There’s an interesting story on Vika‘s recent slump and, additionally , on the journalist/player relation over at TENNIS.com. My favourite part isn’t anything Vika-related, but regards Dina:

Walking towards the transport area, Azarenka runs into Dinara Safina, and the interview is temporarily put on hold again as the two greet each other enthusiastically. Safina’s face, all smiles, freezes at the sight of a reporter with such horror that it’s hard not to feel sorry for her.

My heart was a bit crushed at the fact Dina is that scared of a journalist. She’s easily one of the players the press has given the hardest time recently. You don’t need to go back much to remember the whole ‘Number One Without a Slam’ fiasco. I think if I were to interview her after a loss, I’d be all ‘Awww, here, Dina. I brought you some chocolate cake! Now gimme a big hug!’. Perhaps slightly inappropriate, but isn’t the thought what matters?

To me, it looks like Dinara had a few too many, tried to sit on the chair, but her wobbly legs gave out on her and she fell down. She then started laughing (oh, the wonders of alcohol) and a friend on her said ‘Wait a minute! Let me grab my phone Sony Ericsson mobile phone to post this on Facebook!’. She posed, he took a picture. And, voilà. There’s your brand new photoshoot with a top professional tennis player. Amazing.

*cue to instrumental music*

We’re now getting ready for the EPIC exhibitions coming up. In Abu Dhabi, we have this amazingly strong field + Wawrinka.

Play begins on the 31st and this is how the three days will exhibition work.

If you ask me, I’d say they should give Byes to the semifinals in all tournaments Rafa plays. Ahem.

But the exhibition I’m really, really excited to is, the one and only, Hopman Cup.

*cue to even more instrumental music*

Hopman Cup always brings the hilarity to tennis courts. This year, we had the super siblings Safins getting all the way to the final and being hilarious while doing so:

In 2007, we had, well, Dmitry Tursunov.

This year, here’s the full list of the teams:

So excuse me if I have high expectations of Team Russia this year. I’m hoping Igor will shown a bit of personality on court. Maybe he’ll deserve his own title instead of “Kiri‘s boyfriend”. But, hell, aren’t the teams just AWESOME this year? Let’s put aside the EPICNESS that is Russia for a second here and focus on the others. Sabine + Kolschi? Baby Pusher + Ace boy? Dream Australian Team? Sorana Banana + Romanian dude? LAURA ROBSON + ANDY MURRAY? Why yes, I am excited.

How about a HOPMAN CUP POLL? Fun y/y?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Serena Williams defeated today Venus Williams 6-2 7-6(4) to take the WTA Championships title. Do not let the score kid you, ladies and gents, it was a quite boring match. I’m sure it was lovely for Serena though. A small family gathering and then she takes home a check of 1 million and 550 thousands dollars. Not too shabby.

With Dinara Safina‘s withdrawal in the Round Robin, Serena will end the year as the number one in the rankings. Well-deserved, I’d say.

Today’s Order of Play (starts at 5PM Doha Time)

1. Vera Zvonareva vs. Caroline Wozniacki
2. Serena Williams vs. Elena Dementieva
3. Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Venus Williams

Bepa Zvonareva will play her first match in the tournament. She’s going in as an alternate for Dinara Safina. Yesterday, Dinara retired at 1-1 against JJ due to back problems. Left the court crying and limping. Quite a heartbreaking thing to watch. I’d say Bepa has been playing well since she came back from her injury butt considering she crashed out 0-6 2-6 to Pironkova in Kremlin Cup’s second round just last week… yeah, I’ll be making no predictions. I don’t know how well an injured, tired Piece of Adorable Danish Sunshine Caro can play either.

The second match could be a possible revenge for Serena, after Lena defeated her in Toronto this year. But knowing Serena, I doubt she even cares. She won the epic Wimbledon semis. I’m sure she has no problems sleeping at night. And Elena seems to have this agreement with the top players that goes like this: “I win the Mickey Mouses tournaments, you win the Slams + YEC.” Awesome. But again… predicting matches… I know how good I am at that. (Not at all.)

The third match…. no, I don’t care. *shrug*

The YEC groups came out out and they are:

MAROON GROUP (aka the “death” group):

• Elena Dementieva
• Serena Williams
• Venus Williams
• Svetlana Kuznetsova

WHITE GROUP (aka “baby!GOATs, #1 and, oh right, JJ qualified” group)

• Victoria Azarenka
• Caroline Wozniacki
• Jelena Jankovic
• Dinara Safina

Play starts tomorrow at 5pm Doha time. Here’s the Order of Play:

I hope everyone’s got their popcorn and playsheets ready!

(why on earth did she put that picture up of herself up?)

From Wicky‘s blog:

I’ve been reading Twilight – I got the first one and finished in like two days, then it took me two or three days to get through the second one, and now I’m about halfway through the third one. I guess in another day or two it’ll be finished :) I haven’t seen the movie though. That’s the first thing on my list when I get back home!

Go call Sharapova to discuss some fantastic literature now.

And from something I’d call “stuff I’d rather not know”:

Just…. *cringes*

Dina was the only one that answered that correctly by saying “pop music”. Kuddos, number one.

P.S. Why do I have the feeling “Nicole, Australia” is reader of mine?

I’m not American and I’m not used to cheering for Americans in sports. But today? Bloody good day for American tennis.

It all started with the second match of the day on Ashe. 17-year-old Melanie Oudin defeated another seeded player in a row and ousted Maria Sharapova in a thriller three-setter 3-6 6-4 7-5. Sure it was full of unforced errors and double faults, Oudin herself played in a worse level than she did in her match against Elena. However, the crowd was completely into it. As a spectator from the other side of the continent, I can say I was screaming at the TV and tweeting in all caps (see how srs it was?). I think people forget what sport really is about. It’s not about clean stats and perfect percentages. It’s about getting fans excited, anxious, sentimental. It was a match full of drama that gave the local crowd the pleasure of seeing their homegirl leave the court teary-eyed after being victorious. It’s about the emotion, folks.

The last day match (when it finished, it wasn’t so much as day), certainly had the emotional fact down.

6″9′ John Isner defeated the biggest American hope, Andy Roddick, at his own game. It took him 38 aces, almost four hours, and a fifth-set tiebreak to beat the national poster child. And he did. This match was the epitome of  American hardcourt tennis. Two Americans, in the Central Court of Flushing Meadows, acing each other to death. And, as a bonus, with the underdog taking the win. Great stuff for the crowd, locals and American TV stations, I guess.

P.S. We’ll close our eyes and pretend Dina-Kvitova never happened. It’s easier on my heart.

Marat‘s press conference yesterday after losing to Monfils was, well, adorable in his hippo-way of being. The journalist said his sister wasn’t playing so well but now she is (that was before her match against Vinci, d’oh) and asked how Marat felt about it.

“I’m enjoying it, but she (Dinara) — she’s a hard worker. So for her, everything is like a battle. She wants it. She wants it badly. She spends so much time on court. I think she is more professional than all the players together.
So when she’s trying and she’s — nobody believed that she’s going to be No. 1 in the world. Nobody believed that she going to be top 10 even two, three years ago.
So look where she is right now. A lot of people they giving her trouble, okay, she’s No. 1 in the world but she never won a Grand Slam.
So it’s a little bit — it gets tough on her. But she’s there. She’s fighting. She’s trying. I’m really proud of her that she can stand, and I tell everybody to fuck off basically in every press conference. I would do this way, but unfortunately she’s very polite to you guys.
But I’m really proud that she’s holding up herself even though that’s somebody can be really rough on her. She’s there. I hope she can be No. 1 for a long time so she can prove to everybody that they can go fuck themselves.“

Seriously, you guys. That made my heart flutter. Sometimes, I don’t even like posting about Marat because nowadays he only brings me pain. He doesn’t really care about the sport anymore and it’s obvious he just wants the season to be over so he can go to his retire-land and date a few sluts. But a few years ago, when he was still, you know, winning, he would bring me so much happiness. Being his smart ass self on pressers, talking about David Lynch and trashing books like The Da Vinci Code. I don’t think it needs to be said that he will be missed.

And to prove hilariousity runs in the blood, Dinara explains why her left hand is all taped. She lost a fight with a coconut.

“I would say I lost a bet with a coconut. I was trying to open a coconut and actually didn’t open it very good because the knife slipped and it went straight into my hand. It was pretty deep. I was lucky that I was able to play in Los Angeles because until the day before the tournament I didn’t hit any backhands. There was no chance I could hit any backhand.”

The Safins… they sure are special.

They’ve decided to stuck with the “locker room” look again. Relaxed (expect porn actor!Nando) players surrounded by sweaty towels and tennis balls — just the way the tennis gods intended. And even Dina looks quite lovely, doesn’t she? Delicate and strong at the same time.

Now, the outfits. Adidas wins a gold star for using pastel colours for this time of the season. Just as I love citric colours for the clay, I love pastel for the hardcourts. I think it gives a nice contrast with the bright blue/green. I’m hoping, this time, Dina’s shirt fits her. I love her but I don’t need to see her belly ever five seconds, thankyouverymuch.