The Legends Trophy (Trophée des Légendes) is a great opportunity to watch some familiar old faces play in a friendly and funny atmosphere. Two men competitions are scheduled: players under 45 and over 45.

Six teams take part in each competition, divided into two pools of three teams. The winners of each pool meet in final.
And for the second year there will also be a women competition, with 3 former world number one (Navratilova, Hingis and Davenport).

Under 45:
Pool A: Enqvist/Muster, Kafelnikov/Medvedev, Boetsch/Pioline
Pool B: Ivanisevic/Stich, Santoro/Woodbridge, Bruguera/Krajicek

Over 45:
Pool A: Gomez/McEnroe, Cash/McNamara, Pernfors/Wilander
Pool B: Bahrami/Woodforde, Nastase/Sanchez, Forget/Leconte

Women:
Pool A: Navratilova/Novotna, Maleeva/Tauziat, Majoli/Martinez
Pool B: Davenport/Hingis, Zvereva/Gigi Fernandez, Temesvari/Testud

Some pics of Peter McNamara and Pat Cash training yesterday:

Read the rest of this entry →

In this week’s Tennis Buzz: Federer is not happy with Navratilova’s comments, Sharapova wears her grandmother’s underwear and Djokovic is flying high.

Following Djokovic’s victory in Indian Wells, Federer has dropped to number 3, and Navratilova predicts it will be hard for him to get back to number one:

Roger is on the other side of the float, I don’t think he’ll ever play as well as he did three or four years ago—that’s not to say he can’t still win a slam, but it’s difficult to see him climbing back to No. 1.Nadal is dominating and Djokovic’s confidence is off the chart. Roger has lost three matches (this season) to Djokovic and lost to him at U.S. Open last year as well, it will get under his skin.

And Federer is grumpy:

Maybe she missed the London World Tour Finals. Maybe she was somewhere else climbing Kilimanjaro. I love her. Look, I think she’s been an inspiration to my wife [Mirka] and I always love seeing her, but if you had the microphone in front of you and you get a negative question, you get dragged into it. And she’s in front of the microphone a lot of times like other experts and eventually you can’t just say only good things. You have to also say more negative things.

I must say I agree with Navratilova: Nadal came back succesffuly from injury, Djokovic plays the tennis of his life, and Del Potro is again a Grand Slam contender but Federer is so used to be praised for everything he does -even for breathing air- that every little critic is a drama for him.
What a hard life for Federer….

During this time, number 2 Novak Djokovic was playing tennis on wings of flying plane in this HEAD commercial…

whereas Nadal stars in this commercial for Armani Jeans and Emporio Armani Underwear:

And speaking of underwear, Maria Sharapova graces the cover of Russian Tatler’s March issue… in her grandma’s underwear:

More pics on Sharapova’s website.

Site: USTA Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, NY
Dates: Monday, August 29 – Sunday, September 11 2011
Qualifying Matches: Begin Tuesday, Aug. 23 through Friday, August 26
Main Draw: Thursday, August 25. Main Draw begins Monday, August 29
US Open official website: http://www.usopen.org/

Follow our US Open coverage on Tennis Buzz and join our US Open forum.

Tickets:
They can be purchased in person at any Ticketmaster outlet location or by visiting the Box Office located at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

Read the rest of this entry →

Men’s Wimbledon tennis statistics:

Open era records (since 1968):
Most titles, singles: Pete Sampras, 7 (1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000)
Most titles in a row, singles: Bjorn Borg, 5 (1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980) and Roger Federer, 5 (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007)
Most titles, doubles: Todd Woodbridge, 9 (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000 (with Mark Woodforde), 2002, 2003, 2004 (with Jonas Björkman))
Most titles, mixed doubles: Owen Davidson, 3 (1971, 1973, 1974 (with Billie Jean King))
Most titles, all events: Todd Woodbridge, 9
Youngest winner, singles: Boris Becker, 17
Longest men’s final by time: Rafael Nadal d Roger Federer, 2008, 4 hours and 48 mins
Longest men’s final by games: Roger Federer d Andy Roddick, 2009, 77 games
Longest men’s match by time: John Isner d Nicolas Mahut, 2010, 11 hours and 5 mins
Longest men’s match by games: John Isner d Nicolas Mahut, 2010, 183 games

Read the rest of this entry →