You got a live fifth rubber, you want David Nalbandian on your team. Even an old, injured, rusty version. After Nikolay Davydenko pulled himself together and evened things up 2-2 in Moscow on Sunday vs. Leonardo Mayer, David took to the court vs. current World No. 14 Mikhail Youznhy and beat him in straights. Not [...]

France took out defending champ Spain in Davis Cup action on Saturday. The team of Llodra/Benneteau beat Lopez/Verdasco 6-1, 6-2, 6-7(6), 7-6(5), posting an insurmountable 3-0 lead for Team France. “Even if I am 30 years, I like this kind of match,” said Llodra, who also upset Verdasco in Monday’s singles rubber. “Amazing. We play [...]

Friday was an exciting and surprising first day of Davis Cup quarterfinal action. Let’s take a look. France leads Spain: 2-0 in France Wha? Michael Llodra, bluntly described as France’s “oldest and lowest ranked player” on the Davis Cup website, took out World No. 10 Fernando Verdasco on Friday in four sets. It was the [...]

The 2010 Davis Cup quarterfinals are here, less than a week after the Wimbledon finals. Who is ready to fight on? SPAIN VS. FRANCE: Wimby champ Rafael Nadal has pulled from the anticipated Spain vs. France quarterfinal in Clermont-Ferrand, France, to rest his knees. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is also out with a knee injury. As the [...]

It wouldn’t be Day One of a Major without a little controversy! Just after 8:30 pm, as Olivier Rochus took the third to go up two sets to one against Novak Djokovic on Centre Court, tournament referee Andrew Jarrett declared that the players would be taking a 30 minute break while the roof was closed [...]

YAY! Wimbledon is so near, I can practically smell the verdant English lawns way out here in bone dry southern California. But if your nose isn’t as sensitive as mine, there’s always Wimbledon’s Facebook page. I’m just happy Jo-Dubs made it out. (Watch the knees! And the back!) He’s fragile for a big guy. Andy [...]

So much for the “fifth Majors”, as both the Indian Wells and Miami tournaments claim to be. The WTA’s desert draw was a little scanty this year, due to the continued boycott of the Williams sisters, Dinara Safina’s ongoing back injury and early losses by both comeback Belgians and Maria Sharapova. On the ATP side, [...]

Learning our lesson from Saturday’s standing room only Roddick/Blake vs. Murray/Hutchins doubles match, we camped out early on Stadium 2 on Sunday to catch wild card entrants Rafael Nadal/Marc Lopez vs. the third-seeded doubles team of Lukas Dlouhy/Leander Paes.  The wild cards won: 6-4, 3-6, 10-6. The result made me pity the doubles specialists of [...]

“As of 3:00 pm today” Nikolay Davydenko will be representin’ for Dunlop. From the press release: World No.6 Davydenko signs with Dunlop March 12th 2010 – Dunlop are delighted to announce their new partnership with Russian tennis ace, Nikolay Davydenko for rackets, clothing and accessories. The partnership will also see Davydenko endorse Dunlop’s junior talent [...]

REUTERS/Michael Fiala via Daylife It’s the incredible shrinking draw! Juan Martin Del Potro and Fernando Gonzalez are both confirmed “nos” for Indian Wells. Gonzalez, who is playing Davis Cup in Chile this weekend, has decided to stay in his country to help with earthquake relief (his efforts reportedly include organizing a Hit for Chile in [...]

Here’s a quick peek at what’s going on in the tennis world this weekend. In Paris we have the WTA’s Open GDF Suez, a Premier-level event without the Williams sisters, Clijsters or Henin. It’s nice to see Melanie Oudin taking advantage of both the draw and the confidence she gained last weekend in Fed Cup; [...]

There are always some loose strings and leftover challenges after every major. Allow me to clean out my virtual tennis bag. ROGER AND SERENA ARE OUT OF SIGHTS (I love this photo because it looks like he’s been awarded a Ferris Wheel for a trophy): Roger Federer decided to spice things up on his way [...]