Serb champ Novak Djokovic was spotted in Dubai vacation his girlfriend enjoying the sun, sand and the pool. Novak Djokovic’s girlfriend is of course the hot European Jelena Ristic.
The two have been dating for many years now and she’s been at several of Novak’s tennis matches. Will they get married soon? Or at least engaged?
Novak was a finalist at the US Open and played well down the stretch. He’s not entered into any ATP events to start the 2011 season but is expected to compete at the Hopman Cup next week.
Good luck Novak and Happy Holidays to everyone.
Rafael Nadal was the star of the 2010 Wimbledon tennis championships as the Spanish ace won his eighth career Grand Slam title drubbing Czech Tomas Berdych in three sets 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 in the Sunday final.
Nadal dominated the match and never once had his serve broken.
Berdych, who had beaten Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, en route to the champion match couldn’t dispel Nadal’s game as he dropped his seventh straight meeting to the World No. 1.
Nadal has now won the French Open and Wimbledon consecutively twice now, whereas Federer’s only done that once.
Nadal is also padded his lead in the ATP rankings. And he now takes a well-deserved break until he resumes his quest on tennis greatness in May at the Canadian Open and in Cincinnati.
The US Open is also on his mind as it remains the only Grand Slam the man from Mallorca has yet to win. Will he do it? We’ll find out come August 30 in Flushing Meadows, NY when the 2010 US Open commences.
The two American big men of the ATP tennis tour, Sam Querrey and John Isner, are primed from domination.
Querrey runs about 6-foot-6, Isner bigger at 6-foot-9 and no surprise they both have monster, monster serve.
Querrey once hit a record 10 straight aces in a match against James Blake! That’s right 10 straight service aces - let’s see Roger Federer beat that.
And John Isner is Mr. Third Set Tiebreak. A few years ago in Washington the former Georgia Bulldog won three or four matches in a third set tiebreaks. Some players go a lifetime without winning that many final set breakers but Isner was composed enough to win that many at a single event.
Now both players are flirting with Top 20 status and that’s good to see because they should each become strong players down the road.
Both Sam and John are playing this week at the World Team Cup in Dusselldorf. The two have had decent clay season with Sam beaten John in the Serbian Open final a few wekeends ago. It was the first all-American clay final on European soil since Jim Courier and Andre Agassi in 1991 French Open.
Last week Isner push Nadal a little in Madrid.
But with Sam and John serving great they could really pull so upsets in Paris next week. Stay tuned!
Former World No. 1 and three-time champion Maria Sharapova has withdrawn from the upcoming Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
Sharapova who had been hampered by shoulder problems for much of the last year, this time has a bad elbow that will keep her out of action from the next three to six weeks per her medical people.
Sharapova hit 14 double faults and was troubled by her serve in much of her three-set loss to Zheng Jie at Indian Wells the other day.
Also withdrawing was Nikolay Davydenko who has a broken left wrist. Davydenko won the title in 2008.
Juan Martin Del Potro is still on the bubble for his participation. The US Open champion has had a bad wrist himself.
Roger Federer, who had a lung infection, should be good to go despite a shock loss last night to Marcos Baghdatis.
The ATP website is running a story that has Germany Tommy Haas as an American! Woot! It shows a picture of him with a US passport after he earned his citizenship last week in Tampa, Fla.
Wrote Haas on his web site: “Of course I wouldn’t have done this if I hadn’t had the option to keep my German passport. But as this point was guaranteed, I now have the privilege of dual nationality and I can continue playing for the German Davis Cup Team. Whether that will be the case in the immediate future, I can’t yet say, but when the time comes I will give Patrick Kuhnen my decision.”
Based on his statement, It looks like he won’t be playing tennis for the US Davis Cup, but he’ll remain with Germany.
The US could really use some more tennis talent and even though the guy is 31 he still has a few more good years left in pro tennis.
Haas lost at the Australian Open to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Already in this new tennis season we are privy to a couple of great early round, early season clashes. While Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal appear on a crash course in Doha, in Brisbane we already have a couple great matchups.
First on Thursday (Wednesday night in the U.S.), Gael Monfils and James Blake will square off in what should be an entertaining tussle. Both provide great value on the court with their speed and shotmaking. Monfils in probably the better player right now, but one cannot count out Blake who took down fellow American Sam Querrey in the first round.
On Friday, Andy Roddick will test Richard Gasquet. Remember Gasquet (or “Gus-ket” as Nadal calls him) beat Roddick at Wimbledon not long ago. Roddick i believe has returned the favor, but it will be interesting to see just how well Andy does.
Oracle chief Larry Ellison has become part of the tennis world.
The founder of Oracle, one of the biggest database companies in the world, purchased the Indian Wells Masters 1000 event over the Holidays.
The price was not disclosed, but the sale keeps the venerable event in the west coast - or should keep it there - amid talk that the tournament was moving elsewhere to places like Asia and the Middle East.
The tournament management is expected to stay in tact.
Indian Wells is biggest tennis tournament of the year in the U.S. outside of the US Open and arguably Miami.
According to tabsportsbet of Australian, Justine Henin is the No. 3 favorite to win the Australian Open next month.
Henin, who hasn’t played a competitive match in 19 months, is just behind her countrywoman Kim Clijsters and top pick and defending champion Serena Williams.
At No. 4 is Maria Sharapova. That means that three of the top four favorites according to the bookies didn’t even play the Australian Open. That’s pretty incredible and a testament to just how porous the WTA was last year.
Venus Williams rounds out the favorites at No 5
World No. 2 Dinara Safina’s Australian Open campaign may be in out. The Russian earlier today withdrew from the Brisbane warmup tournament due to an ongoing bad back.
The news comes on the heels of Safina’s withdrawal from the year-end WTA championships last month in Doha where she was only able to play two games before leaving the court.
Safina, who was a finalist at the Australian and the French Opens, has struggled the second half of the year. She remains entered in the Sydney tournament and the Australian Open.
Safina’s older brother, Marat, announced his retirement from the game.
