Thanks to JC for sharing his pics and anecdotes about his 2009 European tour.
Next stop of JC’s European tour: Roland Garros

How do you get into the French Open, sit in the reserved box seats just behind the Tennis Magazine team, and then watch Nadal play live just a few feet away on center court (Court Philipe Chatrier) – all for just 19 Euros?
Answer: Benny Berthet Day. This exhibition day is held each year on the eve of the tournament; the profits are donated to various charities. This is similar to the Arthur Ashe day event held at the US Open annually. The public can attend 1-set matches with most of the top players spread out across the top 3 courts. Many of the French tennis starts come out for kids to get autographs and pictures.

Read the rest of this entry →

Thanks to JC for sharing his pics and anecdotes about his 2009 European tour.

On this self-guided five-city tennis journey, I flew to Spain, France and Great Britain to retrace the footsteps of the tennis legend and my personal hero – Rafael Nadal. Along the way I discover many wonderful cultures and met individuals from all walks of life, all of whom celebrating tennis.

From the Bull-fighting in Madrid, to the Picasso Museum nestled in the Gothic quarters of Barcelona; I wanted to explore Nadal’s homeland of Spain both as a traveler and as a tennis fan.

First leg of the tour: the Madrid Open

Some pics of Palacio Real, Parco del Retiro and Plaza de Toros:

La Caja Magica – the Magic Box – home of the Madrid Open:

Women’s final: Dinara Safina defeats Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 6-4

Men’s final: Roger Federer defeats Rafael Nadal 6-4 6-4 (it was the day after the thriller semifinal opposing Nadal and Djokovic)

Read the complete story on tennis-8.com

If you are intrigued by what goes on behind the scenes at Wimbledon, Chris Gorringe‘s book Holding Court is a must-read. Gorringe tells the story of his 26 years journey as All England Club chief executive. The book is full of anecdotes about legendary players (McEnroe, Sampras, Borg to name a few), but also describes in details the structure of the Club, the organization of the Championships, and Wimbledon’s Long Term Plan.
A few pages are of course dedicated to the Centre Court roof, which has been the real star of the 125th Championships so far.

Enjoy of few extracts of Holding Court:

“When we had first laid out the LTP (Long Term Plan) in the 90s, a retractable roof had been possible in as much as the technology was available, but what had not been proved to our satisfaction was that you could have a sliding roof that would work for grass court tennis. We had not seen a roof design that would: retain the grass at a quality that would withstand two weeks of play, and that would not make it sweat and be slippery; that would provide the right ambiance for the spectators; and that would allow grass to grow for the rest of the year.”

Australian Open roof vs Wimbledon roof

“We did not have all the answers, but certain members of the media and our committee wanted it as they had be to the Australian Open and seen the roof in action there.
However, the Australians had a different set of circumstances. When they moved from Kooyong’s private members’ club to Flinders Park (now Melbourne Park), in order to finance the set-up, the main centre court had to be a stadium design, not just a tennis arena. They needed the stadium to be used for as many days a year as possible, for concerts or whatever, which meant adding a roof but saying goodbye to grass. Once grass is taken out of the equation, the addition of a roof becomes very much easier.
Theirs is infinitely heavier than ours, is not translucent in any way, and is presumably specially designed in order for it to work well for concerts or musical events: there is no escape of noise or light through their roof. As well as having the roof over the main stadium at Melbourne Park, they have also built an adjacent stadium – again another multi-purpose building with a roof on it.”

Read the rest of this entry →

Kim Clijsters and Rafael Nadal didn’t waste any time on court today: Kim destroyed Dinara Safina 6-0 6-0 and Nadal cruised to second round after his opponent, Marcos Daniel, retired in the second set.
All the other favorites (Vera Zvonareva, Sam Stosur, Andy Murray, Robin Soderling) qualified easily for the second round.
Good news also for 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro who played and won his first Grand Slam match since his defeat against Marin Cilic in Melbourne last year.
So, all the big players seem to be ready to stop Rafael Nadal en route for his ‘Rafa Slam’.

Day 2 complete results

Seeds upsets: Ana Ivanovic(19), Alexandra Dulgheru(27), Ernests Gulbis (24)

Aussie player of the day: Alicia Molik
All eyes are on Sam Stosur this year, but veteran Aussie Alicia Molik staged a remarkable comeback to defeat world No.37 Roberta Vinci, 1-6, 6-3, 8-6, and become the third and final Australian woman to reach the second round at Australian Open 2011 (the others are Jelena Dokic and Sam Stosur).

Stat of the day: 0
3-time Slam finalist Dinara Safina became the first former number one player in history to suffer a double bagel at a Grand Slam. So Safina, time to work or time to retire?

Match of the day: David Nalbandian defeats Lleyton Hewitt
Those two old enemies didn’t disappoint: Nalbandian beat Hewitt in a five set thriller 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (1), 9-7. Lleyton Hewitt may harbour some regrets as he wasted two match points and converted only 7 of his 30 break points.
Both players won the same number of points: 193.

Matches to follow on day 3:
Gilles Simon(FRA) vs. Roger Federer(SUI)[2]
Janko Tipsarevic(SRB) vs. Fernando Verdasco(ESP)[9]
Stanislas Wawrinka(SUI)[19] vs. Grigor Dimitrov(BUL)

- Tough first round for French Open runner-up Sam Stosur who needs three sets to beat Elena Vesnina. No problem for Kim Clijsters, Venus Williams, Francesca Schiavone and Elena Dementieva.

- Roger Federer, Nikolay Davydenko and Andy Roddick cruise through second round in straight sets.
Robin Soderling survives five set scare: the 5th seed overcame 215th ranked Andreas Haider-Maurer after an intense battle 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 5-7, 6-4. 17th seed Gael Monfils struggles and needs 5 sets to beat 30-year-old Floridian Robert Kendrick.

- Upset of the day: Ivan Dodig defeats Fernando Gonzalez 6-7, 6-1, 1-0 retired
Knee injury forced Gonzalez out in the first round of the US Open. It was only his second match since the French Open.

- US player of the day: Andy Roddick
2003 US Open champion Andy Roddick turned 28 and advanced to the second round where he’ll meet Janko Tipsarevic.

- Pic of the day: Dinara Safina
Last year, she was the number one seed and lost to Petra Kvitova in the third round. This year, ranked n°50, she was ousted by Daniela Hantuchova 6-3 6-4. Sad exit for Dinara, 10 years after his brother’s fantastic US Open victory.

A: Andy Murray
After his semi at Wimbledon and his impressive win in Montreal, Andy Murray seemed ready to win his elusive maiden Grand Slam. Ousted by big server Marin Cilic in the fourth round, Murray has perhaps finally learned that to win a major one must act more than react.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————–
B: Bernard Tomic
Australia’s hottest tennis prospect won his second junior GS title, defeating Chase Buchanan in finals. At just 15 years and three months, Tomic became the youngest junior GS winner in history in Melbourne in 2008. He has now decided to shift his focus on his professional ranking.
Do you think he will emulate Andy Roddick, winner in juniors in 2000 and in seniors in 2003?
—————————————————————————————————————————————————–
C: Caroline Wozniacki

First major final for the 19yr old Dane, who had to face only one seed to reach the final: in the fourth round against reigning French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, Wozniacki rallied a break down in the third set to win 2–6, 7–6(5), 7–6(3). But she couldn’t put an end to Clijsters’ fairytale comeback.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————–
D: Djokovic Novak
In his semi against Federer, he never acted like he could win. He tried to revamp his image following his 08 US Open faux-pas but it’s perhaps time for him to revamp his game.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————–
E: Esther Vergeer
Forget Sampras, Federer and Lendl, Esther Vergeer is the most dominant player ever, and you probably never heard of her.
Unbeaten since January 2003, the 28 yr old wheelchair tennis player won her 8th US Open title, her 139th singles titles.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————–
F: Flavia Pennetta
The 27 yr old italian had a terrific summer with wins in Palermo on clay, in Los Angeles on hard court, and an entry in the top 10 ranking. Flavia lost only 6 games in her first three rounds at the US Open but saved six match points against Zvonareva to reach the quarter finals, where Serena defeated her in straight sets.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————–
G: Gonzalez Fernando

The hard hiting Chilean made it through to the quarter finals for the second time of his career, beating 7th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the fourth round. He then played two close sets to Rafael Nadal, before falling in 3 sets in an empty Arthur Ashe stadium.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————-
H: Henin Justine
“I do think that [Henin] is planning something” Clijsters said. “She’s always been very competitive as well, and the way she ended her career still seems strange to me. I do think that she will come back.”
She was right indeed. Two weeks after Clijsters’ triumph at Flushing, Henin announced her comeback.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————–
I: Isner John
Isner, the giant turned giant killer was the last American standing in the men’s singles draw at the U.S. Open. The Georgia University graduate stuned Roddick in the thid round in a five set thriller: 7-6(3), 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 7-6(5). He then bowed out to Spain’s Verdasco in four sets in the next round.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————–
J: Juan Martin Del Potro

Juan Martin Del Potro ended Federer’s five year unbeaten streak at the US Open to win his first Grand Slam title.
“I had two dreams this week” said Del Potro during the trophy ceremony: “One was to win the US Open and the other is to be like Roger”. “One is done, but I need to improve a lot to be like you”.
With a monster forehand and a consistent backhand, the Argentine possesses all the weapons to become the next number one.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————–
K: Kim Clijsters

“I am looking at this as a second career, not as a comeback, as I am now in a situation where not everything revolves around tennis 24h a day.”
In only her third tournament since her come back, she won her second US Open title, becoming the first mom to win a major since Evonne Goolagong in 1980.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————–
L: a little LOVE for Safina?
Dismissed by her peers and the media for her Grand Slam collapses, Dinara Safina was furious at the organisers for shifting her 3rd round match from Arthur Ashe to Louis Armstrong stadium. But no matter the stadium, a loss is still a loss: she was defeated by Petra Kvitova, ranked 72.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————–
M: Marin Cilic
Marin Cilic scored the biggest upset of US Open 2009, defeating Andy Murray in the fourth round 7-5 6-2 6-2. Despite a set and a break up, he lost against eventual winner Juan Martin Del Potro in quarter finals.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————–