Future Winner's Friday

I bet you thought I had forgotten about these posts, but I have put together a slightly different 'future winner' this one has great expectations although it will be a few years yet before we see if he lives up to them:

Djordje Djokovic

As you may have guessed he is Novak Djokovic's brother and while Novak has played doubles with his other brother, 20 year old Marko, but apparently it is 16 year old Djordje who is the one to watch!

Djordje trains at the Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida and has shown signs of emulating his older brother, Novak said of his brother:

 

"He's very talented, and actually [Radek] Stepanek was just telling me a couple days ago that he practised him with him and he's a copy/paste of my forehand," 

"I'm really happy to see my brothers, especially the younger one, doing well now in tennis. Because it's not easy for them. They're still not matured enough to be able to face these really difficult mental struggles all the time and practising in front of 20, 30 people, because they're carrying the burden of Djokovic family. 

"For them it's not really the best situation you can ask for, but it makes them stronger. They are really fighting. They understand that they have to fight their own way through and hopefully they will." 

On Novak's website there is a interview with his brothers, key things we discover about Djordje include:

 

3. Who were your tennis idols growing up?
Djordje: My idols were Rafter, Sampras, Agassi, and now it’s Nole, of course :-p

 4. Who is your favourite player, male and female?
Djordje: Ugh… Well, Nole, and I could say Ana Ivanovic…

15. If you did not become a professional player, what job would you have chosen?
Djordje: Probably skiing, or I would be a table-tennis player maybe.

19. Worst aspect of tennis?
Djordje: Smashing racquets on court.

20. Worst habit your brother has?
Djordje: He’s always late, except for tennis!

It's obvious that Djordje looks up to Novak and if you want to read the rest of the interview check here.

Well is Djordje achieves half as much as his brother he will be doing well! 

Do you think Djordje has the Djokovic tennis genes and can become the next Serbian great?

Rafael Nadal and Cristiano Ronaldo team up for Nike ad

Rafael Nadal and Cristiano Ronaldo teamed up for the ad for Nike’s new football boots, the Mercurial Vapor VIII. It's lovely to see a more natural side of Nadal in an ad for once and we all know he is a fan of football and after shooting the ad Nadal interviewed Ronaldo to discover he was a fan of tennis.

WTA Wednesday

Venus William's return to tennis was marked by a special landmark, she reached her 600th career win! Only 13 other players in the Open Era have achieved this and I am sure that Venus is specially proud of this as she has been stuck on 598 wins since August, due to battling with Sjögren's Syndrome.

Now with 602 wins she sits at the bottom of the list of 14 but I am sure she will work her way up, as long as her health remains decent!

 There are only 3 active players with at least 500, sister Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters and Tamarine Tanasurgan.  

She still has a way to go before she beats Martina Navratilova's record!

Sjogren's syndrome is a disorder of the immune system (the body’s defence system against infection). White blood cells attack the body’s tear and saliva glands, which reduces the amount of saliva and tears produced. This causes a dry mouth and dry eyes, along with other related symptoms.

Murray Watch Monday

Andy Murray has been chosen to carry the Olympic torch in Merton, other tennisplayers include Elena Baltacha and Oliver Golding. Murray will carry the torch through Merton, the torch will be carried through Mitcham, Colliers Wood and Wimbledon Park on July 23. The torch will be taken past the All England Club, where the Olympic tennis event will be held in.

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I'm sure all of the football fans out there have heard about Fabrice Muamba, he collapsed during a match from a suspected heart attack and after being in a critical condition for a while whilst in hospital he is now recovering. Andy Murray believes regular heart screening in tennis and other sports should be put in place to avoid this situation happening again.

 

"I think it's time in almost all sports [that] everybody should have screenings before they can compete. This has happened too many times. Here in the States it's happened in high school and college basketball games and, of course, it's happened a few times in football.

"With all the pressure and stress of modern sport you have no idea how much you are pushing yourself on the pitch or court. I think it's something that's just got to be done."

Murray revealed he lead by example:

"I've been doing my tests for three years now so I have heart scans, heart monitors and other tests," Murray said. "I started when these things seemed to be happening more often. But it's not something that's done within tennis. But I just think it should be. Everyone should have a medical or a check-up before you're allowed to compete because it's such a horrible thing for people to witness. The reality is if something doesn't happen about it, it's likely to happen again at some stage and it's just so, so horrible. You don't wish something like that to happen to anybody."

Support for Muamba

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A very interesting interview was conducted were Murray revealed he has set up a challange with Ivan Llendl, Colin Fleming, Ross Hutchins and himself, the forefit involves spandex! He also speaks of his pride for his mothers new role as Fed cup captain and why he set up camp in Miami. To read the whole interview check here - Murray Q&A 

Tennis player banned for life for match-fixing

Just as one player bows out from life on the tour so does another, but for completly different reasons!

Daniel Köllerer is a 28-year-old Austrian who reached No.55 in the world, his best Grand Slam appearance was in 2009 when he reached the third round at the Us Open.

Köllerer has been a controversial player, he was accused of racism by Brazilian tennis player Júlio Silva, who filed charges against him after a match on the ATP Challenger Tour at Reggio  Emilia, in Italy, on June 2010. Silva accused Köllerer of calling him "monkey" and telling him to "go back to the jungle", imitating monkey movements. He has also had problems with other players and Stefan Koubek was disqualified from an Austrian league match after grabbing Daniel Köllerer by the throat during a changeover. Koubek said Köllerer insulted him during the match. "I'm man enough not to let myself be insulted, especially not by him," Koubek was reported as saying by the Austrian Times.

The tennis governing bodies ruled in January last year Koellerer had made invitations to other players to fix matches on five occasions between October 2009 and July 2010. He appealed to have the sanction overturned after the Anti Corruption Hearing Officer (AHO) found him guilty last May of attempted match fixing. 

Köllerer has been banned permanently from participating in any event organised or sanctioned by any of the four tennis governing bodies ATP, WTA, ITF and Grand Slam Committee.

'On the basis of the evidence submitted by the parties to the CAS, the panel of arbitrators was satisfied the player attempted to engage in match fixing,' a CAS statement read.

CAS did, though, set aside the £63,041 fine which had been imposed on the player.

Goodbye Gonzalez!

A while ago Fernando Gonzalez announced his retirement from tennis, and after losing out to Nicolas Mahut at the Sony Ericsson Open, 7-5 4-6 7-6 (7/3), the 31-year-old Chilean ended his career on a double fault!

In his career he has reached at least the quarter-finals of every Grand Slam tournament, he played his first major final at the 2007 Australian Open, losing to top-ranked Roger Federer. 

He is the fourth male tennis player in history to have won each Olympic medal (gold in doubles and bronze in singles at Athens 2004, and silver in singles at Beijing 2008). 

Throughout his career, he has defeated many former no. 1 players, including Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer (all while they held the top spot), Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Moyà, Gustavo Kuerten, Marat Safin, and Pete Sampras. 

 González qualified twice for the year-end Masters Cup event and was runner-up at two Masters Series tournaments.

 He is arguably Chile's best tennis player of the 2000s. His highest ranking was achieved in 2007 when he reached No.5, he has won a total of 11 career titles in the singles and 3 in the doubles!

 This tribute video was shown on after his last match, all the top players speak about the respect they have for him and in particular his fantastic forehand ;).

In Spanish he was known as  El Bombardero de La Reina ("The La Reina Bomber") and Mano de Piedra ("Stone Hand"), because of his amazing forehand but the English-language media settled for "Gonzo".

So Thank you Fernando, and best wishes for the future, we hope to see you involved in somethig tennis related soon!

BNP Paribas Open

There are only two tournaments scheduled for March, but don't worry there are plenty for April!

The first of these tournaments is the BNP Paribas Open , more commonly know as Indian Wells!

While one finalist from the Dubai duty free tennis championship crashed out in the first round the other added to his trophy haul, Roger Federer won his fourth BNP Paribas Open title!

In the semi-finals Federer overcame possibly his greatest rival, Rafa Nadal, however it wasn't all bad news for Nadal as he won the doubles for the second time in Indian Wells, along with his partner Marc Lopez.

In the final Roger Federer overcame John Isner (who reached a career high of No.10 this week) 6-7(7) 6-3.

In doing this Roger Federer equalled Rafael Nadal's record of 19 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles, is this the second-coming of the Swiss Maestro?!

Murray Watch Monday

On the 6th of April the GB Davis cup team will take on Belgium in Glasgow for the chance to go through to the September play-offs for the World Group. As you may remember Andy Murray did not play in the last Davis Cup tie and it seems he has still not decided if he will play this time.

He said - “It depends on how Miami goes. It’s a bit like Indian Wells – I wasn’t planning on having that sort of week. You always plan for the best-case scenario and that’s finishing on Sunday evening with a win and then you go from there. I’ll have a chat with Leon next week – he’s coming over to Miami – about [the] Davis Cup and I’ll speak to the guys next week about it because obviously the Indian Wells week changes things a little bit because I didn’t play as many matches as I would have hoped. So, I’ll see how Miami goes.”

GB captain, Leon Smith has to name his team a week tomorrow and if Murray was to play there would be another issue - who would be GB's doubles team? It would be a lovely predicament to have for once, to many players! As if Andy wants to play with brother Jamie the were would that leave Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins, Britains latest go-to team?

 

Fleming and Hutchins are ranked 8th in the race to London but it was the Murray brothers who recently beat them at Indian Wells and Jamie has been successful as a doubles player for a long time now, Hutchins explained how he felt about the issue; “We’ve been quite successful since we’ve started together,” Hutchins said, “but Andy can light up a court like probably only three other players in the world and Jamie’s been top 50 for the last I-don’t-know-how-many years. If Andy plays Davis Cup and wants to play with Jamie, I think it would be wrong to be, like, ‘no; these guys are our team’. It’s a discussion that should happen amongst the captain and the coaches and Andy and do what is best for the team.” 

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Andy Murray will also be supporting Malaria No More in their latest campaign, he will be giving away a signed tennis racket, t-shirt and tickets to watch him play this summer to whoever brings in the most sponsorship money taking part in the charity's Live Below the Line! campaign where you get by on £1 a day for food and drink between 7-11 May.

 He said "It asks people across the UK, US, New Zealand and Australia to live on £1 a day for all food and drink for five days in May. Why? You might well ask. "Well, it's to raise awareness about 1.4 billion people who live on this budget everyday, for everything, so food, drink, education, transport, healthcare, the lot. Surviving on that budget is pretty incomprehensible for most of us which is why this is such a powerful campaign". 

If you want to get involved sign up here:  www.livebelowtheline.com/uk-mnmuk

And to read all of Andy's blog on the subject check here: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/andy-murray/could-you-live-on-5-for-five-days

David Beckham has teamed up with Murray to support the use of Malaria nets.

WTA Wednesday

You have been getting a lot of Murray news so now it's time for your weekly fix of women's tennis!

A few weeks back we looked at the 4 German women in the top 20 so I thought it was only fair to mention the 3 Russian women in the top 20! Russia has been churning out top female tennis players for a while now and many of them are within the top 100, while the top Russian ATP player is number 35 Mikhail Youzhny, a Russian women claims the top spot - yes you've all heard of her - Maria Sharapova!

But she is joined by 2 other women on the top of their game (in the top 20):

2) Maria Sharapova

  9) Vera Zvonareva

 20) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

In Russia tennis is definitely a women's sport, I bet they fancy their chances in the Fed Cup and Olympics this year! A very glamorous set of women with a fantastic ability, certainly they would all make the perfect poster girls for the 'strong is beautiful' campaign!

Murray Watch

He may be down and out of the singles in Indian Wells (exhausted after Djokovic?) but it seems his PR machine just will not stop! (You have 'HEAD' to thank for that!)

So while we wait and see how he does in the doubles enjoy a clip of a new 'HEAD' advert for their racquet's:

Murray Watch Monday (On a Saturday)

After getting his revenge on Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals unfortunately for the hopeful British, Murray lost out in the Dubai final to Roger Federer!

But it seems Murray is looking forward to Indian Wells were it has been commented that he is much more relaxed than he has been in the future, many are saying that if anyone could surpass Djokovic this year it is most likely to Murray!

Andy Murray has been seen out and about a lot, he attended the Indian Wells players party, his mother has been with him throughout this tournament and posted a picture on Twitter along with small comments. Colin Flemming and Ross Hutchins have been seen with him, it's great to see the Brits getting along! I have compiled a few pictures to sum up the past week or so:

During his time at Indian Wells Andy has been answering some questions put to him by fans, for 'HEAD'. In the second video Andy reveals something about his 'relationship' with Rafa Nadal. ;)

A last bit for all tennis fans, not just Murray fans, at the Indian Wells player party the players were asked who their favourite Hollywood actor and actress were and then who they would like to portray them in a movie:

 Hopefully next weeks Murray Watch Monday won't be so late!

WTA Wednesday

Rory Mcllroy makes a surprise appearance in this weeks WTA Wednesday!

Caroline Wozniacki and Maria Sharapova were playing an exhibition match in Madison Square garden, Wozniacki may have lost 6-3, 6-4 but I think she enjoyed herself, particularly when her boyfriend joined her on court!

 

Mcllory pretended to play the best way he knows how but once he got into the swing of it he managed to win a point from Sharapova, although it wasn't enough to bring Wozniacki back into the game. Earlier in the match Sharapova danced with a fan, I think the crowd certainly got the show they wanted!

Watch all the action in the video below.

 

 

Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship, Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, Abierto Mexicano Telcal

Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship 

Going in to this tournament the world number 1, Novak Djokovic was probably feeling confident after winning it the last three years in a row! However he did not count on on running into an in-form Murray looking for revenge (more on that soon!), and Murray did not count on running into an in-form Roger Federer! 

Yes Roger Federer won this mini face-off between some of the top players in the world (minus Nadal) and claimed his 5th crown in Dubai, is this the start of another lease of life for Federer? Time will tell.

Federer df. Andy Murray 7-5, 6-4

The seedings show the impressive line up the Dubai tournament boasted:

 

The doubles title was won by Bhupathi/Bopanna.

Delray Beach International Tennis Championships

Former world number 1 Andy Roddick headlined this tournament but it was the number 7 seed and a qualifier who reached the final!

Kevin Anderson bt. Marinko Matosevic 6-4, 7-6(2)

It is Andersons second career title.

Some tough competition:

 

*BRIT WATCH* British doubles team Ross Hutchins and Colin Fleming won in the doubles, this is surely a positive sign for the British Davies Cup hopes!

Abierto Mexican Telcal

Once again a tournament that seems to have been dominated by the Spanish! Top seeds David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro have both been playing well recently but it was Fernando Verdasco who joined Ferrer in the final, only to be beaten.

It was an easily won match, the score line read 6-1, 6-2

Ferrer has now won three ATP World Tour 500 titles in a row!

The Spanish sent and armada of top players:

Verdasco did win a consolation prize in the form of the doubles title along with partner David Marrero of, you guessed it, Spain!

I leave you with a picture of David Ferrer in a sombrero!

Open 13, Regions Morgan Keegan Championship, Copa Claro

Open 13

Juan Martin Del Potro beat former Marseilles champion Michael Llodra 6-4 6-4 to win his first tournament of the season, 10th in his career. Del Potro is slowly working his way up the rankings and I'm sure he will be a serious contender in Grand Slams again.

The seeds; as you can see Del Potro was only the third seed:

Doubles winners were Mahut/Roger-Vasselin.

 Regions Morgan Keegan Championship

 

Our favourite 'future winner' from Future Winners Friday didn't win the final as he did in his last tournament. It was Jurgen Melzer who toppled Milos Raonic 7-5, 7-6(4) meaning Raonic will have to be content with being runner up in Memphis for the second year running. Melzer is first 30 year old to clinch the title since Ivan Lendl in 1991. 

As you can see from the seedings above first seeds Mirnyi/Nestor won the doubles.

Copa Claro

David Ferrer beat fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 6-3, 6-2 in the final in Argentina, this bought Almagro's ten match winning streak to an end, Ferrer has beaten Almagro 9 times out of 9! Ferrer was also the runner in 2010.

Seeds:

The doubles winners were Marrero/Verdasco, two more Spaniards - this tournament has shown Spain wealth of talent even without Nadal playing!

So I am now up-to-date with tournament results, but if like me you are most looking forward to see the results of the Doha final tomorrow stay tuned!

Future Winners Friday

Robin Haase

He may be a little older than the usual 'future winner' I would usually pick but he has been making a splash and it is said 24 is the average age when a player makes his breakthrough nowadays!  

Robin Haase is currently ranked 55 in the world and is the highest ranked Dutch player with a career high of No. 40 in  2011.

Professional Life

He was a promising junior, reaching No. 3 and just lost out in 2005 final of the Wimbledon junior championship.

He made his Grand Slam debut in the 2007 US Open but lost in the first round to Novak Djokovic. Since then he has done reasonably well and upset a few top 20 players along the way:

Australian Open - 3rd Round (2011)

French Open - 2nd Round (2011)

Wimbledon - 3rd Round (2011)

US Open -  2nd Round (2011)

He won his first ATP tournament in Austria on the 6th August 2011.

Personal Life

He began playing tennis at 2 1/2 years old and, like Nadal, plays tennis right-handed but is actually left-handed. Father, Axel and mother, Annie, are both retired he has one older brother, Eric, who worked for General Electric and Nike, and one older sister, Inga, who teaches German.

He enjoys reading, movies and hanging with friends when he is not travelling. Also loves all sorts of sports including basketball and ice hockey. His idol growing up was Andre Agassi.

Has no preference on surface but would consider clay his favourite surface, where he won is first ATP tournament. He is coached by countryman Dennis Schenk, who travels with him.

I believe he has a girlfriend but cannot be sure or find a picture.