The USTA will host its annual open casting call on Tuesday, June 15 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City to select children to perform at the 2010 US Open, August 30 – September 12. Winners will perform “America the Beautiful” live at Arthur Ashe Stadium during night sessions of this year’s US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
The auditions are free of charge and will be held from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. ET. Children 12 years of age and younger as of September 12, 2010, will be asked to sing “America the Beautiful” a cappella in front of a panel of celebrity judges from the music and entertainment industries including Justin Chon, who plays Eric Yorkie in The Twilight Saga series, and Ashley Roberts of the Pussycat Dolls. Winners will be announced next month.
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Billie Jean King suspects that Martina Hingis’s purpose in playing WorldTeam Tennis next month is that she is "testing the waters" for a comeback to the Tour.
That would make a third comeback, following her original retirement. The first comeback lasted just one match when she was beaten by Marlene Weingartner in Pattaya, and the second ended in disgrace when she received a two year ban after testing positive for cocaine. In fact, her game was fading badly at that stage, anyway, and she was unlikely to have continued playing beyond the 2007 season. Hingis will play 14 matches for the New York Buzz, and she is also scheduled to partner Anna Kournikova, with whom she won she Australian Open titles, in an invitational event at Wimbledon. World no.10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has been given the all clear to play Wimbledon after fearing his hopes would be dashed by a muscle lesion in his hip suffered at Roland Garros.
Tsonga was forced to retire because of the injury during his French Open fourth round match against Mikhail Youzhny and the initial outlook seemed bleak. He immediately underwent a series of tests and seemed resigned to missing Wimbledon for the second time in three years. Doctors prescribed complete rest and the injury-prone 25 year-old responded admirably with a new MRI scan showing the dramatic results. "We've avoided the catastrophic scenario," said Tsonga’s coach, Eric Winogradsky, "The MRI showed the lesion has completely healed. Jo will now return to rehab with his physiotherapist and we will meet in London to prepare for Wimbledon on Monday." At Roland Garros Tsonga revealed movement was painful and virtually impossible from the opening game against Youzhny. Previously he had complained that he requested a late start in a bid to overcome the injury but the tournament organizers had refused to agree to the wishes of the leading French player. Tsonga suffered a serious knee injury that required surgery after reaching the Australian Open final in 2008. He was also constantly troubled with back and abdominal problems during his early years on the tour and suffered a herniated disc when still in his teens. “I do the best to be at the top level but I have injuries,” he said. “So be it. I try to do my best to be ready. I hired a physiotherapist this year to be with me all the time, even when I'm not playing in tournaments. I also have another chiropractor looking at me. I really do my best, and I take all the necessary precautions.” Wimbledon annually brings the often debated state of British tennis more sharply into focus and following the widespread examinations and Parliamentary enquiries into the Lawn Tennis Association, this coming Championships could be the most exacting ever for chief executive Roger Draper and his team. Sensing the opportunity to strike an early blow in a much expected war of words, Draper seized the opportunity when invited to speak as a Sports Industry Breakfast Club and produced sets of figures that many of his critics find simply incredulous. Draper defended accusations of high spending by his association that has an annual budget in excess of £50 million a year. He insisted the LTA now relies less on the annual windfall from the profits of the Wimbledon Championships and said: “Previously 83% of our funding was coming through our major events, mainly Wimbledon. Now only 60% comes from that, mainly due to the increase of our commercial programme.” He also maintained tennis was one of only four sports in Britain to have increased its participation levels significantly in the last year and said: “We have around 520,000 adults playing tennis and in the next three years the target for Sport England is to get 625,000 adults picking up a racket.” Draper insists a successful British Wimbledon in his eyes would be for Andy Murray to progress deep into the second week of the event, for improving British women such as Elena Baltacha and Anne Keothavong to win three matches in succession, for junior champions Laura Robson and Heather Watson to make their mark in the main ladies draw and for British youngsters to show there is good reason to be optimistic about the future. Remarks made by Draper about the depth and quality of British junior talent caused the biggest consternation. Not a single girl took part in the recent French Open junior events while there were only two boys to score victories, Oliver Golding who reached the second round and Ashley Hewitt who went one round further. Golding also reached the quarter finals of the boys doubles with Russian Alexander Rumyantsev.
However Draper claims: “What we have now got is depth. There are eight, nine, ten, 11, 12 of them and they are pushing each other on. It’s due to the changes we have made in the last three years and the programs they are now on. “They are much more at home now competing professionally and far more at home on different surfaces. They have got international experience and they are used to winning which gives them a big mental edge.” Draper concluded: “The sport of tennis in Britain is growing and what we have got to make sure is that when the winning happens, whether it be this year with Andy Murray or in four years time with the next generation, we are ready to make sure there really is an explosion of tennis in this country.” Sania Mirza is delighted to be back on a tennis court again after a three months absence enforced by a wrist injury and notable because of the tumultuous world wide focus on the Indian star’s marriage to former Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik.
Mirza this week made her comeback to competition in England at the AEGON Classic at Edgbaston Priory Club in Birmingham. After winning her initial match the 23 year-old lost out to Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand. But she is delighted the main focus is on her tennis again. Referring to the two week build up to her wedding that gripped to the two bordering nations and made news around the world, she said: “It’s one thing being in the limelight but this was something else. It was in our face 24 hours a day for two weeks. “It was very hard. There’s always two sides to a story, but no one wanted to know Shoaib’s. Once April 12 was over, it all ended and we were both free to continue with our lives”. Malik’s one-year ban, imposed by the Pakistan Cricket Board for ‘poor performances and being a negative influence on the team’ was overturned next month and he is likely to make his international comeback in the upcoming Test series against England. Consequently the couple, who maintain Dubai is now their home, will be based in Britain for the next few months and her mind is very much on Wimbledon although she is unsure whether her recuperating wrist will allow her to play singles, doubles and mixed doubles. “I had surgery on it two years ago and that led to another problem,” she said. “I really need to be careful — it’s very much a case of managing it rather than fixing it, so I’ll probably skip the doubles for the time being.” But Mirza categorically denied reports circulating that she intended to quit the game before her 25th birthday and concentrate of raising a family. “I have absolutely no plans to retire in the foreseeable future,” she said. “People have made that up.” Roger Federer will this week step back on his favorite surface of grass at the Gerry Weber Open in Germany’s Halle and go through the familiar preparations for the defense of his Wimbledon crown. And that’s the way it will be until the Swiss finally lays down his racket because tournament organizers have confirmed Federer has committed himself to the event each year for the remainder of his career.
The traditional British grass court curtain raiser at London’s Queen’s Club has long cherished the thought of luring Federer to its event. The likes of John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras and now Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick as well as the expected Brits such as Andy Murray, Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski have all been Queens regulars. But this agreement effectively kills off the Queens Club hopes. Federer is clearly happy where he is and that’s hardly surprising as he has won the tournament five times in the last seven years. “I am delighted,” Federer said. “It feels a bit like I am getting married. I wanted to plan more long-term. I want to build up friendships and I get on really well with the tournament owners Ralf and Gerhard Weber.” The small print of the press release did not specify whether Federer has committed to playing Halle every year, or only to not playing another event during the same week as the tournament. Halle and the grass-court event in Queen’s are both held the week after the French Open and compete to attract the top names. Heat exhaustion is defined as an overload to the body’s thermoregulatory system resulting in extreme sweating and often, heavy breathing, rapid pulse, and fatigue. Heat cramps often occur, along with other systemic symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, and an obvious outward appearance of distress. Players may try to continue playing, but they should not. Have them rest in a cool, shaded place; give them cool water; and apply ice to the neck, back, or stomach to help cool the body. Monitor them carefully in order to ensure their condition doesn’t worsen. In this stage of heat illness, the body’s thermoregulatory system is still working, but it is not able to keep up with current physical demands.
Summer is in high dear, so is the hat & humidity. That means you need to watch out for the warning signs & symptoms of Heat Illness. Often we forget to drink & hydrate ourselves properly & wisely during the summer months. Therefore, we need to consider looking for the Heat Index while we’re exercising outside.
Heat Illness is defined as heat cramps, heat exhaustion, & heat stroke. And is more likely in hot humid weather, but can occur in the absence of hot & humid conditions. Early warning signs of heat illness are often masked by general fatigue. “The first thing most people is they feel tired or lightheaded.” Heat cramps are involuntary muscle cramps that are excruciatingly painful. They occur primarily in the muscles of the trunk and the lower body. The cause of heat cramps is thought to be dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. Replenishing fluids and electrolytes, particularly sodium, is critically important in the prevention of heat cramps. Once an athlete has heat cramps, you may try icing or massaging the area that is cramping; however, the ultimate treatment is prevention by ensuring proper hydration strategies are in place. The players for the Cancer Treatment Centers of America Tennis Championships to be held in Surprise, Arizona this fall includes Jim Courier, John McEnroe, Michael Chang and Anna Kournikova. The CTCA tennis competition is an official tour stop on the Champions Series.
Jimmy Arias, Wayne Ferreira, Aaron Krickstein, Mark Philippoussis, and Mikael Pernfors will also be playing in the competition Oct. 20-24 at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex, in near-by Phoenix. In rising to No.1 in the doubles rankings, Serena Williams joins an elite group of just six players who have been ranked at the top in both singles and doubles at the same time, alongside Martina Navratilova, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport and Kim Clijsters.
Serena and Venus are also one of only five teams to complete a career doubles Grand Slam (2001/2003/2009 Australian Open, 1999 Roland Garros, 2000/2002/2008 Wimbledon, 1999 US Open) along with Margaret Court/Judy Tegart Dalton, Kathy Jordan/Anne Smith, Martina Navratilova/Pam Shriver and Gigi Fernandez/Natasha Zvereva. Additionally, they represent the only women’s doubles team to complete a career ‘Golden Slam’, adding two Olympic doubles gold medals (2000 Sydney and 2008 Beijing) to their career Grand Slam. The sisters have claimed four of the last five Grand Slam doubles titles (with Roland Garros 2010 still in their sights), in addition to Stanford in 2009 and the 2010 Madrid Open. Their only losses in this period came in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros and the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Championships, both in 2009. |
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August 2011
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