We can’t get enough of the practice courts (and practice field) at Indian Wells. Gael Monfils, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Robin Soderling, Gilles Simon, the Spanish Armada, Justine Henin and Caroline Wozniacki worked on their strokes and their foot work on Thursday. Anna Chakvetadze looked on while Marcos Baghdatis, Juan Monaco, Gaston Gaudio et. al played a [...]

The trend this weekend in tennis: Firsts and seconds!
Self-described “best friends” David Ferrer and Juan Carlos Ferrero met in a final for the second time in two weeks, with Ferrer avenging last weekend’s loss in Argentina with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 win in Acapulco. With this victory, Ferrer scored his first title since 2008 and [...]

REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci via Daylife
If the tennis season revolved around February’s South American clay court circuit, 30-year-old Juan Carlos Ferrero would be its Roger Federer. He beat Davis Cup teammate David Ferrer in three sets in Sunday’s Copa Telmex final in Buenos Aires, making it his ninth straight match victory and second title in as many [...]

Feliciano Lopez cuddling a lion cub? If he still had the long locks, it would be a Harlequin Romance cover come to life!
He visited The Lion Park in Gauteng Province, South Africa, on Sunday, home to “over 80 lions, including the rare white lion and many other wildlife, including cheetah, wild dog, hyena, jackal, antelope, [...]

Rafael Nadal got a nice pre-Australian Open confidence boost, taking out Robin Soderling 7-6 (3), 7-5 in Saturday’s final of the Capitala Tennis Championships exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi.
Great shot of Xisca’s game face around the 2:15 mark!

Roger Federer played David Ferrer for third place. Fed beat Fer, 6-1, 7-5. (Sorry if the audio is [...]

Happy tennis New Year! Or not. . .
“So far, so good!” said Robin Soderling of his 2010 season after scoring his first ever victory (in 13 tries) against Roger Federer. The Swede beat the Swiss 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-1), 6-2 on Friday in the semifinals of the Capitala World Tennis Championship exhibition tournament in Abu [...]

Photo by Miquel Benitez/Getty Images via Daylife
Two things we know without a doubt about the Spanish Davis Cup Team:

They’re unbeatable at home (final score after Sunday’s dead rubber play: 5-0, Spain.)
The U.N. is holding the team in a bomb shelter, in the event a nuclear apocalypse necessitates that a few choice human specimens repopulate the [...]

The Spanish Armada was in intimidating form against the Czech Republic this weekend in Barcelona, winning the first three matches of the final and claiming the Davis Cup title for the second year in a row.
A strong cocktail of red clay, home crowd and team spirit was just what Rafael Nadal needed to perk up [...]

Photo by REUTERS/Albert Gea (SPAIN) via Daylife.com
The Davis Cup draw was released on Thursday, and Rafael Nadal and Tomas Berdych will be facing off in the first match of this weekend’s final in Barcelona. Here’s the full schedule:
Friday, December 4
Rafael Nadal v Tomas Berdych
David Ferrer  v Radek Stepanek
Saturday, December 5
Feliciano Lopez / Fernando Verdasco  [...]

It’s not a full line-up of the Day 3 roster, but we thought we’d share some photos we snapped of Marat Safin, Kim Clijsters, Rafael Nadal, Richard Gasquet, Victoria Azarenka, a semi-shirtless David Ferrer and others from Wednesday at the US Open.
The attractive woman you might not recognize is Polona Hercog – an eighteen year [...]

Andy Roddick, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, David Ferrer, Fernando Gonzalez, Vera Zvonareva, Aleksandra Wozniak, Sabine Lisicki and other tennis players attended the 10th annual Taste of Tennis event on Thursday night at the W Hotel in Manhattan. Proceeds from the event support the Food Bank for New York City. A description from the Taste of [...]

Okay, not everyone is shirtless while they practice for the US Open. But Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is! As is David Ferrer – who I’m hoping is recovering nicely from his knee tendinitis. Andy Roddick might as well be shirtless, due to his over-sweating. Whoo hoo! (Sorry, WTA fans, all I got is a shirt-wearing Jelena Jankovic.) [...]