beautiful side of tennis

Ana Ivanovic

2009-02-27T22:45:00.000-08:00

Hottest Olympic Athelete (Beijing 08)

2008-08-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

Leryn Franco a javelin thrower from Paraguay who finances her Olympic dream with a legitimate modeling career.

Faces at Euro

2008-06-16T04:10:00.000-07:00

Technorati

2007-12-24T01:51:00.000-08:00

Technorati is the blog search engine, which searches blogs all over the world under various search engines, tags and categories. it has more than 7 million blogs registered all across the world, it gives authority to each blogs, the more authority you have the better is your blog is ranked in search engine. To check more please check on my technorati profile given below.
Technorati Profile

Maria Kirilenko

2007-10-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

Maria Yuryevna Kirilenko is a Russian professional tennis player born in Moscow, Russia on 25^th January, 1987. She was very fond of this game at an early age and her father brought to ‘Dinamo’ Moscow Central Stadium when she was only seven. She started playing many tournaments at her age level and soon she became number one in her age group, many well known tennis players watched her talent and helped her in her training-process and to attend tournaments. She became one of the youngest player to win junior US open and Canadian open in 2002, since then she started participating in various WTA events, but due to an injury in 2004, her ranking dropped down. She made a strong come back in 2005, winning her first WTA title in Beijing, beating Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 6-3, 6-4 in the China Open, and she won many games her ranking rose up tremendously and she broke into top 20 in June 2006. She had also played for Russia in Fed Cup tournament in world group quarter-final tie against Belgium. At the 2006 US Open, Kirilenko received the 20th seed of the tournament and reached the 3rd Round, eventually being defeated by Aravane Rezai. In 2007, she played in all the grand slams: Australian Open (3^rd round), French Open (2^nd round), Wimbledon (1^st round) and US Open (3^rd round). After US open, she participated in Sunfeast Open in Kolkata, India and she won her second WTA tour title defeating unseeded Mariya Koryttseva of the Ukraine in straight sets 6-0, 6-2. She shares a good friendship with Maria Sharapova. She loves football and classical music, she can listen Vivaldi, Mozart, Bach or Beethoven for hours. She loves watching movies and her favorite ones are 'The Barber of Siberia’ and ‘The Story of a Knight’. In 2006, she was selected by British fashion designer Stella McCartney as the face of adidas, since then she is wearing adidas clothing and footwear designed by Stella McCartney at all tournaments.

J.J (Jelena Jankovic)

2007-10-17T04:42:00.001-07:00

Jelena Jankovic is a pro tennis player from Serbia. She was born in Belgrade Serbia on 28^th February, 1985 as a third child of Veselin and Snezana Jankovic, both economists. Her father is from Montenegro, and her mother is Serbian. She first learned tennis at tennis club ‘Red Star’. She was introduced to tennis by her elder brother and fitness coach Marko and later she was trained at the Tennis Academy of Nick Bollettieri at Florida. She won junior Australian Open in 2001, also she started to play in WTA tours, and she reached the second round at her first tournament at the Indian Wells Masters. She won her first ITF title in Dubai in 2003, and she also entered top 100, at number 90 for the first time. She also made her debut at Grand Slam in Australia, but lost in 2^nd round. In May, Jankovic won her first WTA title, a Tier V event, in Budapest, defeating Martina Sucha in the final 7-6, 6-3. In 2004, she played many matches and defeated many top ranked players and her ranking improved to number 28 by the end of season of 2004. Latter in the year 2005, she played in all the Grand Slams and reached in many of WTA and ITF finals and her ranking at the end of the season eclipsed her 2004 record at No. 22. The initial half of 2006, was not so impressive for Jankovic as she lost many matches, in Wimbledon she defeated Venus Williams in the 3^rd round but lost in the fourth round to Anastasia Myskina, and latter in some other tournament she defeated Serena Williams, thus becoming only player in 2006 to defeat both the Williams sisters. She played very impressive tennis in latter half of 2006, and finished the season ranked just outside the Top 10, at No. 12, as she reached semifinals of US Open. To kick off her 2007 season, Jankovic won her second title at the Tier IV ASB Classic tournament in Auckland, New Zealand. She made it to the fourth round of the Australian Open, when she got eliminated to the eventual champion Serena Williams 6-3, 6-2. Though she lost in the fourth round, she has entered the top 10 at number 10 for the first time in her career, also at French Open she made it to semifinals, where she lost to Justine Henin in semifinals. Due to her strong performance in the 2007 French Open. It brought her ranking up to number 3 on 11th June (her highest career rank ever). At Wimbledon in singles she could only reach up to only 4^th round, but she won her first Grand Slam title in mixed doubles category with Jamie Murray of United Kingdom. In US open, in quarter finals she was defeated by Venus Williams in a toughly contested match of 4-6, 6-1,7-6(4). She is often regarded as one of the fittest and toughest players in recent years for her great defensive abilities and footwork. In 2007 she played more matches than any other player did and maintained her third rank as well, which is the proof of her incredible stamina and well-balanced performance. She speaks English, as well French language since she went to French diplomatic school in Belgrade. Presently she is a student of a private “Megatrend” college in Belgrade. Her favorite book is “The Bridge on the Drina”, by famous Serbian Nobel prize winner Ivo Andric her favorite film is “Titanic”.

'other OVA'

2007-10-11T11:52:00.000-07:00

Nicole Vaidisova was born in West Germany on 23^rd April, 1989. Basically she is a Czech player. She has been coached by her stepfather Alex Kodat, her mother Riana, introduced her to tennis. Sometimes on court she has been referred as ‘other ova’, first one being ‘Maria Sharapova’ as both the players style of game, looks and even height are even similar. In her singles career she has got career record of 145-47 and she had won nearly 8 singles’ titles. She made her debut in 2003 and she won 1 ITF title in the same year. In 2004, she won two WTA titles and also she broke into top 100, thus she became youngest ever player to be in top 100 at the age of 14. She also made her grand slam debut at US open, but she lost in very 1^st round match to Justine Henin. In 2005, she played beautifully as she rose up to number 17 in WTA ranking. She started the year with reaching the 3^rd round of Australian open and in French open she defeated Anastasia Myskina, her first top 10 victory. At the US open she reached to 4^th round, where she was defeated by Nadia Petrova. She won consecutively titles at Seoul, Tokyo and Bangkok in three weeks. Highlight of her career in 2006 was French open, where she reached the semifinals and she finished the season at number 10^th, first time being in top 10. In 2007, she reached up to semifinals of Australian open, but she was defeated by eventual champion Serena Williams. She was defeated in quarter final of French open by Jelena Jankovic. And then again in Wimbledon in quarter final she lost to yet another Serbian Ana Ivanovic 4-6, 6-2, 5-7. In the US open she couldn’t go beyond 3^rd round, where she was defeated by Shahar Pe'er by 4-6, 6-3, 6-7(5).

Anastasia Myskina

2007-10-04T23:55:00.000-07:00

Anastasia Myskina is a Russian professional tennis player. She was born in Moscow on 8^th of July 1981. Her favorite movie is ‘How to lose a guy in 10 days’. She became professional in the year 1998. She won her first WTA tour at Palermo, which was her second tour main draw. She made her grand slam debut in US open playing doubles. Her career singles record is 252-141. She is known for her double-handed backhand, she prefers fast courts and also considered as strong baseline player. She broke into top 15 by the end of the season 2002, where she played consistent tennis winning various titles and wins over top 10 players. In the year 2003 she made her first quarter final appearance at the Australian open, latter same year she became first Russian tennis player to win Kremlin cup. She cracked for the first time in top 10 by the end of the season. She won her first grand slam in 2004, the French open 6-1,6-2 win over her fellow Russian Elena Dementieva in an all Russian final. She became the first Russian women to break in top 5. She rose to career high ranking f world no.2 , but she ended the season as world no.3. Then in 2005, she became the first defending champion to lose in first round of Roland Garros. Same year she made it to quarters of Wimbledon. As the season was pretty bad for her but she managed to be in the top 15. Year 2006 was more then a nightmare for her as she lost majority of her matches, but she made it to quarters of Wimbledon once again, and she suffered a foot and toe injury. In 2007, she played only two matches, as she is injured now she is taking time to recover and spending time as reporter in a Russian channel.

Venus at 129mph

2007-10-01T07:36:00.000-07:00

Her full name is Venus Ebone Starr Williams. She was born in Lynwood, California on 17th of June, 1980. Currently she is ranked 9 in the world, she is former world no. 1. She turned professional in 1994, merely at the age of 14, and appeared in 2nd round of her career first tournament. Latter she played only as a part time player for nearly 2 years. She made her comeback in 1997 with a bang, as she appeared in the US Open finals against tour champion Martina Hingis. Venus has won as many as 14 grand slam titles which includes six singles, six women’s doubles and two mixed double titles. She has won Wimbledon for 4 times. She has never won Australian and French Open. She has got the credit for serving the fastest serve in women main draw which was recorded 129mph at the French open 2007. she has won 36 singles career titles. Her career record is 468-108. She won her first grand slam at Australian open 1998 in mixed double category teaming with Justin Gimelstob. Her first singles grand slam came in the year 2000, where she won Wimbledon as well as US Open, she along with her sister Serena Williams won the Wimbledon women’s double title. In 2001 she defended her both titles, then in 2002 from French open to Australian open 2003, she appeared in finals of all the grand slam each time losing to Serena Williams.
Year 2004, wasn’t a good year in her career as she couldn’t make it into finals of any of the Grand slam. Then in 2005, she couldn’t precede further 4th round of Australian open as she was defeated by Alicia Molik, also French open wasn’t good enough then she made a strong comeback by winning Wimbledon for the third time. At US open, she was defeated by Kim Clijster in the quarters. Year 2006, she was defeated in 1st round of Australian open and she withdrew from US open citing a wrist injury, which occurred during Wimbledon same year. In 2007, she didn’t participated in Australian open because of injury and in French open she lost in 3rd round to Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 4-6, 6-1. She won her 4th Wimbledon title defeating Marion Bartoli 6-4,6-1. Then in the US open, she was defeated in the semis by eventual champion Justine Henin. Recently she had won Hansoi Korea Open which was her 36th career title.

India's wonder girl

2007-09-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

Sania Mirza was born in Mumbai, India on 15th November 1986. She was brought up in Hyderabad. She is right handed player and double handed backhand. She started playing at the age of 6. Her father Imran Mirza has been her coach. She turned professional in 2003. She has won one career singles title and her singles’ career record is 169-76. She is currently ranked 27th in the world, highest ever by any Indian women tennis player, and second highest ranked asian player after Na Li (China). She is ranked 20th in doubles category and won seven doubles titles. She is first ever Indian woman player to be seeded in Grand slam as she was seeded 26th in U.S Open-07. She won Wimbledon championships girls’ double title in 2003.
She finished runner up at Asian Tennis Championship in 2004. At her debut at Grand Slam at Australian Open in 2005, she reached the third round losing to the eventual champion Sarena Williams. In feb 2005 she became first Indian lady player to win a WTA title at Hyderabad defeating Alyona Bondarenko of Ukraine. And at US Open 2005 she reached upto 4th round, becoming first ever Indian woman to reach there, where she was defeated my Maria Sharapova. In 2007 at US Open she reached upto 3rd round only. She doesn’t enjoy playing at clay court as she liked hard courts. She is known for her dangerous forehand and sharp placements. Her best performance at clay court has been 2nd round appearance at 2007 French Open. She has won gold medal in Asian Games at Doha in mixed doubles and silver in women singles. She has defeated several top 10 palyers.

No.1 asian: Na Li

2007-09-27T06:13:00.000-07:00

Na Li was born in Wuhan, Republic of China on 26th feburary 1982.She was born to Shen-Hong and Yan-Ping. She turned professional in 1999. She became first ever chinese women player to win WTA tour.
Her current singles rank is 26 (current highest ranked asian player) and her career highest rank has been 16. Between 1999-2004 she has won 20 women’s single titles which includes 19 ITF and one WTA title. When she entered the professional tennis in 1999 she won three of her first four singles tournament on ITF circuit and also all seven of her first ITF double tours she entered. In 2000 she won total of 52 single matches on ITF circuit more than any other player with an unbroken run for four successive $10,000 tours wins . She won her first WTF title in Guangzhou, China defeating Martina Sucha 6-3,6-4 in 2004, same year she broke into WTA top 100. She was ranked 80 by the end of 2004, a year in which she won 51 singles matches and lost just four.
From 2005, she started appearing in Grand Slams. In her first grand slam at australia, she reached the third round losing to Maria Sharapova. She also reached her second WTA final at Estoril losing to Lucie Sarafova, 7-6(4) 4-6 3-6. In 2006 she was defeated in first round of Australian Open by Sarena Williams. At her first appearance at Roland Garros, Li reached the third round, losing to finalist Svetlana Kuznetsova. Latter at wimbledon she was seeded 27th, she became first ever chinese women player to reach quarter final at grand slam, where she lost to Kim Clijster 4-6,5-7, and at US open she reached upto 4th round losing to eventual champion Maria Sharapova. In 2007,at Australian open she was seeded 19th advanced upto 4th round where she lost to Martina Hingis 4-6,6-3,6-0. She didn’t turned up at wimbledon and US open citing an injury as she pulled out of every tournament in 2007.

'Masha' Maria Sharapova

2007-09-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

Famously known in media as “Masha”. Born in Nyagan, (currently in serbia) Soviet Union,Russia on 19th of april 1987 to Yuri and Yelena Sharapov. When she was 7 years old her parents brought her to USA to train at Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida. She has lived in United States since then but she retains her russian citizenship. She is known for her forehand, double handed backhand and server particularly for power. She is among one of tallest(6 ft 2 in) women player and her carrer record is 269-64. She is former world no.1, currently she is ranked fourth in the world. She has won two grand slam titles one at 2004 wimbledon defeating Sarena Williams and another at 2006 U.S.Open defeating Justine Henin.
Sharapova became the third youngest player to win wimbledon in 2004 and also first ever Russian to win the title.In 2005 she reached upto semifinals of Australian Open,Wimbledon,U.S.Open and quarter final in French Open.Then in 2006 she entered semis of Australian loosing to Justine Henin, again she entered the semifinal of Wimbledon for consecutive year.In the last grang slam of the year in U.S open she stromed in finals and defeated Justine Henin in straight sets 6-4,6-4 to win her second grand slam. For the first time she reached upto semifinal berth in french open in 2007, where she stumbled to Ana Ivanovic. In australian open 2007 she was defeated in finals by Sarena Williams. In U.S open she exited in the third round defeated by 18 year old Pole Agnieszka Radwańska. Her career prize money is US $ 9,716,272.

Justine Henin

2007-09-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

Justine Henin was born on 1st of june 1982. When she was only 12 her mother FrançoiseRosière (teacher by profession) died, and her father is José Henin.She has two brothers and a sister.When she was two, her family moved to a house in Rochefort, situated next to the local tennis club, where she played tennis for the first time. At the age of six, she joined Tennis Club Ciney where her coaches discovered her talent immediately.Her mother used to take her to france to watch french open.She saw the 1992 final involving her idol Steffi Graf and Monica Seles.Henin met her coach Carlos Rodriguez whom she regarded as second father in 1995.She had a conflict with her father about her tennis career and her relationship with Pierre-Yves Hardenne to whom she was married in november 2002. Due to some personal reasons she separated from her husband and latter she also resumed her maiden name, Justine Henin, instead of Justine Henin Hardenne.Her divorce and the serious car accident of her eldest brother helped to clear the path for Justine to make contact again with her family.It was for the first time in her professional career during French Open 2007, her brothers and sister attended her matches.
Henin won her first Grand Slam tournament in 2003, the French Open, defeating fellow belgian Kim Clijsters in the final 6-0, 6-4.She won her second Grand Slam tournament in the same year, the U.S. Open, again defeating Clijsters in the final 7-5, 6-1.Since then in total she has won seven grand slam titles one australian,four french and twice at U.S Open, but she ahd never won at wimbledon.She ha sgot the career record of 457-103, which includes 36 career titles.She is current number one palyer in women tennis.She also had the honour of winning a gold medal in Athens olympics for her country.The U.S. Open 2007s victory took Henin past the $17 million mark in career prize money.

No. 1 Russian:Svetlana Kuznetsova

2007-09-16T13:14:00.000-07:00

Kuznetsova was born in Saint Petersburg( Russia ) on june 27,1985. Her father Alexandr Kuznetsov has coached five Olympic and world cycling champions, which includes her mother Galina Tsareva six-time world champion and holder of 20 world records, and also her brother Nikolai Kuznetsov, silver medalist at olympics 1996 in atlanta.She focused on tennis instead of cycling and was sent to Spain when she was 13 years old for better training and coaching. She is known to have a sunny disposition during interactions with fans and the media.She is a very good mover on court and plays mainly from the baseline and her strongest shot is her heavy forehand, which is regarded as one of the very best in women's tennis. She won her only Grand Slam singles title at the 2004 U.S. Open, where she defeated countrywoman Elena Dementieva in straight sets in an all-Russian final.
Kuznetsova teamed with Australia's Alicia Molik to win the 2005 Australian Open, defeating Americans Lindsay Davenport and Corina Morariu in the final, and in doubles she has been ranked 3rd in the world in june 2004. She also appeared in five other grand slam finals in doubles category.She has won 9 WTA and 1 ITF titles and her carrer record is 288-117. In 2006, wibledon she lost in third round to Na Li. At the U.S. Open 2006, she reached the fourth round where she lost to Jelena Jankovic. In 2007,wimbledon she reached upto quarter finals, where she was defeated by Venus Williams, and then in U.S. Open, she defeated Anna Chakvetadze by 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 in the semis, but in finals she was defeated by Justine Henin by 6-1, 6-3. Due to her performance in U.S. Open she rose upto career high ranking of no.2 in world.

swiss miss: martina hingis

2007-09-13T03:29:00.000-07:00

Martina Hingis was born on september 30, 1980 in Kosice, Czechoslovakia, now Slovakia is a former World No. 1 Swiss tennis player. Also known as the "Swiss Miss", she has won five grand slam singles titles which includes three Australian Open, one Wimbledon, and one US Open. She has also won nine grand slam women's doubles titles and one grand slam mixed doubles title. She spent a total of 209 weeks as World No. 1 and set a series of "youngest-ever" records before ligament injuries in both ankles forced her to withdraw from professional tennis at the relatively early age of 22.
On November 29, 2005, after several surgeries and long recuperations, the 25-year-old Hingis announced that she would return to the WTA tour, starting her professional comeback at a low-key tournament in Gold Coast, Australia in January 2006. Since then, Hingis has climbed to No. 6 in the world rankings, won three titles. She also qualified for the 2006 WTA Tour Championships in Madrid.
She has been coached by her mother, Melanie Molitor, a former tennis pro. Hingis was born to two accomplished tennis players.Her mother Czech Melanie and a Hungarianfather living in Karol Hingis They named their daughter 'Martina' (originally Martina Hingisova) after Martina Navratilova. Hingis' parentsdivorced when she was a young girl. She moved with her mother to Moravia for a short period, then to Switzerland. She started playing tennis at the age of 2, in 1993 she became youngest player to win junior grand slam title at french open and she made her professional debut in 1994. She has been rated twice among top 100 sexiest women. She along with her doubles partner Anna kournikova were regarded as "spice girls of tennis".she became first woman to surpass the $3 million mark in earnings for one season in 1997.

serbian prodigy : ana ivanovic

2007-09-07T12:35:00.000-07:00

Ana ivanovic was born on november 6, 1987 in Belgrade. She is a Serbian women's professional tennis player. She is the fifth-ranked player in the world as of August 2007, and the second ranked Serbian player, behind Jelena Jankovic. In June 2007, she reached her first Grand Slam final at the French Open, losing to Justine Henin; this was followed by a semi-final appearance at Wimbledon.Ivanovic started her promising career at the age of 5, after memorising the number of a local tennis clinic from an ad on TV. Ivanovic was inspired by the performances of Monica Seles, a fellow Serbian at Roland Garros.When Ana lost her first tournament, she spent 4 hours in the locker room crying because she thought her agent was going to drop her because she felt that she wasn't good enough to become a professional tennis player.She first caught the eye of the tennis world when she reached the final of the Junior Wimbledon tournament in 2004, losing to Kateryna Bondarenko. In 2004 she also went 26-0 on the challenger circuit, and won all 4 events that she entered, two of them as a qualifier. In 2005 Ivanovic burst onto the scene by winning her first career singles titles, as a qualifier, in Canberra, Australia.Ivanovic finished off 2006 as the 14th best ranked woman in the world. In the doubles, she crept up to finish at number 51 in the world, an improvement of her mediocre Top 200 finish in 2005.In 2007 french open, ana's undefeated streak continued untill final where she was defeated by the championjustine henin and then in the third grand slam of the year in wimbledon she again raced it upto finals,but thistime her opponent was venus williams who ultimately won the grand slam.