Doha: Fortune favours the glamour girls.

If you had asked me to pick the semifinalists at the beginning of the week, I would not have picked Venus, Serena, Wozniacki and JJ.
You see – the Tennis Gods aren’t usually this kind to me, but somehow, they’ve given me my dream match-ups. I officially fear for karma next week in Basel. 
 

 
With Caroline Wozniacki [...]

Doha: The Bland and the Beautiful.

Weary players, half empty stadiums – must be the WTA year-end championships. 
I’m starting to worry about Venus Williams. How many times this year have we seen her win the first set, braincramp in the second, and completely lose control over her game in the third?
And the annoying part is, she could – and should – [...]

Picspam: Catwoman and the Reject Bridesmaids of the WTA

Is it time for Doha already? The WTA year-end championships gets underway this week over in Woop Woop, as the players glammed for the draw ceremony. 
By “glammed up”, I mean they all went through their gloryboxes and practiced the aisle walk.
 

 

 
In times like these, I miss having Maria Sharapova in the top 8. She can [...]

WTA Beijing: You didn’t think I would skip this did you?

Yes, Kuzzy won Beijing, beating Aga 62 64. 
The problem with Kuzzy is that just as you gradually learn to expect nothing and enjoy every bit of exhilarating tennis from her, she wins a title. And you start to think, “Doha, can she do it?”
Because 2 premier events, a slam and a YEC would be a [...]

Beijing: Woodshed Beatings.

My ears are still ringing. What the hell just happened?
 
I’ll tell you what: Marin Cilic just put on the lights-out performance of the year to defeat Rafael Nadal in two sets 6-1 6-3.  
And the craziest thing is – the scoreline is actually a lot closer than the match. At 5-0 in the first set, Rafa [...]

Picspam: Wer-com to Beijing!

The big names are arriving in China ahead of the China Open in Beijing and the Shanghai Masters, which make for fabulous photo-ops. 
 

 
Must admit, Djoko’s got this whole “unshaven devilish smile” thing down to a tee. 
 

 

 
Dinara, on the other hand, wouldn’t recognize the devil if he came and told her she wasn’t the real World [...]

Tokyo: Just retire for 2 years, okay?

The headlines read “Safina stunned by Toyko loss”, “Ivanovic upset by Safarova“. Unfortunately it was just one of those cliches that journalists like to fall back on when they run out of worthwhile things to say.
There was nothin stunning or upsetting about Safina or Ivanovic losing first round. 
 

 
Self-professedly, I’m not an Ivanovic-fan, but cheering against her [...]

USO Day 8: Everybody has a story.

As much as I like to complain about all the big names dropping out of the tournament like horse shit, one of the benefits of having some of the lesser known players hang around is that you get to find out a little more about them. Turns out that the old truism ‘everybody has a [...]

Cincy/Toronto Day 2: Who stole Masha Fierce’s visor?

It was YOU Fernando Verdasco! 
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I want the faux hawk back. That birds nest sitting on top of Nando’s head is killing me. 
 
Expect sparrows to fly out any minute: Nick Laham/Getty Images
 
Fernando Verdasco is at the stage in his career where he’s probably thinking to himself – “I’ve made it. I’ve broken [...]

WTA Mosaics: why shoot’em when you can crop them?

While the ATP replaced their players’ profile pictures with thug shots this week, I went onto the WTA website to check out how the ladies handled their profile photos.
It turns out the WTA team was much more efficient: instead of lining the girls up for their mug shots – therefore expending time, money and resources, [...]