If you in the Birmingham area you might want to check out Fed Cup this weekned. USA vs Russia. Can be very interesting on what, who, & how it's all going to happen.
U.S. Fed Cup Captain Mary Joe Fernandez names three players to team for 2010 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas SemifinalsWednesday, April 14, 2010 11:13 AM ET The USTA and U.S. Fed Cup Captain Mary Joe Fernandez announced that 2009 US Open quarterfinalist Melanie Oudin, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and world No. 1 doubles player Liezel Huber will represent the U.S. in the 2010 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group Semifinal against Russia on an indoor hard court at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex in Birmingham, Ala., April 24-25. The fourth member of the U.S. team will be determined next week. “Melanie, Liezel and Bethanie are ready to represent the U.S. again and take on a formidable Russian team for the chance to return to the Fed Cup Final,” said Fernandez, who last year in her rookie season as captain led the U.S. to the Fed Cup Final for the first time since 2003. “We are leaving the fourth spot open in case Venus or Serena [Williams] is healthy enough to compete. The plan is to give them as much time as possible and we hope to make a decision early next week.” Fed Cup rules require nations to submit an initial roster of three or four players no less than 10 days prior to the start of play. Captains can change one or two players on the final roster that is submitted up to one hour before the draw which is held the day before matches begin. The best-of-five match series begins on Saturday, April 24 with two singles matches featuring each country’s No. 1 singles player facing the No. 2 singles player from the other nation. The event concludes the next day with “reverse singles,” as the No. 1 player from each country face off followed by the No. 2 singles players meeting. The second day of competition concludes with a doubles match. Tennis Channel will present daily live coverage beginning at 1:00 p.m. CT on Saturday and Sunday. Oudin, 18, will be making her fifth consecutive appearance for the U.S. Fed Cup team. She earned two singles victories against France to help lead the U.S. to a 4-1 victory in the 2010 quarterfinal. Oudin shot up the rankings in 2009 after a breakthrough year, and is currently ranked a career-high No. 36 in the world. Last year, she defeated former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic en route to a fourth round appearance at Wimbledon, then made headlines when she upset 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Elena Dementieva and former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova in three-set matches to become the youngest American quarterfinalist at the US Open since 1999. This year, Oudin reached the semifinals of the Paris Open and the quarterfinals in both Memphis and Ponte Vedra Beach. Mattek-Sands, 25, will make her third appearance for the U.S. Fed Cup team. She recorded a singles and doubles victory in the 2010 quarterfinal versus France after teaming with Liezel Huber to win the doubles rubber and clinch the 2009 semifinal tie against the Czech Republic. Mattek-Sands reached a career-high ranking of No. 37 last March, and she won three Sony Ericsson WTA Tour doubles titles in 2009. Mattek-Sands currently is ranked No. 130 in the world in singles and No. 12 in doubles. Huber, 33, became a U.S. citizen on July 25, 2007, with the hopes of playing for the U.S. at the 2008 Olympic Games (she teamed with Lindsay Davenport to reach the doubles quarterfinals there). Huber owns four Grand Slam women’s doubles titles with Cara Black and the 2009 French Open mixed doubles title with Bob Bryan. She and Black finished the 2009 season tied for No. 1 in the world doubles rankings for the third consecutive year. Born in South Africa, Huber spent four years on the South African Fed Cup team and posted a 9-3 overall record (9-2 doubles) in 12 ties – all on red clay. She has won four of her five matches for the U.S. Fed Cup team, including tie-clinching matches with partner Julie Ditty against Argentina in the 2009 quarterfinal and with Bethanie Mattek-Sands against the Czech Republic to send the U.S. to the 2009 Fed Cup Final. RUSSIA Elena Dementieva Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Ekaterina Makarova Alla Kudryavtseva Captain: Shamil Tarpischev Tickets are still available for the 2010 Fed Cup Semifinal between the U.S. and Russia in most price categories and can be purchased: • at www.ticketmaster.com, or • by calling Ticketmaster at 1-888-334-USTA (8782) Both nations posted road victories in the quarterfinals in February. The United States defeated France, 4-1, while Russia won the decisive doubles match to post a 3-2 victory at Serbia. The U.S. is 4-3 all-time against Russia in Fed Cup competition, but has lost the last three meetings between the two nations, most recently in the 2008 semifinal in Moscow. The two countries last squared off on American soil in the 2007 semifinal in Stowe, Vt., with Russians Nadia Petrova and Elena Vesnina defeating Venus Williams and Lisa Raymond 7-5, 7-6(1), in the fifth and decisive doubles match to clinch a 3-2 victory. Fed Cup by BNP Paribas is the world’s largest annual international women’s team competition with 87 countries competing this year. The United States leads all nations with 17 Fed Cup titles – the last coming in 2000 – and is one of eight nations which will compete for the 2010 Fed Cup title as part of the Fed Cup World Group. For more information, including access to U.S. player and historical Fed Cup records, please go to www.usta.com/fedcup .
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3a. Before you begin any exercise regimen, it is imperative that you discuss your plans with your physician. An annual Check – up is a good idea, and discuss your plans for the coming season.
3. Now you have your frames in order, we move to the question of overall physical condition. Here, you must be brutally honest with yourself. Are you carrying any extra weight from the winter? Are you in good aerobic shape? Do you fatigue easily? Are you moving with speed? How is your body’s flexibility?
2b. If you are satisfied with your old frames, you will want to have each frame re-strung. Old strings that have been in the frame for a few months become brittle and lose their elasticity. Have your racquets strung by a Certified Stringer Technician. A certified racquet technician will go beyond stringing and examine the frame for grip wear, grommet damage, and any potential problems. It’s worth the money. The spring is usually cooler than temperatures associated with the summer months. This cooler, spring temperature makes the stings constrict a bit more than they would during the summer. The reduced effective tension that results from 15 – gauge string is offset by the cooler temperature’s constricting effect.
MEN
Miami Singles - Final: (6) A Roddick def. (16) T Berdych 7-5 6-4 Last summer at Wimbledon, Larry Stefanki's influence on Andy Roddick seemed apparent: he was trimmer and he seemed to be moving better. Then came the injury. Roddick took a long time to really come back, and even after he was healthy, he seemed a little bit hesitant. Not in this match. He of course served well, but he also seemed to be positioning himself much better than in recent years; that effort on his footwork really did seem to be paying off. In terms of points, this was pretty close, especially for the first ten games of the first set -- but Roddick never faced a break point, How much good it will do him is an open question. With this, Roddick passes Roger Federer to take the #1 spot in the ATP Race this year. And he also leads in wins (he's 26-4 this year, with two titles, two finals, and two quarterfinals), and his two titles is tied for the lead (and he is the only one of the players with two titles to have won a required event). But, despite the Indian Wells final two weeks ago and the title here, Roddick rises only slightly in the rankings -- this puts him at #7. And we're heading into the clay season. He's not likely to earn many points there. And he can't add points at Wimbledon unless he wins the title. It isn't until summer hardcourts that he really has room to add points. To be sure, if he can play at the summer events the way he played here, he should certainly be able to turn the Big Six into a Big Seven. Tomas Berdych, who perhaps was a little nervous, fails to pick up what would have been the biggest title of his career. But he moves up from #20 to #15. That means he will be seeded at every event he plays this clay season. That could well bring substantial benefits by the time Roland Garros rolls around. WOMEN Miami Singles - Final: (14) Kim Clijsters def. (3) Venus Williams 6-2 6-1 Kim Clijsters said before this match that she and Venus Williams rarely play their best at the same time. Consider their U. S. Open quarterfinal last year, which Clijsters won by the score 6-0 0-6 6-4. This time, there wasn't any of that back-and-forthing. Venus had bandages on both legs. Apparently they were precautionary, but she said afterward that she might have worn herself out over-practicing; she couldn't keep the ball in play. The match lasted less than an hour, and Clijsters won almost two-thirds of the points. Venus sees her winning streak end at fifteen matches, but she still moves up to #4 in the rankings. That's nothing to the move made by Clijsters, however. Having won two of the last six required events, she is now up to #10 (from #16). And she still has Rome, Madrid, Roland Garros, and Wimbledon to add to her total. She has had some rather bad results to go with her good ones, but still, if we look at her eight results so far, and project her average level at each over a "normal" schedule of 16 events, we would get this: 4 Slams at an average of 1080 points per Slam: 4320 points 4 Premier Mandatory, average 540 points/event: 2160 points 3 Premier Five, average 155 points/event: 465 points 3 Premier 700 -- has not played one yet; estimate 225 points/event: 675 points 2 International, average 155 points/event: 310 points Total: 7930 points. Serena Williams has 7945 points. Thus Clijsters is on pace to compete for #1 this year -- especially since that figure for the Premier Fives is based on her first two events back. That does not mean she will be #1, or even that she will actually threaten it, but if present trends continue, she would. It's the second Miami title for Clijsters, who also won in 2006 -- making her the first non-Williams to win multiple Miami titles since Martina Hingis in 1997 and 2000. The one before that was Steffi Graf. Not bad company. Djokovic Video
HEAD gives tennis fanatics a chance to see Novak Djokovic off court in his upcoming lead role in HEAD’s new broadcasted tennis videos. The videos exemplify HEAD’s campaign "The Power of You" by depicting an experiment with tennis balls and HEAD Speed racquets, where an astonishing chain reaction is unexpectedly created to the surprise of Djokovic and his team. Starting as a simple bet with some of his friends, Djokovic’s experiment has unexpected results after he enlists the help of Jeff, a project engineer, and Lars, an assembly operator, to assemble a tennis machine comprised of a HEAD Speed tennis racquet and a tennis ball. After a successful initial test, the team places numerous tennis machines all over a large warehouse for the ultimate experiment. Not only does a chain reaction occur but there is also a surprise twist that even the team engineer cannot explain. Viewers are encouraged to visit www.head.com/experiment, where they can watch Djokovic’s experiment take place on several online platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Fans will also have the opportunity to view the exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and making of the production. Bartoli Now Focusing on the French Open
Although she lost to Venus Williams in the semifinals in Miami, after a convincing second set, Marion Bartoli says she is not too disappointed. “I am still very proud of what I have been able to accomplish here. Reaching the final four along with three Grand Slam champions, it’s really something great. I have proven that I now had the level to go far in the big events, and that is very encouraging. Like Tsonga, Bartoli aims at scoring a big French Open fortnight. “I really want to do something big at Roland Garros where, apart from 1997 (where she reached the last 16), I have never played well. This semi-final in Miami should give me some needed confidence in that respect.” World no.1 Serena Williams has not played competitively since winning the Australian Open at the end of January and it now seems she might not return until the year’s second Grand Slam, the French Open which begins May 23.
Serena, sidelined with a right knee injury for the last two months, has not entered the Internazionali BNL d’Italia which begins in Rome on May 3. Although this week Serena asked tournament director Sergio Palmieri to keep a wild card place open for her in case she makes a quicker recovery than expected, she is set to be the only absentee from the world’s top ten at the WTA Tour’s fourth Premier event of the year. Serena has already missed the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and the ongoing Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. She was scheduled to play next week’s in Marbella but withdrew but organizers of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open, beginning May 11, are still optimistic. Palmieri reported all of the top men's players are expected, with the exception of sixth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, who is out for a month with a broken left wrist. She’s lived in Australia for years with her boyfriend, and last year she was granted Australian citizenship. Now Russian-born Anastasia Rodionova will make her Fed Cup debut for her adopted country when Australia faces Ukraine in next month's World Group playoff. She will join Samantha Stosur, Alicia Molik and Rennae Stubbs in Kharkiv for the tie which tales place on April 24-25.
Team captain David Taylor is optimistic that, with top-tenner and in-form Stosur and veteran doubles standout Stubbs, Australia will be able to advance to the World Group for the first time since 2004. Molik has also impressed Taylor with her form over the six months since she came out of a retirement forced by injury, and Rodionova will obviously be highly motivated to perform well for Australia if she is called upon to take the court. "It is an opportunity for the Australian team to re-establish itself among the elite countries in the women's tennis," said Taylor. ""Our No.1 singles player, Sam, will once again take on the role of team leader while Rennae, who is the longest serving member in Australian Fed Cup history, makes a strong doubles combination with Sam if it gets down to the fifth rubber." The other World Group playoff ties feature Belgium against Estonia, Germany against France and Serbia against Slovak Republic Until Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer conspired to cook up something very, very special on the All England Club’s Centre Court nearly two years ago, the 1980 Wimbledon final between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe was regarded by many as the greatest tennis match of all time. Now with the pair’s 50th birthdays long consigned to history, they are set to return to the hallowed grass for a re-enactment. Unfortunately the event, certain to be a 15,000 Centre Court sell out if the tickets were put on sale to the general public, will be watched by only a select few on an outside court. HSBC, corporate partners to the All England Club, is paying for the event and will invite a relatively small audience. Centre Court is traditionally never played on so close to the start of the Championships as the All England Club’s Head Groundsman Eddie Seward insists on having the surface in pristine condition for the beginning of the male champion’s defence at 1pm on the first Monday. Last year there was the specially arranged day for the Roof Opening, involving Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, Kim Clijsters and Tim Henman but that took place in early May before the French Open. Initial plans are that the match will staged sometime in the week before the Championships start on Monday, June 21. McEnroe prefers to fly home to New York between his commentary commitments at the French Open and Wimbledon but is scheduled to make an exhibition appearance in Liverpool in the week preceding the Championships and the prospect of another joust with Borg on grass is to good to miss
Borg is employed by HSBC as one of the their Global Tennis Ambassador but there are concerns that the event, organized by IMG, might cause some alienation as the public is not allowed and Wimbledon is moving further into the corporate market when social outlays by banks and financial houses are viewed with suspicion in the current British economic climate. |
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