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 [...]

Another tournament, another excuse to play “tennis” somewhere where tennis should not be played. This time Fernando Verdasco and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga played the “tennis” on Shanghai’s maglev train, the world’s fastest commercial train, which reaches a top speed of 268 miles per hour.
We got video, folks. This is what I really love about Verdasco – [...]

The ATP posted this feature on Spanish No. 2, Fernando Verdasco. My favorite line: “Being the center of attention does not bother or upset me.” What a shocker!

And then there’s the opener: “Cool, calm and with catwalk charisma, he’s the pinup boy of men’s tennis.” Did Nando write that himself?
But once I got past the [...]

Czech it out! Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek took care of business on Saturday, pairing up after their epic five setters the day before to beat  Marin Cilic/Lovro Zovko in the doubles: 6-1 6-3 6-4. The Czech team is now 3-0 over the Croatians, and is guaranteed a spot in the Davis Cup [...]

Whoa, Roger Federer almost needed 5 sets to get past Robin Soderling on Wednesday night!  Fed already had the first two in the bag, 6-0, 6-3, when, suddenly, Soderling went bombs away. The next two sets  went to tiebreaks, with Soderling up 6 points to 5 in the final breaker before Fed squeaked by. A [...]

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 [...]

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.

Fernando Verdasco went shirtless and cheesy for Hola! Magazine recently. I think DowntheLine said it best: “I’m getting Versace ad sprinkled with a dose of International Male here.”
To refresh our memories, here’s a page from International Male, Summer 1986:

The ATP needs a new web address: ATPInternationalMaleWorldTour.com
But heck, I’m just being spoiled! Yay for shirtless tennis [...]

Eight teams remain in contention to win the Davis Cup for their countries. They will battle each other in various (mostly European) cities this weekend – July 10 – 12.
Only a sport as crazy as tennis would schedule the quarterfinals of its premier team event the weekend after its premier tournament. Roddick, Ferrer, Nadal and [...]

Oh, dang! Maria Sharapova was kicked out of SW19 today- going out in the second round to feisty Gisela Dulko: 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. I was rooting for her when she was saving match points in that final game, but she just couldn’t pull it off. Too bad.
Afterwards, Maria was asked a Dumb Press Conference [...]

FRENCH OPEN DAY 1: The brick orange clay, the renewed fire (and fear) in the players’ eyes, new drinking games based on Brad Gilbert-isms – what’s not to love about a Sunday start at Roland Garros?
Here are some random musings from the debut day on Paris clay:
1.  Sad face: 2004 champ Gaston Gaudio lost to [...]

Rafael Nadal enjoyed an impressive 6-4, 7-5 victory over Fernando Verdasco in the Madrid Open quarterfinals on Friday. Verdasco played well for most of the second set, forcing Rafa to fight his way out of a double break deficit. The comeback was inevitable – I’m sure even Verdasco knew, deep down, that Rafa wasn’t going [...]