Posts from the Tennis Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

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Rafael Nadal and Sergio Garcia Are BFFs Even Though Nadal Idolizes Tiger Woods


First, there was the Tiger Wood-Roger Federer man-crush, and now, not to be outdone, Sergio Garcia has a new BFF: Rafael Nadal. Feel the creepy synergy!

But unlike Federer, who would never waver in his undying devotion to Woods, Nadal is, apparently, less committed to Garcia. When it comes to golf, anyway:
"Tiger is probably my idol," Nadal said. "I never have an idol but he is probably the sportsman who I admire more because I like a lot his mentality.

"I like a lot his eyes when he's going to have the important shot. He is always playing with unbelievable determination in important moments. The last part of the fourth day, only one guy with unbelievable concentration, unbelievable determination and big confidence in yourself. Only Tiger can do something like this.

"I know how tough it is playing having pain, and it is very difficult to have very good concentration when you are, in my case, running or touching the ball and you feel pain. That's unbelievable to win a US Open like this."
When reminded that Garcia was his best friend in the whole wide world, Nadal looked up, shrugged, and could only muster a half-hearted, "it is what it is", before sobbing uncontrollably as he ran from the room.*

Wimbledon Final: Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal


Roger Federer will take on Rafael Nadal, again, in Sunday's Wimbledon final.

Federer was outstanding in today's semifinal, reaching his sixth consecutive Wimbledon final by defeating Marat Safin 6-3, 7-6 (7/3), 6-4. Nadal also won in straight sets, beating Rainer Schuettler 6-1, 7-6 (3), 6-4.

Nadal and Federer are by far the two best players in the world. Nadal has lost to Federer in the last two Wimbledon finals, but if he were to beat Federer on Sunday he would, in the eyes of most tennis fans, move ahead of Federer as the best player in the world.

Mark Philippoussis Might Want to Stick to Tennis; Surfing Nearly Got Him Killed


Five years ago at this time, Australian tennis player Mark Philippoussis was in the final at Wimbledon, where he lost to Roger Federer for Federer's first Grand Slam title.

Now Philippoussis is spending more time surfing than playing tennis. He'd probably be better off staying out of the ocean and on the court.

Serena Williams Beats Jie Zheng at Wimbledon, Advances to Final vs. Venus


Serena Williams struggled through a rain-delayed second set before defeating Jie Zheng today in the Wimbledon semifinal, advancing to Saturday's final where she'll take on her big sister Venus Williams.

Serena Williams won 6-2, 7-6 (5) over Zheng, the 133rd-ranked player in the world who made a surprising run through Wimbledon. Today Williams needed just 28 minutes of play to beat Zheng in the first set, although she had to sit through a 37-minute rain delay before the final game of the set.

In the second set, which was further delayed by almost an hour and a half, Zheng played much better, but Williams ultimately won the tiebreak with an ace, followed by a Zheng double fault.

The Williams sisters will play together before they play against each other; they have a doubles match tomorrow.

Venus Williams Bristles at Suggestion That She and Serena Script Outcome of Matches


Venus Williams has advanced to Saturday's Wimbledon final, and her sister Serena Williams is currently leading in the other semifinal, meaning we will likely have a Williams vs. Williams Grand Slam final for the seventh time.

That should be something to celebrate, but there's an annoying tendency of people in and around the game of tennis to suggest -- without any evidence -- that the Williams sisters don't actually try to beat each other, that they instead just agree beforehand who is going to win when they play.

Venus Williams Defeats Elena Dementieva, Advances to Wimbledon Final


Venus Williams defeated Elena Dementieva 6-1, 7-6 today at Wimbledon, dispatching her toughest opponent of the tournament so far and advancing to the seventh Wimbledon final of her career.

She could meet her sister in Saturday's final; Serena Williams plays Zheng Jie in the other semifinal later today. The Williams sisters have met in six Grand Slam finals, with Serena winning five of them.

Venus Williams overpowered Dementieva in today's first set, looking just as dominant as she has throughout the championship. In the second set Dementieva settled down and gave Williams a run for her money, and when it went to a tiebreak both players got a little sloppy. But Williams ultimately showed that she was the better player -- and the best player in the world on grass -- by winning the tiebreak 7-3 and getting one match away from her fifth Wimbledon title.

Roger Federer Rolls with Flight of the Conchords in His New Nike Ad

Tennis is not particularly exciting to me. Tennis advertising has been even less so since the grunge-mullet days of Andre Agassi and Canon (sorry, Roddick, image is everything). But even I will admit that Roger Federer's most recent ad, which features Murray from HBO's Flight of the Conchords, is pretty awesome. It doesn't relate to the show much, but the Marvelian spoofness of a tennis ball war is still solid.



It takes a lot for a commercial to make me want to play tennis, and honestly, that ad actually pulled it off. Also, a continued series of these things, whereby Federer and Murray battled in comic book fashion with tennis balls over the world would be awesome.

H/T: Observation Bubble

Exclusive: Shahar Peer the Tennis Warrior

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back here regularly for more videos.

In this video we talk to tennis star Shahar Peer, one of the big stories in this year's Wimbledon. We also hear from tennis superstars Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova on what it's like to compete against Peer. Around 1:00 into the video find out why you should think twice before messing around with Shahar.


AOL Video link. Youtube link.

Greg Norman Will Not Have the Paparazzi Ruin His Wedding Day


The paparazzi is not happy with Greg Norman. You see, Norman and Chris Evert are getting married this weekend on Paradise Island and the two-time major champion has hired a security firm to keep the press away, including, according to the Herald Sun, "TV crews and photographers from Australia, Britain and the US."

Taking such measures to keep the prying eyes of the media out of what most people consider a private affair doesn't sit well with some guy named Garry Linnell of news.com.au. You see, according to Linnell, Norman owes the media for making him famous. You know, because golf had nothing to do with it.
As Norman arrived at the exclusive Paradise Island to prepare for his wedding this weekend to former Wimbledon champion Chris Evert, a group of Norman-aligned security goons and cops detained and harassed journalists, photographers and cameramen in scenes reminiscent of a third world dictatorship. ...

There, Greg Norman's dignity and class disappeared into the treacherous waters of The Bahamas in the same manner many of his golf shots once did when he was under pressure in a major.
Look, I'm not Norman apologist, but the guy's got every right to make sure his wedding is free of "get the photo at all costs" a-holes masquerading as reporters. Linnell disagrees, apparently, and offers this inane point as proof:

Tennis Pro, Determined to Stay Relevant, Calls Kournikova a 'Bitch' and Others 'Sexpots'

Your next winner on "Loud Mouthed American Celebrity Type" .... Justin Gimelstob!! Come on down, champ. Gimelstob, a 31-year-old professional tennis player, decided to go off on some semi-profane, on-air rant this week, discussing the lustability factor of various female tennis players and then slanging mud all over Anna Kournikova's fine name.
Gimelstob ... let rip during an interview on US radio, which included describing Czech star Nicole Vaidisova as "a well developed young lady", and calling French pin-ups Tatiana Golovin and Alize Cornet "sexpots".

As well as calling Kournikova "a bitch", he claimed female players "lack the social skills, they don't go to high school, they don't go to parties".

But former world number one [Serena] Williams, who reached the last 16 of Wimbledon on Friday, said Gimelstob's comments were unnecessary ...

"Being pro-women's rights, I just think we've come farther than to be referred to like this," said Williams.

"Anna is a great girl. For anyone to say that about her is not professional. It's just totally uncalled for."
Well, clearly the comments were unnecessary. Fortunately, Serena took the high road in describing them, and inferring that the entire scenario more or less degraded the entire notion of women's rights. Which it does.


Of course, Gimelstob isn't new to the media scene or to the "outspoken" scene either; he wrote for SI.com under the tagline of "outspoken tennis pro," so I guess we knew what we were getting. Still, Justin, dude, you gotta know when you call a girl a "B" on air, things are not going to end well for you. Even with all that sexpot stuff aside.

But wait ... he wasn't done!