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Archives for December 2010

Men’s Tennis in Australia in January 2011 – Find out who is playing where

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Hopman Cup: 1 – 8 January 2011, Perth

Australian January tennis viewing starts with the Hopman Cup, which brings out some top tennis and gives the viewing public a taste of who has the form and stamina to play well in hot Australian conditions.

Eight countries are invited to play at this invitation only, round robin event, with a men’s and women’s player representing each country.

This year at the Hopman Cup we’ll get to see the form of Novak Djokovic, John Isner and Andy Murray.

Here is the full team list, courtesy of the Hopman Cup website.

Serbia: Novak Djokovic, Ana Ivanovic

USA: John Isner, Bethanie Mattek-Sands

Great Britain: Andy Murray, Laura Robson

Belgium: Ruben Bemelmans, Justine Henin

Italy: Potito Starace, Francesca Shiavone

Kazkhstan: Andrey Golubev, Yaroslava Shvedova

Australia: Lleyton Hewitt, Alicia Molik

France: Nicholas Mahut, Kristina Mladenovic

Brisbane International: 2-9 January 2011, Brisbane

With a strong field and similar conditions to the Australian Open, the Brisbane International is usually a good place for the top players to get ready for the AO.

Although this year the weather has been far from the norm. In Brisbane, temperatures are expected to get back to 30 degrees C next week but so far the conditions in Brisbane have been really wet.  Combine this with the weirdness of Melbourne’s weather lately, who knows what type of weather weather the players should be adjusted for by the time the second half of January rolls around.

Top 10 Players

Robin Soderling – No 5

Andy Roddick – No 8

Fernando Verdasco – No 9

The rest of the Brisbane International line up

Fish, Mardy USA No.16

Baghdatis, Marcos CYP No.20

Lopez, Feliciano ESP No.32

Mayer, Florian GER No.37

Istomin, Denis UZB No.40

Granollers, Marcel ESP No.41

Simon, Gilles FRA No.42

de Bakker, Thiemo NED No.43

Benneteau, Julien FRA No.44

Dolgopolov, Alexandr UKR No.48

Becker, Benjamin GER No.53

Berrer, Michael GER No.55

Petzschner, Philipp GER No.57

Anderson, Kevin RSA No.61

Stepanek, Radek CZE No.62

Giraldo, Santiago COL No.64

Kamke, Tobias GER No.67

Serra, Florent FRA No.69

Kubot, Lukasz POL No.70

Sela, Dudi ISR No.75

Clement, Arnaud FRA No.78

Andreev, Igor RUS No.79

It’s also worth watching the form of Australian Open wildcard winner, Marinko Matosevic, who has been given a wildcard for the Brisbane International.

Medibank International: 9-15 January 2011, Sydney

As always, expect to see some top men’s tennis going on at this Sydney tournament.

Juan Martin Del Potro has been given a wildcard and there will be a lot of interest in his comeback form, following the wrist injury and surgery that kept him out of action during 2010.

Here is the full line up of men for the Medibank International.

Sam Querrey USA No. 1

Marcos Baghdatis CYP No. 20

Ernests Gulbis LAT No. 24

Richard Gasquet FRA No. 29

Viktor Troicki SRB No. 30

Feliciano Lopez ESP No. 32

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ESP No. 33

Yen-Hsun Lu TPE No. 35

Florian Mayer GER No. 37

Jarkko Nieminen FIN No. 38

Juan Ignacio Chela ARG No. 39

Denis Istomin UZB No. 40

Gilles Simon FRA No. 42

Julien Benneteau FRA No. 44

Jeremy Chardy FRA No. 45

Sergiy Stakhovsky UKR No. 46

Potito Starace ITA No. 47

Alexandr Dolgopolov UKR No. 48

Andreas Seppi ITA No. 52

Juan Martin Del Potro WC

AAMI Classic: 12 – 15 January 2011, Kooyong, Melbourne

Along with the Medibank International, this tournament butts right up against the Australian Open, with only one day off between the final and Day One of the AO.

Although the matches are only 3 sets maximum, this tournament allows top ranked men to play each other and really find their form in Melbourne conditions.

Here are the players for this year’s AAMI Classic.

Jurgen Melzer

Nikolay Davydenko

Gael Monfils

Lleyton Hewitt

Mikhail Youzhny

Thomas Berdych

Jo Wilfred-Tsonga

Fernando Verdasco

Pat Cash and Henri Leconte will play in the “Legends of the Game” throughout the tournament. I’m expecting some fun from those guys!

Australian Open: 17- 30 January 2011, Melbourne

The good news for the Australian Open is that the Top 100 Men are all confirmed to play.

Did you notice the absence of Roger and Rafa in the lists above? Watch for my post tomorrow on that topic!

Until then

Grand Slam Gal

Top 20 Men’s Singles Tennis Players: ATP Rankings 2010

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To help you get warmed up for the upcoming men’s tennis action in January, here is a recap of the Top 20 Men’s Tennis Players in 2010.

Rafa ended the year as number one, and Soderling’s great form allowed him to push Andy Murray back from No 4 to No 5.

1. Rafael Nadal (ESP

2. Roger Federer (SUI)

3. Djokovic, Novak (SRB)

4. Soderling, Robin (SWE)

5. Murray, Andy (GBR)

6. Berdych, Tomas (CZE)

7. Ferrer, David (ESP)

8. Roddick, Andy (USA)

9. Verdasco, Fernando (ESP)

10. Youzhny, Mikhail (RUS)

11. Melzer, Jurgen (AUT)

12. Monfils, Gael (FRA)

13. Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried (FRA)

14. Cilic, Marin (CRO)

15. Almagro, Nicolas (ESP)

16. Fish, Mardy (USA)

17. Ljubicic, Ivan (CRO)

18. Querrey, Sam (USA)

19. Isner, John (USA)

20. Baghdatis, Marcos (CYP)

View the full list of Top 100 players.

Who do you think has potential to shake up the big 5 in 2011?

Until next time

Grand Slam Gal

5 Top Twitter Tips for Tennis Tweeters

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When I first started using Twitter I thought it was like visiting a foreign country where you don’t understand the language or the culture.

But then luckily a great friend gave me some tips that made the world of difference to how I use Twitter.  Here are some of the big winners!

1. Don’t stay an egg! Add a profile pic and some information to your bio

Your bio gives people a snap shot of who you are and what you tweet about. By leaving it blank, you’re missing an opportunity to engage with people, and after all, that’s the whole point of being on Twitter.

2. Follow People Back

If you’re a well known player or tennis media person it’s a different story but generally speaking if you want to increase your number of followers, aim to follow people back if they follow you.

Otherwise, unless you’ve made a big impression, people can easily use tools like Just Unfollow to stop following people who aren’t following them back.

3. Be appreciative

Check your @mentions regularly and thank people when they Retweet your tweets.

Also check under “Retweets” and then “Your tweets, retweeted” to see who has Retweeted you using Twitter’s automatic Retweet button.

Note – If you’re using Tweet Meme or another sharing plug-in on your blog, make sure it’s connected to your Twitter user name so that you’ll see who is re-tweeting your articles.

4. Use Lists to Keep your Incoming Tweets organised

Once you’re following a lot of people it can be hard to keep up with all the tweets in your incoming feed.

By creating lists you can separate the tweets you’d like to see into different topics.

For example, I have lists for Tennis Players and Tennis Media. I can click on the list to see the recent tweets from everyone that I’ve added to that list.

You can follow other people’s lists too, if you don’t want to create your own.

My favourite list is Tennis Tweeters. It lets me see the tweets of everyone I follow who tweets mainly about tennis. To keep my lists up to date, as soon as I follow someone, I decide if they should be added to a list and add them straight away.

Find out How to use Twitter Lists

5. Direct people to a specific Twitter landing page

If you’re promoting a blog or website via your Twitter account, instead of linking your profile to your Home Page, direct people to a specific Twitter landing page that gives the key information they need about you, in one place.

Here are 10 Tips for How to Create a Great Twitter Landing Page

What are your best tips for getting full value out of Twitter?  Do you follow people back, or do you have a different policy?

Let us know in the comments below.

Grand Slam Gal

P.S. Need more help with Twitter? Get the free info you need on How to Use Twitter Like a Pro.

Which Grand Slam Tennis Match is your All Time Favourite?

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Grand Slam’s bring out so many memorable tennis matches.

I particularly love a big men’s 5 setter where the player who has the upper hand changes several times during match and you’re never really sure who will win until it’s over.

Coming a very close second for my favourite match of all time is the 2008 Wimbledon Men’s Final between Roger and Rafa.

Remember what an amazing match it was?

It went for almost five hours and finished after 9pm at night due to rain delays that stopped play several times.

I was pretty happy about being in England at the time so I could watch the match on TV in the right time zone, rather than being in Australia and having to stay up all night.

But, although John McEnroe called it “the greatest match I’ve ever seen”, it’s not my all time favourite.

My favourite match of all time was the Australian Open quarter final between Andy Roddick and Younes El Aynaoui in 2003.

This was the match that made me realise how great tennis can keep you watching, no matter how long it goes for and how late at night it is!

The match went for five hours.

Roddick eventually won the 5th set 21 to 19.

Although I don’t remember seeing Al Aynaoui in a gripping Aus Open match since then, he certainly provided some great tennis action in 2003.

What I loved most is how neither man gave up. They both kept playing hard for every point, believing they could win. Although Roddick did have a break at one point and give his racquet to the Ball Boy!

Although the 2008 Wimbledon final was amazing, really, what would you expect from seeing Rafa v Rog in such an important match?

But an Aus Open quarterfinal between up and coming Roddick and guy 11 years older than him, there was a possibility that one might have slipped by un-noticed.

What’s your all time favourite tennis match? Tell us in the comments below.

Grand Slam Gal

Tennis Replays: Serbia Wins but who gets the hair (& other highlights)

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Grand Slam Gal’s tennis snippets and tidbits from the week.

1. Serbia Wins Davis Cup, Heads are Shaved, but who gets the Hair?

Serbia beat France to become only the second unseeded nation to win the Davis Cup. A great effort, given that they haven’t really been around the men’s tennis world for all that long.

So to celebrate, all the boys got their heads shaved to follow through on a bet that was made at the start of the season.

What I’m wondering is who gets the hair? (and there was quite a lot of hair to spare)

  • Did the Ball Boys have to clean up it up?
  • Did the crowd pocket it as a souvenir?
  • Will be auctioned off for charity?
  • Or will it be given to the next team to win the Davis Cup? (perhaps inside the cup?)

What do you think? Let us know by completing the poll to the right, or leave a comment if you have another suggestion.

Watch the vid to see Novak Djokovic in all his Number 1 glory.

Read a great summary of the win: Serbian Celebration Following Davis Cup Win With Comedic Moments

2. Serena Williams Died Digitally (But Kept Tweeting to Remind Everyone She Was Dead)

Along with some other celebrities, Serena died to help raise $1 Million to fight aids, encouraging people to donate to bring her back.

That was a nice thing to do but looking at her tweets it seems she was alive to remind people she was dead, oh, and to promote an appearance showing off her collection of clothes.

This is my favourite tweet from @serenawilliams, while she was digitally dead:

will be on HSN: December 7th 12am-2am 10am-12pm 2pm-3pm 5pm-7pm 10-11pm but will not be tweeting until the#BuyLife Campaign is over!

3. Sam Stosur wins the Tennis Gold Logie

Sam Stosur is officially Australia’ Premier Tennis Player of the Year.

Sam is currently world number six and having reached the French Open final this year, she is our best chance in a while at having an Australian win the Aus Open final.

On the night, Sam looked good enough to go to the Logies, as you can tell by these pictures from her blog.

Until next time

Grand Slam Gal

Who is your all time favourite tennis commentator?

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When it comes to watching tennis on TV, the quality of the commentary makes all the difference for me in terms of how much I enjoy the match.

I like a commentator who knows their stuff, both the technical aspects of how the game is played and the interesting snippets of trivia, but who also knows when to stop talking!

Jim Courier is my all time favourite

As someone who watches as much of the Australian Open as possible every year, both live and on TV, my favourite commentator is Jim Courier. He really knows what he is talking about, he has an easy voice to listen to, and I particularly love the on court interviews that he does at the end of the centre court matches. He’s great at getting players to open up about their personal life, and having a laugh with them. Like getting Roger Federer to talk about his twin girls and how much he loves being a dad.

I hope he’s still coming to the Australian Open 2011 now that he has become leader of the US Davis Cup team.  Does anyone know?

Although Henri Leconte runs a very close second

Jim may have all the right moves and knowledge, but Henri sure cleans up when it comes to enthusiasm. The first time I heard his commentary was the huge Tsonga v Almagro match at the Aus Open this year. And I’m hoping he comes back again to keep us entertained!

I know that there are way more good tennis commentators out there than I have experienced while watching tennis on TV mainly from Australia. I did enjoy Sue Barker’s coverage of Wimbledon for the BBC when I was there to watch it.

Who is your favourite tennis commentator?  Broaden my mind and let me know by leaving a comment below!

Grand Slam Gal