neon yellow Nike ensemble in honor of the four time French Open champ. Fun stuff, though I don’t think I’ll be trying that buggy-whip follow through any time soon:

And I almost forgot – today (June 3) is Rafa’s 23rd birthday! Hope he’s hanging out by the pool with Xisca & Co. It must be a teeny, tiny bit enjoyable for him to be celebrating outside the limelight. Silver linings and all that.

If you want to further mark the occassion, click here to check out the birthday timeline tribute Nadal News put together!

WOW! This year’s Indian Wells tournament packed in as much drama and excitement as a Major. Before we get all worked up over Miami (yep, play begins on Wednesday), let’s take a look at our baker’s dozen of top Indian Wells happenings.

1. Eventual IW champ, Rafael Nadal, scored a miraculous victory over sneaky/scary underachiever David Nalbandian in the Round of 16, saving 5 match points in yet another impressive performance of mental domination. Here’s part of Rafa’s grand escape act:

2. Maria Sharapova streaked through the tournament like a blond comet, pulling from the singles draw, entering doubles with Elena Vesnina and losing in the first round. Afterwards, Maria told reporters that she’s through setting any timetables for her return to the tour, and she has since pulled from the Mimi tournament. Perhaps she’s too busy working on her MTV pilot (click here)?

3. Baby Fed: After Roger and Mirka dropped the Baby Bomb, photographers took the necessary photos of Mirka with snacks and other people’s children.

4. The WTA imploded as Jelena Jankovic, Elena Dementieva and Svetlana Kuznetsova all got beat in the second round. No. 1 seed Dinara Safina wimpered her way out of the quarterfinals. Defending champ Ana Ivanovic folded to Vera Zvonareva – a player who’d never won a Premier level tournament before – in the final match. But it wasn’t all  gloom and doom – young stars like Victoria Azarenka and Ana Pavlyuchenkova look ready to pounce.

5. We watched Rafael Nadal work his ass off on the practice courts (don’t worry, not literally!) while still keeping his sense of humor. When we cheered a rare point won by his practice and doubles partner, Marc Lopez, Rafa pretended that his feeling were hurt. Then he won the rest of the points.

6. The player-on-player action never stopped on the  “grassy patch”:

7. Personally, I was happy to see Ivan Ljubicic do well again – making it to the quarters and giving Andy Murray a run for his money in two tight sets. Too bad about that freakish HawkEye malfunction.

8. Random moment, observed: Federer walks onto a practice court and gets yelled at by one of the doubles players who are finishing up there: “Hey, we were in the middle of a POINT!” Federer smiles, the doubles player doesn’t. Yet another sign that Roger’s aura of intimidation is fading?

9. Potito Starace, no longer a U.H.O. (Unidentified Hunky Object):

10. Darren Cahill dumped Roger Federer in Dubai and showed up in Indian Wells with boy-toy Fernando Verdasco. But Fed got sweet revenge when he beat Verdasco and the Spaniard’s Adidas Player Development gurus in the quarter final. In straights. Bench press that, Gil Reyes!

11. Doubles the pleasure: 8 of the ATP’s Top 10 singles players entered the doubles draw this tournament, including Federer, Nadal, Murray and Roddick. For the lucky fans who saw it, Nadal/(Marc) Lopez vs. the Bryan Bros. was one of the highlights of the tournament. Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish won the title, beating teams like Chardy/Simon, Llodra/Stepanek, Del Potro/Nalbandian, Gasquet/Wawrinka, and, finally, Mirnyi/Ram on the way. Impressive.

12. Reports poured in of FSN network’s shabby, shoddy and sh*tty treatment of tennis fans. It sounds like no one in the States saw the Nadal/Nalbandian match on t.v. and some of us didn’t get any of Saturday’s semifinals, either. Why does Tennis sell its tournaments short by giving broadcasting rights to networks that won’t broadcast tennis? Click here for ways to vent.

13. And then there was my chance of a lifetime (click here). . .I’ll never travel without a Sharpie again!

Mirka photos: AP Photo/Matt Slocum

Well our favorite almost-coach of Roger Federer has finally made up his mind as to what he’s going to do. Adidas confirmed today that the travel-adverse Darren Cahill is formally joining super-trainer Gil Reyes and fellow-coach Sven Groenfeld (known recently for coaching Ana Ivanovic) at its Las Vegas-based Player Development Center.

Darren’s spent time at the Center before, notably working with recent Australian Open semifinalist Fernando Verdasco, and now he’s decided to go “all-in” after a brief flirtation with Federer in Dubai.

Here’s what Cahill has to say about it:

“I have followed the evolution of the adidas Player Development Program over the past three years and believe strongly in its objectives of providing world class players with an extra support team to aid their long term career planning. I am eager to get fully involved in the adidas Player Development Program team and excited to renew my working relationship with Gil Reyes at home in Las Vegas.”

The adidas Player Development Program offers a unique mix of advice and support, from coaching and fitness training through to hitting partners, nutritional advice and career management plans.  Darren Cahill will work with Sven Groeneveld as on-court coaches and advisors, while Gil Reyes provides players with off-court fitness training and mentoring.

Fernando Verdasco, Caroline Wozniacki, Sania Mirza, Grigor Dimitrov, Laura Robson, Raluca Olaru and Sorana Cirstea are some of the players currently participating in the program, which does not replace their own personal trainers but instead gives them an extra helping hand to build a career. Over 30 additional players including Ana Ivanovic and Dinara Safina, have used this free service at various stages in the past three years.

This is all well and good – I’m just hoping Darren retains his post commentating for ESPN. Even though he ditched Roger, I still think he’s a great analyst. And now he’ll have even more inside information on the players.

Photo: Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images

The “he said, he said” is already starting now that Cahill and Federer have broken off their brief flirtation. Roger’s agent, Tony Godsick, delivered some reproachful remarks today via Swiss newspaper Blick.

Here are the juicy bits, translated with the help of a native speaker:

“Darren suddenly felt that the many trips and the long periods away from home, didn’t make sense. He has a family in Las Vegas and children aged 4 and 7 years. He can’t be permanently on the move.”

Notice the word SUDDENLY in this sentence. As in “He said we were going to the dance together and suddenly came down with commitment-phobia. What gives?”

But why the change in Cahill? Why the trial training? “I think he just listened to his heart and changed his decision. Cahill was interested initially but then he thought about all that was involved.”

So this was the coaching equivalent to a booty call?

The two weren’t even in the phase of detailed negotiations

It’s not like Roger got his heart broken, or anything. It was just a couple dates. . .

Is Federer looking for an alternative to Cahilll? “No,” says Godsick, “He wasn’t looking for one before. Cahill was the one who approached him and they had a great trial. That’s all. I think it’s going to stay the way it is. Roger has a great team around him. He has no pressure to change anything about it. There is no list of anything.”

Got that Cahill?  Roger Federer needs a coach like a fish needs a bicycle! (But remember, Rog, there are always more fish in the sea!)

Meanwhile, I’m just hoping these two take a cue from Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer and get back together!

UPDATE: Here’s Roger’s statement from his press conference this afternoon at Indian Wells. Sounds like a chapter from He’s Just Not That Into You. Poor Rog.:

“He (Cahill) called me up after the Australian and asked me if I was still interested in working with him because we had contact in the last five years and after I decided not to play Davis Cup and Dubai [because of my bad back] he came to Dubai and worked a bit and we decided not to do it. It was test. He went back [home] and he told me it would be tough to do the travel with his kids and the weeks I required (20 weeks as opposed to Higueras’s 10) he couldn’t really do, so I never had to think and go too far and make a decision on my own. He took the decision for me.”

Federer said he doesn’t think that Cahill’s decision will affect him.

“I don’t have any technical flaws or problems working hard, maybe it’s about the little things, talking about the other players, some exercises in practice, it’s having someone else around. But I’m very happy with the coach I have here, Severin Luthi [Switzerland's Davis Cup captain], he did all of last year, 35 weeks, so for me nothing really changes, I’ll continue with the great team I have. We had a good time with Darren.“

(From  tennisreporters.net)

We can stop speculating now (or click here, here, here and here), Darren Cahill is coaching Roger Federer.

Which means that the really juicy gossip begins: Are they committed? Will they be good for each other? Can they make it through the rough times? And, most important, will their partnership bear fruit?

To make it easier, I’ve started a score sheet on the tennis world’s very own Brangelina. Long live Fedhill!

IT’S A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN:

1. Darren Cahill’s a catch. Cahill’s a top-notch coach with a stellar resume:  making Lleyton Hewitt the youngest-ever No. 1 in the world in 2001 (at 20) and Andre Agassi the oldest No. 1 ever in 2003 (at 33).

2. Roger Federer’s legendary. At 27 years old, Roger Federer is not yet flirting with the “elder statesman” title that Andre carried so well at the late stages of his career. But Roger is, like Agassi in 2006, the only undisputed “Legend” playing on the tour. Cahill understands the pressures and priorities this kind of player has when he’s trying to secure his place in the history books.

3. Darren feel’s Fed’s pain. Andre had back problems, Roger has back problems. Cahill knows his chiropractors from his cortisone shots and will be a good nurse.

4. They’ve got friends in common. Cahill was a close friend of Roger Federer’s formative coach, fellow-Aussie Peter Carter, who passed away in 2002. Thus, Darren has known Roger’s game from a coach’s perspective since Fed was a junior. In a 2007 article in Fox Sports, Cahill recounts a visit he paid Carter in Basel, where he observed a thirteen-year-old Federer at play. He told his friend: “Carts, you could drive a bus through that backhand. Look at that thing. He shanks it half the time, his slice sits up, he takes a huge step when it’s outside the slot and he’s not stepping to the left on the neutral ball.” His final verdict: “He’s okay.”

I think that this shared history – and the shared love for a good friend – creates a foundation of respect and trust that’s necessary for a successful coach/player partnership.

5. Vegas, baby! Darren’s still tight with exes Andre Agassi and A.A.’s trainer-guru Gil Reyes, who runs a high-performance training center in Las Vegas. Fernando Verdasco spent some time there before this year’s Australian and came out a superhero. Reyes’s contract with Adidas probably makes working with Roger a conflict of interest, and Agassi isn’t going into coaching anytime soon, but you gotta think that their formidable influence will trickle down to Roger somehow. Obviously this is speculation, but isn’t the idea pretty intriguing?

BUT NOBODY’S PERFECT:

1. Roger’s a “coach-eater”. He ditched Lundgren in 2003, the year he won his first Wimbledon title, he dumped Tony Roche after winning 6 majors with him, and his latest super-coach, Jose Higueras, barely made it into the players’ box. The only constant confidants in Roger’s camp have been girlfriend Mirka and Swiss Davis Cup Captain Severin Luthi. These two aren’t going to tell Roger anything he doesn’t want to hear. If Darren Cahill is going to have any effect, he’s going to have to show Roger Federer why his nickname is “Killer.”

2. The Bennifer effect. The Cahill/Federer partnership has gone through the rumor mill so many times that the reality might not stand up to the hype. If Roger doesn’t dismantle Nadal at Wimbledon (some hard core Fedophiles might even expect results at the French) will Roger and Darren face a barrage of criticism not seen since Bennifer starred in Gigli?

3. Roger’s a confirmed bachelor. Does Roger really need a coach cramping his style? He was “this” close to beating Rafa at Wimbledon and the Australian this year, and many say it’s “only” a mental block holding Roger back from victory. Maybe all Rog needs is a little luck and a date with a sports psychologist instead of another ego playing with his mind and his backhand.

4. Is Darren playing hard to get? Unless Darren’s lost his life savings to Bernie Madoff, why would he want to subject himself to the daily grind of the tour? His family’s in one desert (Las Vegas) and Roger’s in another (Dubai) and Andre Agassi’s already recruited him to help him with his World Team Tennis stint this summer. He has a cushy gig commentating at ESPN and he’s even said (jokingly) in the past that Roger Federer couldn’t afford him as a coach.

5. What about us? We need Cahill on ESPN! If Rog and Darren do tie the knot, the rest of us will be deprived of Darren’s insights from the commentary booth. Who’s going to go all “inside tennis” with Brad Gilbert – Chris Fowler?

Overall, I’m thrilled as a spinster aunt at a bridal shower. These two guys are just made for each other. What are you waiting for, fellas, take it down the aisle!

IT’S TRUE! Roger Federer’s agent Tony Godsick confirmed via Blick today that Roger Federer is currently training with Darren Cahill in Dubai. Holy rollers, my friends – the speculation is OVER! I repeat, Roger Federer is DEFINITELY  with Darren Cahill, at least on a trial basis. Here’s the scoop – pardon the translation as always (and DiGG it if you like it!):

The speculation is over in Dubai: Federer is working with Cahill. The Swiss, who is taking a timeout in order to spare his back, is testing his new coach in the desert.

Federer’s IMG Manager Tony Godsick confirmed: “Yes, the two have met in Dubai and played a few balls together.” More specifically: “It is a test for both. One can not yet say whether it will be something long term. They work together now and see how it works out. “

The American manager is also denying the widespread opinion that Cahill was not Federer’s first choice: “The two have long had a great respect for each other. It was occasionally discussed. It’s a trial. Now that Roger’s had a break, anyway, because of his back, the timing was perfect for a test. So Roger’s with him and has reported that he’s arrived.“

This also means that Federer’s current companion Severin Lüthi no longer matters in the future? “No! As I said, with Darren it’s on a trial basis. And if it works, we will continue with Severin on the team. There is no question about it. “

The 43-year-old Cahill has an excellent reputation on the tour.

Under his aegis Lleyton Hewitt was the youngest player to end a year as number 1 (20 years and 8 months). And during his time with Andre Agassi, the American won the top position – at 33 years old he was the oldest player in history to do so. Cahill and fitness guru Gill Reyes last worked with Spaniard Fernando Verdasco and brought him to form. The result was obvious. Verdasco got to the Australian Open semis and played breathtaking tennis.

Cahill would be the third Australian coach for Federer. The first, Peter Carter, who tragically died in a car accident in 2002, led Federer from his youth to years at the top. And with Tony Roche, the Swiss had a very successful period, winning six out of 13 majors now.

And here are Tony Godsick’s updates on Roger’s back injury that’s supposedly keeping him out of Davis Cup this weekend, and his preparations for the upcoming Indian Wells Masters tournament, via Tages Anzeiger (translated):

Federer underlined that his retirements from Dubai and the Davis Cup in Birmingham vs. the USA have nothing to do with the test-training with Cahill. “No one should question Roger’s honesty about his back. He made a selfish and unpopular decision, but it was the only possibility for his health and his back. He noticed that his back had a problem again and wanted to eliminate this before it could become a real handicap,” said Godsick.

Federer has trained hard for his back injury over the past 2 weeks with Pierre Paganini and is now totally in shape to play without any problems. He will come to California at the beginning of next week to play Indian Wells and Miami. It’s not certain, yet, if Cahill will be at his side, said Godsick. The possibility to work together came up in the last few weeks, and because of his will to always get better, Roger did not want to let this chance pass him by. “The test is important for both of them. Although they know and respect each other, it could be that their personalities do not match,” said Godsick.

I’m a little stunned – I can’t believe that it’s true! What say you, Fed fans!

Photo via: Blick

Updated as of 3/4/09 5:55 EST