VIDEO: It Must Be Love US Open promo videos

If you haven't watch any of the US Open promo videos released by the USTA, here are the players so far who has taken a seat in the director's chair and express their love for tennis.

Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Dinara Safina, Venus Williams, Andy Roddick, Jelena Jankovic, James Blake, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Ana Ivanovic, Sam Querrey

TENNIS WATCH: The Bryan Brothers Band, Djokovic's new coach, Davis Cup, top 8 in Montreal, Clijsters' in Williams' out

From chest bumping to music recording, Bob and Mike Bryan are set to take the music world by storm with the release of their debut album "Let It Rip", with close friend and accomplished singer/songwriter David Baron on September 1, 2009.

The album will contain 5 songs that feature Bob playing the bass and keyboards, Mike on the drums, and Baron as the lead vocalist also playing piano and guitar.

More information on The Bryan Brothers Band Featuring David Baron can be found on www.bryanbrosband.com, which will be made live before their debut at Arthur Ashe Kids Day.

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Novak Djokovic will be training under Todd Martin after Cincinnati. Martin is the new addition to Djokovic's team, which will continue to engage with full-time coach Marian Vajda.

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World Group Davis Cup dates for next year are out:

World Group First round (5-7 March)
World Group Quarterfinals (9-11 July)
World Group Semifinals and World Group Play-offs (17-19 September)
World Group Final (3-5 December)

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For the first time, all top eight-ranked players in the world have reached the quarterfinals in Montreal.

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick, Juan Martin del Potro, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Nikolay Davydenko have all made their way to the final eight at the Masters event.

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Kim Clijsters continues her winning comeback, defeating 2009 French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 to reach the Cincinnati quarterfinals.

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Serena Williams is ousted 7-5, 6-4 by Sybille Bammer in Cincinnati.

With Venus' loss to Flavia Pennetta earlier, both Williams sisters are out of the tournament.

Rafael Nadal survives first match, looking forward to have real test

Surprisingly, the one who limped off the court is not Rafael Nadal. It was his compatriot David Ferrer.

Nadal won his first match since May when Ferrer retired with a left knee injury in the first set of their match at the Rogers Cup.

Nadal led 4-3 when Ferrer informed the chair umpire he could not continue.

The world no.2's next opponent in the third round is Philipp Petzschner and Nadal is looking forward to have real test.

Here's the post-match interview:

Q. Little shorter than you might have liked today?
RAFAEL NADAL: Yeah, I never expect this, this bad thing for David, so I just ‑‑ I can say sorry to him and just wish him the very fast recovery to be ready for Cincinnati.

So, yeah, I know it's tough to have to go out and have to go out of court, so yeah, just sorry for him. And for me, it was nice have a victory like this, and I say before I here to improve every day, to enjoy every game, every point. Just like this, I going to have chances to be ready as fast as possible.

Q. How did you feel playing the match after such a long time?
RAFAEL NADAL: Sure, a little bit strange, no? The first movements is tough and hard to move well and to feel confident when you are touching the ball.

But, you know, that's the normal thing. I have to ‑‑ I must be happy, because I didn't play terrible. And the next round, I have another chance tomorrow to continuing to improve. Every match, every game is important to feel better for me.

Q. How are your knees?
RAFAEL NADAL: Yeah, was okay. Need more days to have real test, but it was okay.

Q. Did you find the doubles matches helped you?
RAFAEL NADAL: Sure, the doubles is important or the two matches of doubles was important matches for me to start, to compete, no? Always these matches help me.

Q. You're saying that you like to learn more and more every day and you're always trying to improve. It's something to watch you on the court because we see if you're practicing, learning a new skill like, for example, last year your serve on grass or your backhand changing maybe a little bit. The coach was telling me he saw a difference at the Australian Open. For the different surfaces you're always improving a lot on the court, but I feel like the challenges you've gone through in the last couple months are all challenges off the court. Do you see that as just another part of tennis, another element that you have to learn to prepare for dealing with injury, dealing with setbacks that you're not used to facing?
RAFAEL NADAL: (Through translation.)
No, you know, the calendar is tough, and you don't have a lot of choices, no? For me, you can learn because the career always every year is an experience and you can learn about everything, but I think when you play, if not the one or the second who play more matches the last five years, it's normal to have some problems.

Q. What I'm saying is you see injury as just another part of tennis the same way a forehand is. Do you see setbacks off the court? Tennis is a very all‑encompassing game.
THE MODERATOR: What is the question?

Q. Do you see injury, coming back from injury, as just another part of the game, just like...
RAFAEL NADAL: Everybody, when you injury, you have to come back. hat I can say? Is a normal thing of sports, so that's it.

Q. Andy Roddick said the courts are very slow and the ball was moving slow. You felt that?
RAFAEL NADAL: The court was very slow?

Q. Yeah, the court was very slow.
RAFAEL NADAL: No, I didn't think so, no, no.

No, I don't know. He's coming from Washington, no? So the feeling for the players always depends. If the week before you play in a faster place and next week you play in a little bit of slower place, you feel like it's very slow. And if you're playing in a slow place and the next week you play in a little bit faster, you feel like it's very fast. So it's always depends on the last feeling you had.

I think the court is not very fast and not very slow. I think it's between.

Q. What was the feeling of walking out on a court for a real match again after all that time?
RAFAEL NADAL: Yeah, it's always a pleasure to come back, and the feeling ‑‑ well, only happen one month and a half; it's not three years outside of tennis. That's the true, no?

Sure, it's happy to come back here and playing another time. But the feeling is normal, like always. I feel well when I go on court all the time, and today wasn't an exception.

Sure, when you have a few time outside of competition, when you come back it's a little bit more exciting.

Q. Can you give an example of how hardcourts are tougher on your body than maybe clay courts or grass courts?
RAFAEL NADAL: Well, let's talk about the same, no? I say 200,000 times, yeah, the hardcourt is tougher for the body than the grass and clay. No doubt of that. I think nobody have a doubt of that. That's it.

Q. Were you trying to be a little careful today, or were you going all the way on your body?
RAFAEL NADAL: I tried. I tried everything, put my 100%, but when you come back from an injury, it's difficult to move well the first match. You have more matches to get the confidence of the movements, on the feeling of the ball, so I need more time.

Q. Is it a positive first match? Is it a positive first test?
RAFAEL NADAL: Anything gonna be ‑‑ everything gonna be positive. Only bad thing can be is if I have another time problems with the knees, but the rest of the things, everything is positive, no? Every match, every point. Because everything is helping me to be ready as soon as possible when I return to my level.

Right now I'm probably not at my best level, but everything is important. If I lose tomorrow and if I have a match, is it going to be interesting for me to have more hours on court?

Q. You struggled with your first serve. Are you a little bit disappointed about that?
RAFAEL NADAL: No, it's ‑‑ it's normal. The feeling, it's different now because I practice during the afternoon and the ball was faster than right now, the night. The ball was bigger.

No, I didn't ‑‑ I was serving really well, all the day, practicing. The first day, first match, a little bit nervous. At the same time, David is a big returner.

At the same time, I want to push a little bit more than usual. After, when I had the 3‑All, the match from 3‑2 to 3‑3, I have some serves slow. I was serving 190, 195, 200, and in this game, I had some serve, 175, so that's give me more confidence, no?

Q. Can you just talk about your next opponent (Philipp Petzschner).
RAFAEL NADAL: He's a very aggressive player, no? Very good serve, very good forehand.

Today he had very good win against Robredo. Yeah, sure, every match going to be very difficult for me.

(Interview transcript via Rogers Cup official website)

TENNIS WATCH: The Hewitts, ATP & WTA's marriage in Cincinnati, Ivanovic's cutting cost, Safina's coconut, comeback Kim wins again

Australian weekly magazine New Idea has apologised to Lleyton Hewitt's wife Bec for labelling her brother Shaun Cartwright as her 'new lover' in an April news story.

The magazine surely have no idea that the Hewitts are still very much in love.

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The ATP and WTA events in Cincinnati will become a combined tournament in 2011 and will be held two weeks before the U.S. Open.

The current WTA and ATP events in Toronto and Montreal will remain in separate cities, but will occur during the same week, three weeks before the U.S. Open.

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Is Ana Ivanovic cutting cost due to her recent slump?

Speaking about her shrinking entourage, Ivanovic said, "Now I'm actually traveling with my mom mostly, and before I used to have four or five people. So I'm like, Where has everyone gone?"

"No, I feel really good, because also made me realise more thing on my own, what I'm doing and what helps me to play good, these kind of things, rather than relying on people telling me certain things."

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Recently Dinara Safina hurt her left hand while trying to open a coconut.

Safina said, "In Los Angeles, I would say I lost a bet with a coconut. I was trying to open a coconut, and actually didn't open very good because the knife slipped and it went straight into my hand.

Safina shoud ask Zeljko Krajan to do it instead.

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Kim Clijsters continues her successful comeback win by defeating Patty Schnyder 6-2, 7-5 in Cincinnati.

Clijsters who retired in May 2007 and gave birth to a daughter in February 2008, knocked out 12th-seeded Marion Bartoli in straight sets on Monday.

She is scheduled to meet 6th-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova in the next round. Clijsters has won six of her seven matches against Kuznetsova.

If everything goes well, she will probably meet top-seeded Dinara Safina in the quarterfinal match.

TENNIS WATCH: Kei Nishikori, Rogers Cup, Kim Clijsters

Kei Nishikori withdrew from the US Open.

According to IMG, Nishikori underwent a small microscopic surgery to remove a minor bone spur last week under the care of. Dr. Saito in Tokyo.

Kei is expected to be back on the court and start practice in about 4-6 weeks.

IMG is currently finalizing Nishikori’s protected ranking with the ATP, which will enable him to participate in most of the big tournaments in the first half of 2010.

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Back to Montreal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic all won their opening matches at the Rogers Cup.

Federer defeated Canadian Frederic Niemeyer 7-6(3), 6-4.

Djokovic overcame another home favourite, Peter Polansky, 6-4, 7-6(6).

Murray had an easy won against Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-2.

In the doubles event, Rafael Nadal and Francisco Roig was defeated by doubles specialist Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram in a super tiebreak round 2 match with the results 6-4, 3-6, 8-10.

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Congrats to comeback queen Kim Clijsters for winning her first WTA match in straight sets, defeating world no.13 Marion Bartoli 6-4, 6-3.

It'll be interesting to see her dominate women's tennis again.

Svetlana Kuznetsova's simply stunning; never seen before pictures

Here's the latest photoshoot pictures of Svetlana Kuznetsova that leave everyone drooling.

I'm not lying but probably these pictures are.

These photos were featured in the 3rd August issue of Russian magazine called PROsport.


(Info via Women's Tennis Blog; Images via tennisforum.com)

Marat Safin hopes Sis will prove to critics that they can go f*** themselves

"Nobody believed that she's going to be No. 1 in the world. Nobody believed that she going to be top 10 even two, three years ago. So look where she is right now. A lot of people they giving her trouble, 'Okay, she's No. 1 in the world but she never won a Grand Slam.'

"But I'm really proud that she's holding up herself even though that's somebody can be really rough on her. She's there. I hope she can be No. 1 for a long time so she can prove to everybody that they can go f*** themselves."

~ Marat Safin defended his sister Dinara Safina's no.1 ranking.

VIDEO: Novak Djokovic's scandalous pic leaked... now here's the tape!

You've seen the photos... now here's the video!

Find out how Novak Djokovic teased the crowd and then stripped down to his undies.

Do check out the interviews with Djokovic and Tommy Robredo at the Players Evening. The behind-the-scene at the fashion show is pretty hilarious and fun to watch too.

Novak Djokovic stripped to his briefs in Montreal, again!

It seems like the Canadians enjoy watching Novak Djokovic stripped to his undies. He did it in Montreal back in 2007.

And he did it again last Sunday.

As he strutted down the catwalk in an oriental-style jacket, the Serbian was mentioned in the ATP website to have "provocatively teased the crowd as he made his way around the stage, before dropping the jacket to pose in just his underwear, much to the enjoyment of the audience".

I'm better on the catwalk than I'm in the court these days!

Tadaaaa!! Here's the proof!

Other ATP World Tour stars who made their appearances on the catwalk (no striptease, though) were Tommy Robredo, Jurgen Melzer, Jeremy Chardy, Mark Knowles, Yen-Hsun Lu, Simon Aspelin, Paul Hanley, Teimuraz Gabashvili, Milos Raonic and Mischa Zverev.

Rendy Lu Yen-hsun

Tommy Robredo

Jurgen Melzer

Jeremy Chardy

(Images by Arturo Velazque via ATP World Tour website)

TENNIS WATCH: Taste of Tennis, '15', Rafael Nadal, Astro SuperSports+

Starting from today, I'm going to introduce a segment called TENNIS WATCH which summarises brief tennis news into one post.

World’s top tennis players including Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Andy Roddick, Vera Zvonareva, Victoria Azarenka, Tommy Haas and Fernando Gonzalez are set to serve-up the US Open’s hottest pre-tournament action at the 10th Annual BNP PARIBAS TASTE OF TENNIS.

The players will cook-up culinary aces alongside highly acclaimed chefs including celebrity chef and author Bethenny Frankel, Carla Hall and Ariane Duarte from Bravo’s “Top Chef,” and Alfred Portale of Gotham Bar & Grill.

ESPN Sportscenter anchor Hannah Storm will serve as emcee.

If you're interested to attend this, you can join them at the W New York Hotel for a night to remember on Thursday, August 27, 2009. Check out Taste of Tennis website at: http://www.tasteoftennis.com/

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Roger Federer, spoke to the Toronto-based Globe and Mail, on the mixed reactions he received due to the '15' jacket he wore after winning Wimbledon.

"I won and a guy walks out and says 'Look, if you want to wear this jacket, it's got a 15 on it.' I was like, 'That's kind of cool.' So I look at the jacket and I can't find it, it's so small. Then I look and it's on the back at the side..."

"It would never have occurred to people that I wore it except that Sue Barker asked me about it on Centre Court. She made a big deal out of it and I think that's why people then thought it was classless or and a bit arrogant, especially towards Andy [Roddick]. But it's got nothing to do with that."

So there you go... Federer is not arrogant.

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Congrats to Rafael Nadal and his coach Francisco Roig after defeating Novak Djokovic and Dusan Vemic 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of doubles in Montreal this morning.

Nadal entered the doubles to get some match practice ahead of his first singles matches in more than two months.

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For Malaysian tennis fans who still don't know about the LIVE coverage on Astro SuperSports+ (Channel 816), there'll be exclusive broadcast rights of 2 LIVE ATP World Tour 1000’s Masters (Montreal and Cincinnati) as well as the US Open.

The events on Astro SuperSport+ (Channel 816) are as follows:

Rogers Masters (10 – 17 Aug)
Western & Southern Financial Group Masters (17 – 24 Aug)
US Open 2009 (1 – 13 Sept)

To subscribe to Astro Sports Package, please call the Astro Customer Service Center at toll-free 1300-82-3838.

Feliciano Lopez and ex-girlfriend Maria Jose Suarez are back together, again!

Feliciano Lopez must be singing David Cook's "Always Be My Baby" in Spanish.

Feliciano and ex-girlfriend Maria Jose Suarez are reportedly getting back together again and hopefully this time it lasts.

Source said that it started off with both of them attending Maria Jose's sister's wedding.

At first it was merely regarded as a nice gesture from Feliciano.

Next thing we knew, they were spotted sunbathing and jet-sking in Ibiza together all day long.

(Images via portaldenoticias.com, blogcorazon.com)

Simon Bolelli married to lingerie model Ximena Fleitas

2009 must be a good year for tennis players to get married.

Simone Bolelli decided to join players like Andy Roddick and Roger Federer to become a married man.

He married Uruguayan lingerie and swimsuit model Ximena Fleitas.

According to source, there were no gossips about the couple until Ximena left a short message on her Facebook page, announcing that she'll soon be the wife of Bolelli.

The couple got married on August 5th in Budrio, Bolelli's birth place.

(Images via newsballs.wordpress.com)

Elena Dementieva takes on comeback queen Kim Clijsters at the Kings Island fountains

Elena Dementieva and Kim Clijsters were at the Fountain at Kings Island yesterday before the start of the Wester & Southern Financial WTA Tennis Championship at the Linder Tennis Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Former world no. 1, Kim Clijsters who is making her return to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour received a wildcard to play in this tournament.

(Images by John Sommers II/Getty Images North America)

Juan Martin del Potro, Flavia Pennetta are weekend winners

Juan Martin del Potro defends his title in Washington D.C., coming back from 3-1 down in the final set to defeat Andy Roddick 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(6) in the final.

In the mens' doubles, Martin Damm and Robert Lindstedt added more silverware to an already successful debut season together by clinching their third ATP World Tour title.

The Czech-Swedish duo overcame fifth seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 7-5, 7-6(3).

Meanwhile at the LA Women's Tennis Championships, French Flavia Pennetta defeated Sam Stosur 6-4, 6-3 defeat of Sam Stosur in the final.

In the women's doubles, Chia-Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei and Zi Yan of China outplayed Maria Kirilenko and Agnieszka Radwanska 6-0, 4-6, 10-7.

(Images via Yahoo! Sports)

Rafael Nadal's comeback a 'double surprise'

The Montreal Masters draw is out.

Playing in his first comeback tournament after suffering from knee injury for 2 months, Rafael Nadal could face Viktor Troicki or compatriot David Ferrer in the second round.

If everything goes well, Nadal could potentially meet Tommy Robredo in the 3rd round, Juan Martin del Potro in the quarterfinals, and Andy Roddick, Fernando Verdasco, or Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.

Now here's something we didn't expect.

While everyone is still in doubt over Nadal's fitness and readiness for this tournament, he surprised us by participating in the doubles event with 40 year-old Francis Roig who is Nadal's friend and coach!

They are scheduled to play on Monday against Novak Djokovic and Dusan Vemic.

(Image by Reuters via menstennisforums.com)