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:

Andy Murray and the Bryan Brothers took part in the draw ceremony for the ATP World Tour Finals on Wednesday in a pod of the London Eye Ferris wheel. Here are the round robin groups for the singles and doubles competitions, which run from November 22 – 29:

2009 ATP World Tour Finals Singles Draw:

Group A
Roger Federer
Andy Murray
Juan Martin del Potro
Fernando Verdasco

Group B
Rafael Nadal
Novak Djokovic
Nikolay Davydenko
Robin Soderling

Group A: Based on head-to-heads, Murray rules Group A. He holds a winning record over everyone else, for a combined win-loss tally of 17-5.  Roger has a 12-7 win-loss record over Group A, with 6 of those 7 losses coming to Andy Murray. All the players in this group have struggled with injury since the US Open, with Murray winning the group’s only title a couple weeks ago in Valencia. Based on the head-to-heads, recent form, and home-crowd advantage, Murray’s a shoe-in for the semis. And Roger Federer (apart from being Roger Federer) has the extra motivation of playing for the year-end No. 1. Group A matches up badly for Verdasco and del Potro is likely too gimpy to get through. But you never know – the tournament can’t be called the WTF for nothin’.

Your predictions:

Group B: This is where the Mojo’s at! Based on their form, Nole and Kolya (the 2008 WTF finalists) are the guys to beat – not only in the Group but in the entire tournament. Nole, the defending champ, has been on a tear this fall, winning 3 titles: over Cilic in Beijing, Roger Federer in Basel and Gael Monfils in Paris (where he also took out Rafael Nadal in straights in the semis.) His only loss in the past months has been to Nikolay Davydenko in the semis of the Shanghai Masters. Kolya went on to win the title, beating Rafael Nadal in straight sets in the finals. Speaking of Rafa – he’s lost to all of the Group B players in their most recent meetings. The most painful loss was to Robin Soderling in the round of 16 at the French. Besides the possibility of retaking the no. 1 ranking from Roger, revenge may be the major motivator as the Spaniard progresses through Group B.

Your predictions:

2009 ATP World Tour Finals Doubles Draw – Nestor and Zimonjic and the Bryan Bros are battling for the year-end No. 1 ranking.

Group A
Daniel Nestor – Nenad Zimonjic
Mahesh Bhupathi – Mark Knowles
Frantisek Cermak – Michal Mertinak
Mariusz Fyrstenberg – Marcin Matkowski

Group B
Bob Bryan – Mike Bryan
Lukas Dlouhy – Leander Paes
Lukasz Kubot – Oliver Marach
Max Mirnyi – Andy Ram

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.

Nikolay Davydenko beat Rafael Nadal 7-6 (3), 6-3 on Sunday for the title at the Shanghai Masters. Here are the highlights :

I love listening to the crowd’s reactions to every winner!

And here’s Davydenko’s post-match interview:

“It was no plan, it just was fighting!”

And of course, this was another highlight of the match – his wife’s super-lips:

Nikolay Davydenko beat Rafael Nadal 7-6 (3), 6-3 in the final of the Shanghai Masters on Sunday.  This is Davydenko’s fourth title of the season and his third career Masters title. Watching him hit those crisp ground strokes and perform his soft-shoe scamper around the court, I remembered: I like watching Kolya play. He’s like a hamburger – I don’t have one very often, but I always enjoy it when I do.

Of course, the big story in Shanghai was the high number of player retirements. 9 players tapped out of their matches last week – that’s 16% of the draw. Here’s the hit list: Stan Wawrinka (abs), Gael Monfils (back), Ivan Ljubicic (thigh), Feliciano Lopez (ankle), Andy Roddick (knee – now confirmed to be a slight sprain needing 2-3 weeks recovery time), Tommy Haas (shoulder), Juan Martin del Potro (wrist), and Mischa Zverev (hand – sustained during his match.)

Unlike Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal, Davydenko says he sees nothing wrong with this injury-ridden part of the season:

“It’s good for me if everybody gets injured at the end of the year, because I didn’t play the first three months of the year and everybody played already.”

“Maybe I have more chance coming to [qualify for the year-end event in] London. Maybe everybody will retire in London and I can win London!“

Oh Kolya, you are a quirky one. But kudos to him for surviving a three hour, three set marathon against Novak Djokovic on Saturday and finding a way to come back strong the next day. At least right now, he’s the fittest man on the ATP tour.

Rafael Nadal benefited from two retirements (Ljubicic and Lopez) on his way to the final, making it hard to read too much into this result. But no matter Rafa’s current form, he’s only 23 years old and only two Masters titles shy of Andre Agassi’s all-time record of 17 (Roger, of course is at 16, but he’s ancient!) So I’m putting this into the “win some/lose some” category and will refrain from reading Rafa’s tea leaves until next year’s Australian Open.

On the women’s side, the wait is finally over! French Open semifinalist Samantha Stosur won her first career title in six final appearances by beating Francesca Schiavone 7-5, 6-1 in the finals of Osaka. This win will take her to No. 13 in the rankings – next stop, Top 10! (Sorry the above photo is not from Osaka – but I think it gets the point across, right?)

US Open semi-finalist, Yanina Wickmayer won her second career WTA tour title at the Generali Ladies Linz, beating Petra Kvitova in the final. She’ll now be in the top 20 for the first time in her career.

Oh and props to my favorite Frenchman, who teamed up with my not-so-favorite Frenchman to win the doubles title in Shanghai against Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski of Poland.

So Roger Federer played second fiddle today, taking the court against Tommy Robredo after Melanie Oudin’s big win over Nadia Petrova. He did his best to wow the crowd in his own way, coming back from a tight first set to dominate the Spaniard in vintage Fed style: 7-5, 6-2, 6-2.

I loved what Roger had to say about finding motivation, even against players like Robredo who he’s now beaten all nine times they’ve played (via usopen.org):

“It’s not like even trying to beat him again; it’s just about having fun out there, playing a good match, playing good tennis, enjoying the moment, playing in packed stadiums. It’s something not many people get an opportunity to do. I think everybody would love to be in my shoes. Why should I give away my spot, really, because I enjoy too much and people love to come see me play? So this is motivation alone for me. It’s plenty.”

No. 6 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova lost a nail biter to Caroline Wozniacki: 6-2, 6-7, 6-7. And she wasn’t too happy with either of their performances afterwards:

“I don’t think she (Wozniacki) did something too well, you know. I just did unforced errors all the time. And you don’t have to do much. You just have to put the ball back. I was creating the point or I was losing it. This was it.

Robin Soderling advanced to meet Roger Federer in the quarterfinals after Nikolay Davydenko retired down two sets to one.  This is the second time this tournament that a player has retired against Soderling – Marcel Granollers lasted all of two games against him in the second round.

Side note – Venus, Vera and Melanie are sporting mummy-wrapped legs, Acasuso and Simon retired in the third round and Davydenko tapped out in the Round of 16, Nadal and Almagro were both splayed out on court getting treatment on Sunday. This isn’t hard court season, this is injury season.

Fernando Verdasco, who is nursing his own abdominal injury, edged out the lone American left in the men’s draw, John Isner, in four sets. I’m so missing Andy Roddick right now.

Novak Djokovic worked the crowd after dominating Radek Stepanek 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 on Monday night. He thanked the crowd for staying, challenged Todd Martin and John McEnroe to a hit (guess who accepted) and did a Johnny Mac impression (click here for the video.) Personally, I love seeing Nole up to his old antics. And I also love knowing that he’ll probably piss off everyone again before the tournament is over.

The women’s quarterfinals are set:

Yanina Wickmayer vs. Kateryna Bondarenko (Say wha?)

Melanie Oudin vs. Caroline Wozniacki

Li Na vs. Kim Clijsters

Flavia Pennetta vs. Serena Williams

The men are still working on the Round of 16:

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. Fernando Gonzalez

Gael Monfils vs. Rafael Nadal

del Potro vs. Ferrero in the battle of the Juans

Marin Cilic vs. Andy Murray

The men put in a good day’s work on Day Four of the US Open on Thursday, including some solid wins by Tommy Haas, Fernando Verdasco, Novak Djokovic and Tommy Robredo. Here are some of our snapshots.

*fellow bloggers are more than welcome to use our photos, please link us if you do.

 

2009 AUSTRIAN OPEN KITZBUHEL TENNIS TV SCHEDULE

World No. 11 Nikolay Davydenko is the highest-ranked player at the Interwetten Austrian Open Kitzbühel, which the ATP Board approved to host a clay-court tournament in 2009 in place of Pörtschach. Davydenko captured his third Austrian title in four years last year, beating 2007 champion Juan Monaco in the final. Davydenko has a 23-4 record at the tournament. Jurgen Melzer, the 2005 runner-up, Victor Hanescu and Fabrice Santoro also compete. Brazilians Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa return in an attempt to defend their doubles trophy.

Official Website:
http://www.atpkitz.at/

……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..

*U.S. BROADCAST ON TENNIS CHANNEL – ALL TIMES EST

*Tennis Channel’s broadcast is very limited and they are only showing the semi’s and the final. Only other option to catch some of the match would be via online streaming.

AUSTRIAN OPEN, Saturday, May 23
4:00 pm – 6:30 am Austrian Open ATP : FINAL - TENNIS CHANNEL – DELAY
8:00 pm – 10:30 pm Austrian Open ATP : FINAL - TENNIS CHANNEL – REPEAT
11:00 pm – 1:30 am Austrian Open ATP : FINAL – TENNIS CHANNEL – REPEAT

AUSTRIAN OPEN, Saturday, May 24
2:00 pm – 4:30 am Austrian Open ATP : FINAL – TENNIS CHANNEL – REPEAT

via Tennis Channel

Gotta love the videos coming out of this week’s Estoril Open combined tennis tournament in Portugal.

There’s something oddly entrancing in the pairing of Sabine Lisicki and Nikolay Davydenko:

Equally entrancing - South Americans in wetsuits and Juan Monaco speaking English:

If you are curious about more than beefcake and sweetcakes at the Estoril Open (a combined ATP 250 and WTA International tournament) – you can check out the website here.

The bottom line – on the ATP side, Gilles Simon and Kolya Davydenko are the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, respectively, and Iveta Benesova and Maria Kirilenko head up the women’s draw (Lisicki is seeded No. 4 after Sorana Cirstea.)

Ridiculous stat: Rafael Nadal has a 141-4 win record on clay since 2005.

Okay, back to business: here are some highlights from Saturday’s semi final matches at the Barcelona Open. Rafael Nadal defeated a back-from-injury Nikolay Davydenko, 6-3, 6-2, and David Ferrer took out Fernando Gonzalez in three:  2-6, 6-2, 7-6(5). David described his win as “a crazy match that could have gone either way.”

Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer will face each other on Sunday in a rematch of the 2008 final, which Nadal won in three sets. Rafa’s going for his fifth straight title in Barcelona.

Ferrer’s take on the final: “Rafa is the World No. 1 and the best on clay, it’s very difficult to beat him. I’ll try to play good tennis, if not I’m dead, but I’m not thinking about whether or not I’ll beat him, I go on the court to play as well as possible.”

Rafa leads the head-to-head against Ferrer, 6 to 3.

Here’s another video from the ATP, where David Ferrer makes a half-hearted attempt to describe how to beat Nadal on clay:

141-4, people.

Source: ATP