It’s not often that I stumble upon random pictures that are so intriguing I feel forced to blog them. Today is one of those magical days.

Tennis isn’t an elitist sport, you guys. And who the hell are those ladies, anyway? In other news, I want Kader to dress like that and follow me around and commentate my life for a day. I’d like to wake up with him looming over my bed saying “TIME” over and over until I get out of bed. OK, that might be kinda creepy.

First she was running people over in Paris, now she’s running people over in your local shopping centre. Unfortunately, Serena is not tweeting her location, so no one knows where she might strike next. Be safe out there, people.

I need to finish on a nice note. Ain’t that just the cutest thing ever? Gotta love how she was making that weird ass face when tossing the ball even  as a wee one. Thanks to C Note from Forty Deuce via Women’s Tennis Blog.

BumblElf has officially joined the field in Bangkok, Thailand. “I am looking forward to playing the PTT Thailand Open on my return from injury,” he said. “I really enjoyed myself on my last visit to Bangkok and hope for good results at this year’s tournament.”

Damn straight you are!

There’s also quite the bubbling coming up from the provisional list of players for the USO, released today. Not only does it have Delpo on there, the press release included “defending US Open Champion Juan Martin Del Potro, who is expected to return to Grand Slam competition”.

Um… not quite. The best possible result seemed to have been the Davis Cup tie in France the weekend after the USO, though Delpo has yet to fully rule out a return at the fourth slam. My guess is that the tournament puts him on there, just in case obviously, and act ignorant as if he was intending to play the whole time. Let’s be honest, the dude hasn’t hit a tennis ball in months. Even if he does make it back for the USO, he’s not defending it. Which might be just as sad as him missing it entirely.

UPDATE: There’s now been speculation from the USTA (from the ALWAYS reliable tennis.com ticker) that Delpo is in fact hitting, and will be playing the USO. However, @FueBuena is letting everyone know that he/she has called a source from Delpo’s team, and he is NOT hitting, and will confirm via his Twitter page when he is (thanks to @centac for the info).

Really, this seems a bit silly. Delpo said sometime last week that it would be at least a couple weeks before he picked up a racquet, so for him to be hitting now is a tad early. Furthermore, if he was already hitting now, don’t you think he’d try to request some sort of wildcard pre-USO if he was able to enter the tourney? More on this as it develops.

For those who haven’t heard, the tennis world has been pretty ablaze (I mean hell, there’s nothing else going on) with the news originally shared by Stephanie Myles that Ana will not be receiving a wildcard into Montreal and instead will have to play the qualifying for the first time in… oh, probably forever.

Two particular articles have been focused on, the Tom Tebutt one, and the Stephanie Myles one (the actual newspaper article is a bit more trimmed down, but since the blog post carries more info, I’ll go with that one). Here’s what I think.

In case you don’t know, like both of the writers of the above articles, I’m a Canadian. I’m also quite the huge Ana fan.

Originally, I thought people were over reacting. This is my original reaction to about 90% of situations where tons of people rapidly freak out over a complicated issue. Hold your horses. Let’s think this through.

And so I did. And then I became angry. Ana is a grand slam champ, and a former number 1. She’s a household name, a great personality, and great for the tour and surely the tournament. And… hey, what the fuck?! She won the tournament in 2006!

But a day or two away from it, some more reading on the issue, and I’ve started to change my mind. Before we all freak out, let’s take some time to do away with a couple of things from the Tebutt article.

First off, he says this: “Sharapova, Venus, Clijsters, Jankovic and Safina are all scheduled to play in Cincinnati the week before the Rogers Cup. Considering the current attrition rate among players, there is no guarantee all of them will make it to Montreal. In that case, Ivanovic’s high-profile stature could become a prized asset for the tournament.” Um, no. 1) All four semifinalists of Cincy in 2009 played Toronto. One won it (Elena) and the Cincy champion, JJ, made the quarters in Toronto. 2) The only names missing from Montreal are Serena and Henin. Not exactly nobodys, sure, but it’s because of injury, and anyone attending the tournament knows that the best players in women’s tennis are going to be there. And it’s not like last years champ, Dementieva, or even another slam winner, Schiavone, are total unknowns.

In other words, tournaments like Stanford and San Diego need players who give name recognition. Montreal does not.

A history of wildcards in Canada does not fall on the side of Ana either. Only one wildcard has been given to a non-Canadian in the past four years; Kim last year. Kim got that because she hadn’t been playing, and thus didn’t even have a ranking when she got it. Understandable.

I think where people are getting confused with the actual organization of this tournament. The tournament is organized by Tennis Canada, and Tennis Canada has a very strong presence at the tournament. If you take a look at the Tennis Canada website, you’ll see its “mission is to lead the growth, promotion, and and showcasing of the sport of tennis in Canada…”

The point isn’t that the tournament is snubbing a former champion. Instead Tennis Canada will likely give Canadian Stephanie Dubois, a native of nearby Laval, Quebec. She has a total of $500k in career prize money, whereas Ana has over $7 million. She even reached the third round of the Montreal tournament in 2006 with, yes, a wildcard.

Ana, on the other hand, while being a former champion and big name, has clearly failed to keep her ranking up, nor chosen to play smaller tournaments.

(until this summer) to try and get it back up. Furthermore, she’s not likely to be an automatic centre court selection this year, unlike last year in Toronto where she played Rybarikova on centre court in the first round. Dubois, a hometown girl, could easily be slotted into an opening night match (remember, not everyone who goes to big tennis tournaments is a tennis nerd).

Hell, I’m not asking you to change your mind and agree with this decision. I’m pretty upset that Ana has gotten the snub too, and you can bet that the tournament isn’t thrilled to have to make such a decision. At the same time, this may be a blessing in disguise for Ana, who will have

to get some wins under her belt if she wants to enter the main draw, and you can bet she’ll get great treatment, and feel comfortable on centre court for the quallies.

So spaz all you want Ana KADs. I hear you. But realize where and how this decision came to be made, and that at the end of the day, Ana’s play is what has created this situation to begin with.

I don’t know about a lot of things that go on in Serena’s head, but here’s what I know about her foot.

Serena wins Wimbledon. Strangely, she manages to injure her foot in the time it takes her to get from London to Belgium to play in a mega bucks exo. Despite the foot, she plays (and loses badly). The injury causes her to miss World Team Tennis. She parties it up anyway, with a bandage on her foot. Everyone rolls their eyes. Her team announces the injury is on the bottom of her foot. Fine. It’s then announced that she’ll not only miss WTT, but the entire hard court season leading up to the US Open, and the injury was sustained by stepping on a piece of glass. The foot will need surgery.

Media, bloggers, and general tennis non-Serena fans roll their eyes. The wolf is back to devour the sheep. And Serena loves non-slam events.

Serena then tweets a pic of her care giving team (with what was thought to be ex-boyfriend Common, for those who care) and post-surgery boot. It’s also announced that she may now miss the US Open.

And so shit got real.

Let’s be honest, Serena could tweet pic of a foot long gash in her arm, and if it only caused her to miss non-slam events, we might not believe her. But Serena doesn’t dick around when it comes to missing slams. Fine, girl. Maybe you are really hurting. But that doesn’t take away the fact that not only did you party and dance on it in high heels, but you played tennis on it in Belgium. Brilliant. Maybe she’s just afraid of all the “ball down throat” comments when returning to the US Open, and would rather not deal with it. Honesty, I have no clue.

ATP – Hamburg (500)

Official Site: Here
Draw: Here
Top Seeds: Kolya, Nico, Melzer, JCF

Hopefully if you picked your tennis pool team with intentions of picking up big points in Hamburg, you chose the “throw darts at the draw” method, as three big names withdrew before the tournament even started (Ferru, Monf and Garlo) though conveniently AFTER the trading zone had close.

Not exactly a super exciting draw with their absence. This is a big two weeks for Kolya, however. If you remember, he missed a ton of time last season and came back on a mission, winning Hamburg and then Umag (next week) equaling a total of 750 points to defend. At 4,740 points, it’s not going to drop him out of the top 10 or anything, but it’s two of four tournaments (Shanghai and London) where he’s got a serious chunk of points to defend (3250 of his points come from those four tournies).

ATP – Atlanta (250)

Official Site: Here
Draw: Here
Top Seeds: Dick, Tree, Lleyton, Zeballos

What better way to kick off the US Open Series than with what must be the oldest average draw all year? No, seriously. All top 8 seeds are 25 or older. You’ve also got Blah, Dent, Russell, Kunitsyn… My favourite part about this draw? The winner of Blake/Dent, a pretty prime time match in the early round of a small time, American event, gets to play clay court, Challenger guy Horacio Zeballos… who got a first round bye. Hee.

Ladies – Portoroz (250)

Official Site: Here
Draw: Here
Top Seeds: JJ, Kvitova, Pavs, Errani

Oh hey JJ. Pavs and Polona for the win. That is all.

WTA – Bad Gastein (International)

Official Site: Here
Draw: Here
Top Seeds: Petko, Bacsinszky, AMG, Zakopalova.

The prettiest site with the most boring of draws. Bit of a shame. Seriously though, go look at centre court. It gives Monte Carlo a run for it’s money.

Hey all. I’ve got to apologize for my lack of existing the past week and a bit. As I noted last week, the tennis was far from highly entertaining, and I wasn’t exactly watching a lot. Sadly I got a bit sick Thursday, and have been fighting it off for several days (hence the lack of “The Week Ahead” or anything else). But I woke up feeling far better today, and I think I’m finally on the down swing of it. And there’s actually some fun things going on to write about, so deal! Full coverage will be up and running as usual, and I’ll also be back on the podcast this week too. In the meantime…

Heyo! Not to toot my own horn (Tweetdeck, fast typing, and a good guess) but to toot a little P-Mac horn. OK, that came out wrong. Anyway…

To be totally honest, I’ve always found him as a bit of a bland commentator… until Wimbledon. He seemed at more of a head role at ESPN and because of it was forced to fill some time, and came off as far more candid. I mean, you’ve been around tennis forever, and you’re J-Mac’s bro… I’m pretty sure you’ve got some stories and stuff to share in there. Anyway, he did a great job, which originally turned me onto the book. I asked the Twitterverse a couple weeks ago how the book was, and the few who responded said it’s fantastic. I figure since I’m getting a free, signed book, I can do my part and help with the advertising a bit, no? (We’re all friends in the tennis world.) I’ll probably put up a post about it once I’m done reading it. So, if I read it in twice the time it took me to read Agassi’s “Open”, won’t be long.

I wasn’t really sure I’d believe it until I saw a picture so… there you have it. Introducing The Sex and Mrs. The Sex. I guess I can’t really call him The Sex in a not-so-subtly ironic way anymore, since he’s picked up one of the hottest ladies in recent tennis history. I guess chicks just dig the dance moves, fellas.

Last year seemed so magical. All my youngin’s (read: players born within a year of me) were doing so well. Caro had solid results all hard court season (and eventually made the final). Sorana was having the season of her life. Sabine came off a fantastic Wimbledon and looked poised to make a run at the hard court season. Delpo was owning it all up, and eventually won the USO. This year?

Well, to add insult to injury, Sabine is still out, and will not make her return at the fifth slam, Portoroz. Sob. Not sure her or Sorana will be in Montreal. They weren’t in Toronto last year, which made me really sad. So… yeah. I’ll be in the corner crying.

Serena is officially out of all events leading up to the US Open, and subsequently the Rogers Cup in Montreal (which I will be attending). Yeah, I’m almost heart broken.

Serena withdrew from five events after the AO with a leg injury (which seemed legit) and is now out of another three (Istanbul, Cincy and Montreal). She’s spent her time recovering by throwing a gigantic “pre-ESPYs” party and attend the Burberry Beauty garden tea (I just threw up in my mouth) party in high heels. She also played that event in Belgium which brought on the mega-bucks, yet skipped out of World Team Tennis and the Istanbul event, which held a press conference to say they were confirming her visit and were paying her $150k to do so. Pssh, silly Istanbul.

Yeah, not so surprising.

I couldn’t make it out to this week’s podcast, as it was the only day that worked for everyone, and I had previous arrangements… but I was there in spirit. And possibly drink form, as Victoria accidentally had a few too many. Here’s the FD description:

“After a much needed hiatus, the FD Podcast Team: Sex and the City edition, returns. We discuss the Wimbledon hubbabaloo, check in with the top 15 WTAers, talk about Stanford and San Diego, and give some tips to those planning their USO trips.

And Victoria accidentally gets drunk.

Oh, and my best gay and DonkeyGrooming crash the party and we talk Twilight for an inordinately long time.

Just a reminder, you can download the podcast directly below (right-click save), listen to it on the page (just click the arrow), listen to it from the Forty Deuce Facebook Page, or subscribe to the podcast via iTunes (iTunes lists “0 items” but if you subscribe and then refresh your subscriptions, it’ll download).”

FD Podcast #20: Burnout