Whether wearing the beads in her braids that popped like pearls at a party, the sleek Diane Von Furstenberg-designed dress she wore at the 2003 Wimbledon, the hoop earrings that orbit her ears like small satellites, the ever-present adhesive tape wrapping her wrists during matches, the bold black mini-skirt that’s part of her recently-launched EleVen By Venus line or the cap and gown she donned for the graduation ceremony while receiving her associate’s degree in Fashion Design from The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale last week, Venus Williams has always had her own singular sense of style.

It’s not enough for Venus to play great tennis, she wants to look great playing it. (more…)

Don’t let the blissfully benevolent smile fool you — Roger Federer spends much of his time in majors treating opponents to a sustained dose of tennis torment. The first man to contest 10 consecutive major finals, Federer is also the only man to reach all four Grand Slam tournament finals for two straight years.

Forget about scanning the draw sheets to find Federer’s ultimate foe - if he continues at his current pace he will transcend tennis and infiltrate pop culture.

Noted tennis fan and recreational player Pierce Brosnan, who supported Marion Bartoli and Federer at Wimbledon and plays tennis at the Malibu Racquet Club (read Richard Evans’ feature on the Club here), one of the best Bond’s in history, but how would 007 match up with the World No. 1? (more…)

Down time for tennis players can often be spent sitting down. In their continuous trek around the globe players spend countless hours cramped by the confines of planes, laid out in locker rooms and sitting down on the job during changeovers.

It’s no wonder then that when the season ends, tennis players scatter faster than frightened feathers fleeing from a pillow fight between Ivo Karlovic and John Isner.

Since we can’t scour remote regions of the globe searching for your favorite players’ hangouts and vacation haunts we unleashed Tennis Week contributor/former bounty hunter Scoop Malinowski in the search to answer one question: where in the world are the world’s best players headed during their brief vacation break?

Here is a list of travel plans for some players. The wish list ranges from jumping out of helicopters during a poetry reading to swimming with dolphins in south Florida to the classic “there’s no place like home” dream of one Grand Slam champion and father of two:

Richard Berankis: “I would like to go swimming with dolphins in Miami.” 

Alona Bondarenko: “I would like to go to the Black Sea with my family.”

Julian Knowle: “My last vacation was when I went to Italy with my family when I was  about 12. Italy is my favorite place so I would like to go back to Italy.”

Juan Martin Del Potro: “My favorite place is the beach in Argentina with my friends.”

Ana Ivanovic: “There is many places. Really, that’s the part of tennis that I really like. It’s traveling, seeing different countries, meeting different cultures. I really enjoy that part of my job. I love Australia. I always look forward to coming back there. Yeah, Barcelona, I enjoy being there as well, because I like sea and beach. It’s really tough to say. But I know there is lot of beautiful places in this world.”

Jelena Jankovic: “I tend to like these exotic places where no one knows me and I don’t know everyone. I love to go somewhere exotic with someone that I really love and just have fun and enjoy it and have a really good time.”

Michael McClune: “Hawaii.”

Akiko Morigami: “I was in Paris last year and would like to go back.”

Stefan Koubek: “Actually, New York City and Miami are my favorite places to visit so I would like to go back to both of those cities.”

Max Mirnyi: “Going home to Florida and spending time with my wife and daughters will be my vacation. Being with my family at home is like a vacation because we travel so much during the season.”

Kveta Peschke:“For my next vacation, I would like to go to Bora, Bora with my friends.

Francesca Schiavone: “I would love to go to South Africa. I’ve always wanted to go there. I like to fly, like fly in helicopters, so I like to do that on vacation. And I’ve never jumped out of an airplane, but I would like to try that. Also, to relax I like to go to the beach and write poetry.”

Agnes Szavay: “I’ve never had a vacation yet so I am really not sure where I would go.”

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga:“La Baule, France - that’s where I would like to be.”

Tennis tends to be a futures game. Players arrive at tournaments already planning ahead for their next event, monumental victories - including Roger Federer’s U.S. Open triumph and the USA recently reclaiming the Davis Cup - are often met with inquiries on what winners plan for an encore and fans often wonder who’s the next No. 1 or future Grand Slam champion.

We’ve spent a lot of time pondering these questions and rather than offer detailed answers here we quickly moved on to another question - one that requires no fact-checking and is a lot more fun - what competitor can make the transition from successful playing career to coach/manager to tournament mastermind?

In short, what player can create a career path reminiscent of Romanian Renaissance Man/Impresario Ion Tiriac - one of our favorite adventurous spirits in tennis - who has emerged from a rather modest background to become one of the most influential figures in tennis? (more…)

It’s been a long time since a reformed Led Zeppelin rocked live, but last night in London they took the stage at the 02 Arena (future home of the Tennis Masters Cup) and ripped through a blistering 16-song set that was their first complete concert in 27 years.

 What does rock’s most highly-anticipated reunion have to do with tennis?

Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin’s athletic lead singer with the flair for vocal acrobatics, is a long-time tennis player and fan who has shown up at tournaments in the past.

Realized this a few years back waiting to interview John McEnroe as he completed a book signing for his autobiograpy, ”You Cannot Be Serious”, outside Arthur Ashe Stadium at the U.S. Open. As McEnroe scrawled his signature on book after book a tall, cool figure emerged from the crowd

Plant, sporting a rolled-up U.S. Open tournament draw sticking out of the back pocket of his jeans, was wearing a baseball cap that covered his the top half of his shoulder-length curls and went largely unnoticed as he shook McEnroe’s hand before scampering off to watch matches.

“Love tennis and I’m a fan and friend of John’s,” said Plant that day. “I try to play as much as I can.”

Plant, Elton John, Gavin Rossdale, Carlos Santana and Boyd Tinsley, violin player for the Dave Mathews Band, may be the world’s most noteworthy rock stars/recreational tennis players, but who are the most accomplished musicians among the pro players?

(more…)

Competition is the ongoing credit course in the pass-fail pro circuit curriculum. Making the grade in tennis can only come from winning matches as every new draw presents a new test of a player’s problem-solving skills.

We went back to school recently and were confronted by the sight of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams standing at the head of the class.   (more…)

So you’ve always wanted to get inside Serena Williams’ clothes?

We can’t help you there, but we can supply you with a sneak peak of the new outfit Williams will wear when she launches defense of her Australian Open championship on January 14 in Melbourne. (more…)

Three questions people haved asked since the Tennis Week team returned from Davis Cup in Portland: “Did you get to party with the players?” (No. Not sure we could have kept up with those guys anyway - they’re pros and we’re hackers though it would have been fun to see Roddick perform his rendition of the Jackson 5 moves Bob Bryan referred to during Sunday’s press conference).  “Besides the players, did you see anyone famous?” (Tim Robbins star of “Shawshank Redemption” and “Bull Durham”, was on our plane from Newark to Portland though he was crashed in spacious first class bliss while we were cramped up like overstuffed baggage in coach)  and “What’s Portland really like?”

The outdoor Portland experience is a little bit like being caught in the crossfire of a water pistol war between several squadrons of SWAT teams - you’re either damp, drizzled, doused or rapidly on your way to progressing from one of those soused states to the next. We were told the state license plate logo was once an umbrella. (more…)

Trophy shots in record books sometimes sparkle with the sheen of swimsuit models in fashion magazines - airbrushed idealizations of our aspirational aims.

The snap shot of the U.S. Davis Cup team raising the silver Cup will be embedded in history, but for for me the lasting image that best captures the core spirit of this squad is this one shot on Saturday (snapped by Tennis Week’s own Scoop Malinowski) after the Bryan Brothers clinched the USA’s first Davis Cup in 12 years.

A raucous, unshaven, sweaty, smelly, champagne-soaked, collection of friends who walked into the media room chanting “USA! USA!” buzzed by the euphoria that comes from completing a journey several years in the making played and partied with the unbridled enthusiasm and unity once missing from previous American squads.  It was the fact that the four starters - Andy Roddick, James Blake, and twins Bob and Mike Bryan - not only acknowledged two guys who had contributed to the Cup cause in the past - Mardy Fish and Robby Ginepri - as well as the practice partners who may well form the foundation of the future U.S. team - John Isner and Donald Young - but insisted they all take part in the post-match festivities that really illustrated the unity that exists among them.

“That’s what kind of makes the whole team,” Roddick said. “I mean, Robby’s been the number two guy, Mardy has been the number two guy when James was going through his stuff a couple of years ago trying to come back. Robby is going to come back strong next year. It’s been kind of like a family, to help people come back. For Mardy to come back here and be a practice partner at number 40 in the world (actually No. 39) is just unheard of. So I think it needs to be acknowledged a little bit more than it has. That’s what kind of makes it special, is that we’re all here together. It’s not just this year we won. It’s a process. This is just kind of the final goal.”

Fish, who roomed with Roddick during their senior year of high school in Boca Raton and spent mornings racing him to school in their cars and afternoons grinding away at each other in pick-up basketball games, added “When I’m not playing, these guys have made me feel like a part of the team. I feel like I’m a player as well. That’s what makes it special.”

Listening to that Saturday night press conference, I was reminded of the press conference Patrick McEnroe conducted in the lobby of a midtown Manhattan hotel seven years ago when he was officially introduced as Davis Cup captain, succeeding older brother John. Two things that have always stuck out from that November, 2000 day reveal McEnroe had a very clear vision of the type of team he wanted from his very first day on the job:

1. McEnroe, who learned from his brother you can’t always rely on older stars to show up for every tie, stressed he wanted to build a young foundation committed to the cause. “I will pick players who want to play Davis Cup,” McEnroe said that day. “I want a team players - even if they’re the lower ranked guys - who are excited and enthusiastic about playing Davis Cup.”
2. Looking ahead to his first tie as captain, which could come in February of 2001 against a Swiss squad led by a 19-year-old kid named Roger Federer, McEnroe told us that day: “This kid Federer is going to be number in the world someday - he’s that good.” Doesn’t sound like such a revelation in retrospect, but when you consider Federer was ranked No. 29 in the world at that time and hadn’t even won a single professional tournament title yet, you get a better appreciation for the captain’s foresight.

A few other thoughts from the final:

•  Dmitry Tursunov’s tame effort in the opening match prompted several observers (including Tennis Week.com message board poster Redhead who was in Portland ready to pounce had Blake lost the second match) to take Russian captain Shamil Tarpischev to task for his decision to bench Nikolay Davydenko. Benching the World No. 4 left Tarpischev vulnerable to second-guessing, but  it was the right move. Davydenko is a combined 0-11 vs. Blake and Roddick, winning only three sets in those 11 matches. Furthermore, Davydenko has been a mediocre Davis Cup player, posting a 9-7 record overall, including a 1-3 mark in his last four matches. If you’re Tarpischev and you’ve seen Davydenko struggle recently to win in Davis Cup, why on earth would you think he’s suddenly going to solve Blake and Roddick on this stage when he’s never been able to do it previously?
• Marat Safin’s presence probably would have generated more buzz and certainly he would have helped the Russian doubles team, but to suggest Safin could have turned the tide for the defending champions is a reach. The two-time Grand Slam champ had put back-to-back wins together only once in the last four months, he’d reached only one quarterfinal in the past eight months and his confidence was so low he took himself out of the final.  
• Blake is like the Evander Holyfield (in his prime) of tennis - whether he wins or loses he almost always supplies some electrifying exchanges and can take a shot as good as he gives it. Blake’s habit of acknowledging an opponent’s winner with “too good” is seen by some as an affectation, but anyone who sat in the Coliseum for the full four sets of that high-quality match can tell you the compliments were genuine: both Blake and Youzhny hit some full-stretch shots on the run only a handful of players aside from Federer could pull off.
• Tursunov is a very intelligent guy and you’ve got to cut him some slack as he came up with a monumental effort in beating Roddick in their epic 2006 Davis Cup semifinal in Moscow, but his comments after the loss to Roddick were beyond perplexing. “I think that the surface has a very big importance in that match because it was laid out for Andy, especially for his serve, so I think that was a big factor,” Tursunov said. “But I wouldn’t say that he actually, you know, won the match in the sense where he didn’t come up with great shots on my serve. I was the one who was playing a little too passive. I think I was the one who really lost the match.” Nonsense. Roddick was impenetrable on serve - he hit 25 aces and only faced one break point and that came in a game where he dumped three double faults. In the pre-match warm-up, Roddick did not miss a ball from the baseline and that was an indication of how he would play the match: he basically grinded Tursunov down in using his slice backhand to lure the erratic Tursunov into errors. Tactically, Tursunov showed no signs of adjusting either. He came in a few times, grew almost immediately discouraged when Roddick passed him and resigned himself to trying to win the match playing his inside-out forehand to Roddick’s backhand.
• ITF president Franceso Ricci Bitti said there are no changes to dramatically change the Davis Cup format, which is unfortunate. The middle Saturday of the three-day tie remains the worst ticket value in tennis - while it does shine a spotlight on doubles, fans only get to see one match. Given the fact Davis Cup presents best-of-five set matches, it doesn’t make sense to adopt a Fed Cup format of two singles matches on opening day followed by two singles matches and the doubles on the final day, but the ITF’s unwillingness to even experiment with a NCCA Final Four-tournament format gathering the four semifinalist or even the eight quarterfinalists in one location  is unfortunate. Ricci Bitti cited sponsorship concerns as one reason why the ITF is reluctant to change formats, but sponsors presumably care more about exposure than frequency. In other words, if a sponsor would gain more exposure during a two-week tournament-style Davis Cup tournament with the top four or top eight teams competing with the whole tennis world watching than it would spreading out four ties over 12 months culminating with only two nations competing in the final, why wouldn’t sponsors endores it?
• The USTA did a fine job preparing Portland’s Memorial Coliseum for the tie - Davis Cup banners decorated the outside of the arena and adorned the inside - and though there were pockets of passionate fan support (marching bands, dancers on stilts) near the arena most people we spoke with in Portland were unaware the Davis Cup final was taking place in their city. One of the local papers even opted to put Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth on its cover (the reunited Van Halen played a show at the Rose Garden on Friday night) rather than the US team.

  You think Davydenko’s 0-11 career record vs. Blake/Roddick is a sure sign of futility? You think Blake/Roddick’s combined 1-22 record against Roger Federer is pretty painful? Those marks represent mere drops in the bottomless bucket of match misery compared to this statistical struggle that would make even Sissyphus cringe with sympathy.

Talking to former World No. 4 Gentleman Tim Mayotte, who scored career wins over John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and reached the 1982 Wimbledon semifinal, in the bar of the  Hotel Deluxe he revealed a mind-numbing low in head-to-head history: former American Davis Cup players Mayotte, Brad Gilbert and Jimmy Arias, who were all in Portland for the final, concluded their careers with a combined 0-39 record against former No. Ivan Lendl (Mayotte was 0-17, Gilbert 0-16 and Arias 0-6).