Invitation to participate in tennis blog survey

Are you a reader of tennis blogs?

Are you willing to take a brief survey asking you about the role of tennis blogs in your consumption of tennis media?

Dr Brigid McCarthy of the Department of Communication and Media, La Trobe University is currently conducting research that seeks to understand the particular uses and gratifications for readers of fan-created tennis blogs and the tennis reportage they provide. It seeks information about the diversity and frequency of consumption, how readers appraise the fan blog as a form of sports journalism, how readers engage with the content, and how the consumption might complement consumption of tennis news provided by traditional media outlets.

The survey should take no more than fifteen minutes to complete.

To find out more about participating, or to fill out the survey, please follow this link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/tennisblogresearch

My top 10 FREE tennis apps on iPhone

As a tennis fan, phone apps are very important to keep me updated on all the latest news about my favourite tennis stars, the access to real-time scores, offerings in the upcoming tournaments, etc.

In this post, I would like to share the list of my favourite apps. This does not take into consideration of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, which are highly essential in keeping me updated with breaking news and amazing photos of the tennis players usually created and shared by the tennis fans in the community. I spend a lot of time on the web because many nice tennis contents are still not available on mobile applications such as Menstennisforums, TennisForum or most of the men's tennis players like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Here's a list of my top 10 FREE tennis apps, must-haves for any enthusiasts.

1. ATP/WTA Live
Any tennis fan needs to have this on their phone. This is the official live scoring app provided by the ATP World Tour and WTA. So that means, you get to follow your favourite tennis players and all the tennis tournaments throughout the entire season, including the ATP Challenger Tour events. What I find most helpful are some of the important features such as OOP (order of play), live match statistic (so that I can use the data to complement with my discussion with fellow tennis Twitter friends from around the world during an ongoing match), tournament draws and head to head records.

2. Australian Open Tennis Championships
Each year I'd be looking forward to this Grand Slam tournament because of the amazing efforts done by their social media team. There are so many information available about the tournament and they never failed in engaging with their audiences online. I particularly love the official colour and the newly designed AO logo. They have the push alerts function so it's great for any avid fans to receive breaking news and special offers be it purchases at the Melbourne Park or online.

3. Wimbledon Championships
Just like the historical tournament itself, this is the mother of all tennis apps. It has a sleek yet elegant layout design. I particularly love the live commentary, 360 degree video from the practice courts and their daily live coverage on podcast. If you're visiting the tournament, you can enable push messages to be delivered to your mobile. Love this app a lot!

4. US Open Tennis Championships
This is another important app built for a Grand Slam tournament, which every tennis enthusiast needs to have on their phone. It has all the features offered by other GS tournaments but this is my least favourite app among the 4 of them. I did not mention about the Roland Garros French Open app because it has been taken off iTunes.

5. MyATP
Since the individual men's tennis players don't usually have their own apps, this is the best app you could have. You can subscribe to your favourite tennis players and watch out for trending updates. There are a lot of Q&As with featured tennis players, which you can comment, like and share, so that's a plus point for this app. You can also send and receive direct messages with the people that you follow or follow you, so you can image the interactivity going on with the tennis fans around the world. This is an awesome app!

6. WTA Finals
WTA doesn't have an app that can be used all year long like MyATP. However they do have an app for the WTA Finals. It's extremely useful if you're using this at the venue. They have an interaction fan zone where tennis enthusiasts can answer tennis trivia questions. You can also take your Singapore Selfie which you can use to share on your social media and help promote the beautiful country at the same time.

7. Tennis TV
This is an extremely important app if you needed access to live tennis matches on the go. The app is free and you can watch snippets of videos on the Freeplay tab. However, in order to watch live or replay old matches, you need to be ready to fork out some money to pay for the subscription fee. It's quite hefty considering you need to pay RM62.90 per month (USD15) or RM519.90 annually (USD126). Highly recommended any tennis fans to subscribe to this instead of using those illegal streaming online.

8. Maria Sharapova Official App
Updates are pretty slow on these app due to lack of content. I downloaded this app just for the sake of downloading it. I would prefer to read about her updates on her Instagram account.

9. Garbiñe Muguruza Official App
I love Garbine but I don't really fancy this app because updates are also extremely slow due to lack of content. Again, I recommend to follow her on social media platforms instead for the latest updates.

10. Virtua Tennis Challenge
I don't play online games that much but I thought it'll be really nice to mention about this game as one of my favourite tennis apps. I have played this game many years back and I still think SEGA produced the best tennis game. Great visuals as always, you can save your game progress and the ability to adjust your control on different surfaces including clay, indoor hard court and grass. Simply the best tennis mobile game.

Meanwhile, if you're interested in adult gaming, be sure to visit RB88 to access to betting sites that covers your favourite tennis matches and other sports of your preference.

Do let me know if there are other really cool tennis apps which I don't mention here. Or apps which are available on Android and not on iOS.

Roger Federer pulls out of ATP World Tour Finals and hands Novak Djokovic trophy

World no. 2 Roger Federer disappointed more than 17,000 fans at the O2 Arena after pulling out of the final against Novak Djokovic, citing a back injury sustained in his semifinal match against Stanislas Wawrinka.

The 33-year-old Swiss announced he was "not match-fit" as he apologised to the crowd in person.

The withdrawal resulted in Djokovic's fourth victory at the season-ending event. He also becomes the first man to win three titles in a row since Ivan Lendl back in the 80s.

No one saw that coming from Federer, who had withdrawn during tournaments on only two previous occasions - in 2008 against James Blake (Bercy) and 2012 against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Doha).

Novak Djokovic won seven ATP events in 2014, including Wimbledon.

Federer declined to speak to the media on Sunday night after his withdrawal.

On Monday Federer and Wawrinka are due to travel to Lille where, starting on Friday, they will joining the Switzerland team that tackles France in the Davis Cup. That is the only major prize in tennis that the Swiss maestro has not won.

Notable ATP tennis statistics in 2013

Finally we have concluded a dramatic year with Novak Djokovic retaining his ATP World Tour Finals trophy beating world no.1 Rafael Nadal in straight sets.

The World Tour Finals have always been regarded as the Super Bowl of tennis and by winning the title, it gives Djokovic a boost after losing the no.1 rank in October. Speaking of the Super Bowl, the big event will take place in February 2014 in New Orleans. Assuming you're a fan, we would encourage you to check out the 2014 Super Bowl betting sites.

Set aside the World Tour Finals, Nadal has made a great comeback this year by winning two Grand Slams, the French Open and the US Open that adds up to 13 in total.

Grand Slam winners in 2013

Grand Slam finals in 2013
Australian Open: Novak Djokovic beat Andy Murray 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-2
French Open: Rafael Nadal beat David Ferrer 6-3, 6-2, 6-3
Wimbledon: Murray beat Djokovic 6-4, 7-5, 6-4
US Open: Nadal beat Djokovic 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1

Besides winning more Grand Slam titles more than any players this year, Nadal also won 5 more ATP Masters 1000 to come up with a massive total of 26! That's an incredible achievement by the 27-year-old. If Nadal continues to be healthy in 2014, he is expected to keep his winning streak especially on clay. If you want to achieve exactly the same winning moments, we strongly recommend you to go to Super Bowl XLVIII prop bets.

Nadal's achievement in 2013

Masters 1000 tournament winners in 2013
Indian Wells: Rafael Nadal
Miami: Andy Murray
Monte Carlo: Novak Djokovic
Madrid: Rafael Nadal
Rome: Rafael Nadal
Montreal: Rafael Nadal
Cincinnati: Rafael Nadal
Shanghai: Novak Djokovic
Paris: Novak Djokovic

Titles in 2013
Rafael Nadal - 10
Novak Djokovic - 6
Andy Murray - 4
Juan Martín del Potro - 4
Richard Gasquet - 3

This has been the year where we have the most winners over 30 years old. Is that a good sign? Not exactly I guess. We hope to see more young players winning more titles but it seems like it's not going to happen so soon.

Over 30 Winners - 16 (most since 1975)
David Ferrer with the Buenos Aires trophy (Reuters)
David Ferrer - Auckland 30 years, 9 months
David Ferrer - Buenos Aires 30 years, 10 months
Tommy Robredo - Casablanca 30 years, 11 months
Tommy Haas - Munich 35 years, 1 month
Albert Montanes - Nice 32 years, 6 months
Roger Federer - Halle 31 years, 10 months
Feliciano Lopez - Eastbourne 31 years, 9 months
Nicolas Mahut - ‘s-Hertogenbosch 31 years, 5 months
Nicolas Mahut - Newport 31 years, 5 months
Carlos Berlocq - Bastad 30 years, 5 months
Ivo Karlovic - Bogota 34 years, 4 months
Mikhail Youzhny - Gstaad 31 years, 1 month
Tommy Robredo - Umag 31 years, 2 months
Jurgen Melzer - Winston-Salem 32 years, 3 months
Tommy Haas - Vienna 35 years, 6 months
Mikhail Youzhny - Valencia 31 years, 4 months

Longest Winning Streaks
Player - Matches - Duration
Novak Djokovic - 22 - September 13-November 11
Rafael Nadal - 22 - April 22-June 24
Rafael Nadal - 22 - August 5-October 6
Rafael Nadal - 18 - February 11-April 21
Novak Djokovic - 17 (22 back to 2012) - January 14-March 16
Fabio Fognini - 13 - July 8-July 28
Andy Murray - 13 - June 10-August 8
Andy Murray - 10 - January 1-January 27

Most aces served
John Isner (Reuters)
John Isner - 979
Milos Raonic - 883
Kevin Anderson - 651

(Images via Menstennisforums; statistics via Eurosport)

Pinterest hack: 8th Monte Carlo title hope for Rafael Nadal

After I've learned a trick from Mashable, I've decided to apply the Pinterest hack on my page. It shouldn’t be long before online advertisers find a way to apply this technique in their marketing schemes.

Hope Nadal will overcome his left knee problem, make it to the final and clinch the Monte Carlo Masters title for the 8th time. 


No pressure. Just hope for the best!


(Image by hcfoo)

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.

*******

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.

*******

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."

*******

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.

*******

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.

Rendy Lu Yen-Hsun oozes boyish charm in Deuce magazine

Asia's no.1 player Rendy Lu Yen-Hsun is featured in the latest ATP's Deuce Magazine.

In a very touching article titled "Be Not Afraid Of Growing Slowly" written by Robert Davis, Rendy talked about fulfilling the dream of his late father to become Chinese Taipei's first Top 100 player.

“After my father passed away,” Lu begins, “I did not want to play tennis anymore."

"My family was supporting me to go back to the tennis court. But I could not; I did not have the spirit."

"And then one day I remembered that my father had a dream that his son can maybe play Wimbledon some day and become Top 100. So, I used this as my energy because I wanted to make my father’s dream come true.”

The article also mentioned about how Rendy's mother Hsu Su-Fen wrapped in a heavy coat sitting at the court side at a club in Hamburg making sketches of her son's practices with coach Dirk Hordoff so that Rendy can practice at home.

Well, it's not an entirely tear-jerking story.

You can click here to read the article.

I have to tell you how much I love the photos in this featured story.

Too bad they don't have a behind-the-scene video.

Honestly, Rendy looks better than Rafael Nadal's photos in Vogue magazine. LOL!


(Images by Getty Images via Deuce website)

Too happy, too soon?

After listed for just one day in the ATP World Tour calendar, ATP 250 Malaysian Open (tentative name), a USD500k outdoor hard court event has disappeared from the list!

Click image to enlarge

Now first of all, let me show you how I knew that Malaysia was bidding for the ATP event:

January 2009

• LTAM wrote in their website that "an ATP official, together with a foreign organiser, visited the NTC two weeks earlier".
  
• LTAM president Datuk Abdul Razak Latif 'confirmed' to a daily (which is NST) that "Andy Roddick is highly tipped to play in an ATP Tour event in KL come September".
• I wrote an email to LTAM and they confirmed the reports but said they are still in the bidding process.
• The manager of a Top 100 player confirmed there's indeed a TBA (to be announced) event.
• Esther and I speculated that the TBA event should be not very far from Thailand, hence we thought Malaysia had a good chance to win the bid.
  

February 2009

• I wrote to the CEO of ATP Adam Helfant regarding the TBA event and asked about the bidding process.
• Mr Helfant forwarded my email to Brad Drewett, the CEO of ATP International. This is what Brad replied to me: No decision has been made regarding the TBA event in September. I expect a decision to be made sometime in the next three months. I am unable to confirm which cities are candidates for this event due to confidentiality requirements.

May 12, 2009

• I check the ATP calendar and google for any news every single day from May onwards as I believe the results will be out any time soon.
  
• I saw the updated ATP World Tour calendar which listed Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in an ATP 250 event, same week as Thailand Open. Someone informed about the updated calendar in this forum too.

May 13, 2009

• The supposedly ATP 250 event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has been taken off the ATP World Tour calendar.
  

I will not make any speculation now until I dig deep into this event.

Anyone who has information can email to me at hcfoo7@gmail.com.

Chinese language ATP website launched

According to the statistics by China Tennis Association (CTA), the number of people playing tennis in China has risen to 8.12 million since '04.

To capitalise on the growing number of tennis fans in China, and the fact that China has the largest and fastest growing number of internet users in the world, ATP launched its Chinese language web site yesterday.

CEO of the ATP International Group, Brad Drewett believed there is no other perfect time than now to launch the all new Chinese language ATP World Tour website www.ATPWorldTour.com.cn and reach out to wider audience.

Personally, I don't really like the font type and font colour used in the website. Too painful for my eyes. I still prefer to get my dose of tennis info from Sina.

(Via ATP website)

Winners of 2008 ATP World Tour & Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Player Awards

While Ana Ivanovic is still not done with the "kickoff" party last night (clue: look for a tennis ball), let's take a good look at the nice rundown of winners of the 2008 ATP World Tour and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Player Awards.

2008 ATP World Tour Player Awards
Player Of The Year - Rafael Nadal
Doubles Team Of The Year - Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic
Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Of The Year - James Blake
Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award - Roger Federer
Most Improved - Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Newcomer of the Year - Kei Nishikori
Comeback Player of the Year - Rainer Schuettler
ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favorite (Singles) - Roger Federer
ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favorite (Doubles) - Bob & Mike Bryan
Ron Bookman Media Excellence Award - Alan Trengove

2008 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Player Awards
Player of the Year - Serena Williams
Doubles Team of the Year - Cara Black and Liezel Huber
Most Improved Player - Dinara Safina
Comeback Player of the Year - Zheng Jie
Newcomer of the Year - Caroline Wozniacki
Humanitarian of the Year - Ana Ivanovic
Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award - Elena Dementieva
Player Service Award - Liezel Huber
Favorite Premier Tournament - Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (Stuttgart)
Favorite International Tournament - Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic (Bali)

(Images by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

GAME. SET. MARCH: Have you register yourself?

Have you register yourself to the ATP's draw challenge called "GAME. SET. MARCH"?

The draw opens on next Tuesday, March 10, 2009.

If you haven't register yourself, then go ahead and do it here.

Then, here's what you need to do:

• Pick the most winners at the first two events, The BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
• Pick the most winners at all 12 events.
• Pick a perfect draw at any event.

You could be on your way to win a VIP Trip to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London!

There are also gift cards valued up to $1000 to be won.

Among the new features in this year's tournament brackets are:

• You can create your own challenge with your friends
• Discuss strategies on the forums!
• Standings updated in real time

(Via ATP)

The new ATP Executive Chairman and President speaks...

“There is no doubt that men’s professional tennis is one of the world’s most popular sports and, as a lifelong fan, it is a great honour to have been given the opportunity to take the helm at such an exciting time for the ATP. The ATP World Tour is a truly global sporting event, featuring some of the world’s best athletes and followed by millions of the most dedicated sports fans and I could not be more excited about being its new Executive Chairman.”

~ Adam Helfant

The ATP, governing body of the men's professional tennis circuit, recently announced the appointment of Adam Helfant as ATP Executive Chairman and President.

Mr Helfant, 44 begins his role with the ATP immediately and will be based in London.

(Via ATP website)

Let the 2009 ATP World Tour begins!

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer launched the 2009 ATP World Tour in spectacular fashion on Sunday with a unique game of tennis aboard a traditional Arabian Dhow in Doha Bay.

On a specially designed onboard court floating in the Persian Gulf, the special match, between the world's two best players, also marked the start of the year-long race to crown the official 2009 ATP World Tour Champion. It was the pair's first meeting since the Wimbledon final in July last year.



Nadal and Federer are the top two seeds at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open 2009 played in Doha from January 5-10.


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

2009 ATP World Tour Player Calendar revealed

Tennis players never shy to practice shirtless.

But when it comes to photo shoot, some of them find unbuttoning their shirts for the 2009 ATP World Tour Player Calendar almost proved too much.

French photographer Corrine Dubreuil revealed, "Marcos Baghdatis (Mr April) was very shy at the beginning. He was not comfortable, so he told me he would only take off his shirt if everybody left the studio.

"When I started to take the photos, Marcos started to dance to the music and take off the shirt very slowly in a very sexy way, like a belly dance. When everybody returned, he did an Andrew Ilie or Pat Rafter by tearing his shirt to pieces!"

Baghdatis joined 13 other players from each region of the world for the shoot, from the camera savvy Tommy Robredo and Fernando Verdasco – who have both appeared naked in Cosmopolitan Magazine in support of the Everyman Male Cancer Campaign – to Tomas Berdych, Bob and Mike Bryan, Fernando Gonzalez, Tommy Haas, Ivan Ljubicic, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Juan Monaco, Paradorn Srichaphan, Dmitry Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny.



Dubreuil shot the classic and striking monochrome photographs for the player calendar in Paris, during the ATP Masters Series event last year. Toutchai U-Bol was on hand to photograph Srichaphan in Bangkok.

"By far the most seductive player was Tursunov. He kept playing with my camera and flirting with the make-up artist Vinca! He was great and easy to shoot."

Check out Tursunov in the video! Sexy!

But Dubreuil's favourite is Verdasco. He said, "What a body! He got so involved in the shoot and knew exactly which photographs were the best."

Fans will be able to view the photographs at the W Hotel in Times Square, New York, during the US Open fortnight.

(Via ATP.com)

De Villiers Out As ATP Executive Chairman

The top players must be cheering in New York now.

Back in March, Etienne De Villiers, Executive Chairman and President of the ATP, had come under criticism including Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. At the Sony Ericsson Open, every top 20 player signed a letter to the ATP Board of Directors demanding the De Villiers' contract not be renewed until other candidates were interviewed for his position.

And their wishes come true. De Villiers announced that he will not be renewing his contract at the end of the 2008 season.

"I was tasked by the ATP Board, three years ago, to create a vision that would involve bold changes for our sport. I believe that has now been achieved."

"I believe we have delivered the biggest modernisation of the ATP Tour since its inception, have attracted unprecedented levels of investment into men's tennis and have begun to feed the growing appetite for men's tennis globally, both in established and emerging markets," De Villiers said in a statement."

"I am incredibly proud of what the Board and my dedicated team have achieved for men's tennis and I am honoured to have played a part in taking our great sport to the next level. Now that this much needed change has been realised I believe this is the right time for someone new to build on this strong platform."

"I leave knowing, without doubt, that finally our players, tournaments and above all our fans have the foundations of a world class sport they truly deserve."

Now, De Villiers who is the architect of the ATP's "Brave New World" plan (that will reorganize the men’s tour), will never be around to see it put into place.

(Image by AFP/Getty Images/File/Ezra Shaw)