Marvel superheroes photoshoot in Linz

This is not the usual WTA Superheroes marketing campaign you normally see.

Recently some WTA players and Austrian player 'Crazy' Daniel Köllerer took part in a 'Marvel Superheroes' photo shoot during Generali Ladies Linz tennis tournament.

Here's the outcome.

Daniel Köllerer

Tamira Paszek

Babsi Schett

Agniezska Radwanska and Timea Bacscinszky

Anna-Lena Grönefeld and Andre Petkovic

(Images via laola1.at)

Sun Tiantian revealed why tennis players look older than their age

China's Sun Tiantian, who was 2008 Australian Open mixed doubles champion along with Nenad Zimonjic, was given the honour to become the first WTA player to blog in Sony Ericsson WTA Tour website this year.

Sun is currently in Sydney to compete and make her Australian Open preparations at the Medibank International.

She shared with the fans why most tennis players look older than their age. For instance:

Marcos Baghdatis is only 23 but looks like 32.

Sun revealed that tennis players frequently play matches outdoor under exposed sunlight, hence causing premature ageing.

She also said, in Australia, the UV ray is very strong due to the depletion of ozone layer.

Believe it or not, statistics show that Australia has the highest incidence of skin cancer in the world!

Besides talking about the sun in Australia (didn't talk about the surf though), she also blogged about missing her mom's cooking, playing doubles with Anna-Lena Groenefeld in Sydney and being satisfied with the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour calendar for 2009.

"There are tournaments with more prize money, and they're also paying more attention to the players' health, giving us a longer off-season among other things. I like these changes."

Click here to check out more updates from her blog soon.

(Via sonyericssonwtatour.com; Images via Yahoo! Sport)

Quotes from the weekend winners

“I was playing with 15,000 people. Everybody was behind me today.
The crowd was magic."
~ Jo-Wilfried Tsonga said after defeating David Nalbandian 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to win the Paris Masters and becoming the 8th players to qualify for the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai next week.

“Winning in Bastad and Stockholm and finishing off with Paris it’s nothing that I could have really expected. This is way beyond my goals at the end here so I just hope the good omen continues in Shanghai.”

~ Jonas Bjorkman said after he and Kevin Ullyett defeated Jeff Coetzee and Wesley Moodie 6-2, 6-2 in the final of the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris.

"It was really wonderful to win this event. To finish off the season like this is wonderful. Now I have a long journey ahead of me to Doha, but it'll definitely be worth it. And then it'll be really nice to put the racquets aside for a few weeks!"

~ Nadia Petrova beat Bethanie Mattek 4-6 6-4 6-1 to take the Quebec City title and qualify for WTA Championship in Doha.

In the doubles final, Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Vania King dismissed Jill Craybas and Tamarine Tanasugarn in only two sets, 7-6(3), 6-4. No quotation was available.

(Via Yahoo! Sport, ATP website, Sony Ericsson WTA website)

Venus Williams wins at Zurich Open; Cara Black & Liezel Huber lift dubs title

Venus Williams won the Zurich Open on Sunday for her second singles title of the season.

Williams beat Italy’s Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (1), 6-2 to take the tournament she last won as a teenager in 1999.

The win should seal the 28-year-old American’s place at the season-ending WTA Tour Championship in Doha next month.

“I love the pressure,” Williams said.

“I need it in my life."

“It is great to come here and play my best tennis of the week in the final against someone who is playing as well as she is.”

Venus is being congratulated by her Dad and her dog, Herald.

Flavia Pennetta (far left), winner Venus Williams, Elmar Ledergerber the Mayor of Zurich, and tournament director Beat Ritschard (far right) pose after the Final Singles match at the Zurich Open tennis tournament.

Pennetta had upset top-ranked Jelena Jankovic in the second round and went in with a 3-1 career record against Williams after beating her in Moscow last week.

“She just played unbelievable today,” the 17th-ranked Pennetta said.

“It is tough to play against someone who serves like she did today. I didn’t have any chance to make any breaks.”

Williams said she would return to Florida before the Nov. 4-9 Tour finale in Qatar.

“I will go home and rest a little bit and continue to prepare and get ready for Doha,” she said.

Williams is expected to climb one place to No. 8 when the new WTA rankings are published Monday; Pennetta hopes to rise three spots to a career-best 14th.

Liezel Huber (left) and Cara Black collected their 9th doubles title of the year and
their first career Zurich trophy.

In the doubles final, Cara Black and Liezel Huber quickly bounced back to their title-winning ways when they clinched the Zurich Open yesterday.

Exactly a week after losing in the final of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, Russia, top seeds Black and Huber were smiling again yesterday after beating home favourite Patty Schnyder and Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany in straight sets 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) in the final of the US$600 000 Tier II indoor tournament, according to reports from the Swiss capital.

This was Black and Huber’s ninth doubles title of the year.

For beating the wildcard pairing of Schnyder and Groenefeld in the final of this year’s Zurich Open, Black and Huber, will split US$30,000 which was at stake for the winners of the doubles title.

They are currently leading the Tour with 5 060 points, with more than 1 800 points over the third player (Katarina Srebotnik with 3 200 points) and with the level of tennis they have been playing these past two years, the domination of the African born duo is most likely to continue for quite some time.

(Via AP, herald.co.zw, Images via Yahoo! Sport, WTA official website)

Jelena Jankovic celebrates no.1 rank with a win at the Porsche Grand Prix

New No. 1 Jelena Jankovic won her second title in two weeks, defeating Nadia Petrova of Russia 6-4, 6-3 Sunday in the final of the Porsche Grand Prix.

The 23-year-old Serb also won the China Open last week and the Italian Open earlier this year.

“I am really proud of myself,” she said.

“I am playing with a lot of confidence and I played some good tennis this week.”

Jankovic was assured of taking the top ranking Monday from Serena Williams regardless of the outcome of the final.

She already held the No. 1 spot for one week in August.

“I feel that every day I am getting better and better. I am really working on my game, I want to reach my full potential,” Jankovic said.

Williams became the No. 1 after defeating Jankovic at the U.S. Open final, but the American will drop in the rankings after losing her opening match in Stuttgart.

Jankovic won her eighth career title after overcoming a brief lapse in the second set against the 18th-ranked Russian, who won the Stuttgart tournament in 2006.

After the win, Jankovic took a spin in the red Porsche 911 convertible given to the winner and appeared to have more trouble controlling the powerful car than the match.

She broke serve in the opening game and it was enough to give her the set against an error-prone Petrova.

“I really wanted to win this trophy, and when you want too much, sometimes it doesn’t work in tennis,” Petrova said.

“I gave it my best.”

Petrova had not dropped a set this week until the final.

Jankovic has been playing with a painful left foot after tearing off a toe nail. She needed painkiller shots before her semifinal win over Venus Williams and got two more before the final.

Asked about her foot at the post-match news conference, Jankovic misunderstood the question and replied, “The food is great.”

Realizing the mistake, Jankovic burst out laughing and then added:

“It’s numb during the match and I don’t feel anything, but after a couple of hours it hurts a lot,” she said.

“The doctor told me to wear flip-flops but I am flying to Serbia tonight, I can’t go in flip-flops like I am going to the beach.”

Jankovic is scheduled to play the Kremlin Cup next week. Although she left open whether she would actually show up in Moscow for the tournament, which Williams is skipping.

“I feel tired now, but mentally I am not tired, I am hungry to do well. I want to finish the year as No. 1,” she said.

The doubles final, which followed the singles final, saw top seeds Kveta Peschke and Rennae Stubbs taking on the wildcard pairing of Patty Schnyder and Anna-Lena Groenefeld.

And it was the underdogs who came out on top, as Groenefeld and Schnyder won their first title together with a 62 64 upset victory.

Groenefeld won her seventh career Tour doubles title, and first since the beginning of 2007; Schnyder picked up her fifth Tour doubles title, her first since early 2004.

(Via AP, Images via Yahoo! Sport, zimbio.com)