No, these aren’t our photos. We weren’t invited to the Indian Wells Players’ Party, sniff! And good thing we weren’t, because. . .well, we might have said something rude to Ana about her pantyhose. Let’s take a look:
So far, so gorgeous, for Ana Ivanovic!

And then we get to the nurse pantyhose and 80’s secretary pumps. [...]

(Amazing that Kim went back to Abu Dhabi to accept the Laureus award on Wednesday. Does Southwest fly direct from Abu Dhabi to Palm Springs?)
The Laureus World Sports Awards winners were announced today and both Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams got the nod (via Laureus.com):
US tennis star Serena Williams has won her second Laureus World [...]

So the ladies’ draw is out for the Indian Wells tournament (click here) and the first question that comes to mind is: Really, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Caroline Wozniacki are the top seeds?
I mean no offense to either of these players – it’s just a jarring reminder that Serena (boycott) and Dinara (back) are not showing [...]

Venus Williams beat Kim Clijsters in the final of the Billie Jean King Cup exhibition on Monday night: 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
This is Venus’s third title in just over two weeks. Yes, I know it was only a one night exhibition but the draw was tough and the no-ad scoring format required extreme concentration. Oh, and [...]

Kim Clijsters called in from Belgium on Tuesday to take part in a media conference call promoting the BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup in Madison Square Garden. (Yes, that rolls off Kim’s tongue with ease.) The one-night exhibition on March 1 features the reigning US Open Champ, Venus and Serena Williams [...]

Back when we were joking about possible names for Baby Federer – Roland, Wimby, Rafalito – we forgot an obvious contender: Laureus. Like many Major titles, Roger Federer has won the prestigious Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award multiple times. If history holds, he’ll win it for a record 5th time next month.
The 2010 [...]

Let’s be honest, Day 5 Down Under kind of sucked.
I typed that sentence before listening to Kim Clijsters’s press conference. She confirmed it:
“I was completely off. Just, you know, I think tennis‑wise, I didn’t feel the ball at all. . .It sucks that it has to happen at this stage of this tournament at [...]

Big Day Three news: Svetlana Kuznetsova is playing in Rod Laver arena! And it’s not even the second week. Amazing.
But the real news on Wednesday Down Under involves Sveta’s countrywoman Elena Dementieva, who has the great misfortune of playing unseeded Justine Henin in the second round. It’s a drag to lose one of these women [...]

A strange start to the Australian Open: rain, cold and an upset. As in really upset. Maria Sharapova went out in three sets and over three hours to Maria Kirilenko: 6-7, 6-3, 4-6. She smacked a total of 76 unforced errors on her way out of the tournament. Sharapova hasn’t lost in the first round [...]

* Click here for the “Hit for Haiti/Indian Wells”
* Click here for the Indian Wells TV Schedule and Indian Wells Live Streaming

I’m probably the last person in the world to have seen this footage from Sunday’s Hits for Haiti benefit in Rod Laver Arena, but now that I have, I’m just going to watch it [...]

For the first time in years, women’s tennis is in the media forefront Down Under. Darren Cahill and Pam Shriver were peppered with WTA-focused questions in an ESPN2-sponsored conference call on Tuesday, and Len DeLuca, the station’s senior V.P. of programming and acquisitions, is counting on the ladies to pull their ratings weight:
“Tennis is set [...]

I admit I had a hard time following all of the tennis action from the past week. We had the men and women in Brisbane, Roger and Rafa (and the mighty Kolya!) in Doha, Peer protests in New Zealand, an ATP tourny in India, Laura Robson making Andy Murray look good at the Hopman Cup [...]