Australian Open 2017 Players Party

Some of the biggest names in tennis were missing from the weekend's 2017 Australian Open players party at Crown in Melbourne, Australia. Nevertheless it was very refreshing to see some of the most familiar faces in tennis below all dressed up in their casual outfit to the party. The tournament has officially kicked off today and we're looking forward to exciting tennis as well as upsets over the course of the next two weeks.

Garbine Muguruza

Kei Nishikori

Agnieszka Radwanska

Stanislas Wawrinka

Gael Monfils

Bryan brothers

Images via zimbio

Rafael Nadal, Ana Ivanovic to play in Richard Branson's event this week

While Novak Djokovic is back to Belgrade to play in the Davis Cup final against the Czech Republic this weekend, Rafael Nadal is already in the Caribbean for Richard Branson's Necker Cup.

Nadal with girlfriend Maria Francisca and baby Kristian Kriek in a car ride to the hotel in Necker Island

The Necker Cup is an exclusive Pro-Am event held on Sir Richard Branson’s private island Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands held on November 12-16th. If the Necker Cup is not exciting enough for you, then it has to be Super Bowl to be held in February next year in New Orleans. To get yourself prepared for more winning moments, visit Super Bowl XLVIII Bets.

Cirstea and Ivanovic on a private flight to the Necker island

Back to the Necker Cup, some of us may not be too familiar with the event. Sixteen (16) ATP/WTA Tour Players/Legends are paired up with sixteen (16) amateur teams of all levels to compete in the fun tennis event. A handicapped scoring format is implemented to make it competitive for every player. Each team consists of one pro and up to two amateurs. Teams will compete to win their bracket and earn a chance to play in the Necker Cup Finals.

Of course besides playing tennis, participants also get to do a lot of island activities.

(Images via Facebook, Instagram)

ATP World Tour Finals (WTF) 2013: Fantastic finish for Novak Djokovic

Rafael Nadal has to wait for another year before he can give the WTF title another shot. That is the only major title missing from his CV after playing as a professional player for 13 years.

Despite the loss, Djokovic who captured the year-end title for a third time said that the no.1 rank in Nadal's hands is well deserved because the Spaniard has won 2 Grand Slam titles this year, the best out of all players this year.

Djokovic, a favourite to win this tournament, brought the curtain down on the 2013 season with a convincing 6-3 6-4 win.

Djokovic caught up with One Direction member Niall Horan after winning the championship.

It will be exciting to see how these two players perform in 2014 especially at the Australian Open where Nadal was missing earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Fernando Verdasco and David Marrero upset favourite duo Bob and Mike Bryan 7-5 6-7(3) 10-7 in the doubles final.

(Images via ATP, Getty Images)

ITF honours Novak Djokovic, Petra Kvitova, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario

The World Champions Dinner was held last night to celebrate the achievements of the 2011 ITF World Champions.

Among the recipients were Novak Djokovic (who collected his award straight after his quarterfinal match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga), Petra Kvitova and Bob and Mike Bryan.

Petra Kvitova

The Bryan brothers and little Micaela

Wheelchair champion Esther Vergeer accepted her trophy for a record 12th year.

Spanish tennis star Arantxa Sanchez Vicario received ITF’s highest accolade, the Philippe Chatrier Award.

(Images via French Open Facebook fan page)

It Must Be Love all over again

The campaign's tagline "It Must Be Love" must have worked really well last year so the organisers at the US Open series decided to stick to it this year.

Here are some of the top tennis players filmed for the ads this year.

Check out Roger Federer illustrates his "tweener" shot, Rafael Nadal shares his pasta recipe, Serena Williams and Andy Roddick talks about Twitter, Andy Murray on being a cocky terminator (hehehe!), Caroline Wozniacki says she's a fighter (yawn!) and the Bryan Brothers teach everyone on how to tell them apart (Zzzzz...).

Ernests Gulbis ruins Ivo Karlovic's birthday bash, captures maiden title

Ernests Gulbis crashed Ivo Karlovic's 31st birthday bash at the Delray Beach International Championships final on Sunday by defeating the Croation 6-2, 6-3 to win his first ATP title.

“Everything I do it’s the first for my country,” Gulbis said.

Thanks for the birthday gift, Ernie!

The world no.72 will move to a top 40 ranking next week.

Meanwhile, defending champions Bob and Mike Bryan won their 58th career title at the tournament after a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory over Philipp Marx and Igor Zelenay.

The Bryans are four titles away from surpassing the 61 titles record (most doubles titles in the Open Era) held by Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde.

(Images via Yahoo! Sports)

TENNIS WATCH: Richard Gasquet's return, Andy Murray's white boy rap

Richard Gasquet could be making his competitive return at New Haven next week.

He has not played since Rome after tested positive for cocaine in Miami.

A hair test recently has cleared Gasquet of regular cocaine use, while a hair test on Pamela, the woman Gasquet cited as the source of the cocaine in his system, indicated regular use of the banned substance.

Gasquet said he repeatedly kissed Pamela at a nightclub the evening before his positive test.

Pamela is reportedly suing Gasquet for defamation.

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After Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray is the latest tennis star who will be featured in one of the Bryan Brothers Band's song.

The Bryanbros tweeted about Murray rapping a verse for one of their song to be included in their debut album, Let It Rip scheduled to release on September 1.

VIDEO: Bryan Bros Band [Featuring MC Djoker]

The Bryan Brothers Band is trying to bank on Novak Djokovic's vocal/rap instead of his body to create a viral video to help promote their yet to be released album, Let It Rip.

The band members leaked out the new song, Autograph before the official launch of their debut album on September 1, 2009.

Smart move by the twins. Wonder who's next...

(Video via downthelinetennis.com)

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.

2009 Davis Cup Quarterfinals matchups

As usual I'm not too keen about Davis Cup.

That simply because I don't get to watch the events LIVE on TV in my country.

Besides with Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer and Andy Roddick out of this team competition, it just gives me more reasons not to watch it on live stream.

If you can't watch it on TV in your country, you can always count on atdhe.net.

Anyway here are the matchups and photos (can't find Team Argentina, Team Israel and Team Czech Republic photos yet).

The Davis Cup world group quarterfinal ties beginning Friday (all times GMT).

CROATIA v UNITED STATES
Venue: Sportska Dvorana, Porec, Croatia
Surface: Indoor clay
Times: Friday (1400), Saturday (1330), Sunday (1400)
Head-to-head: Croatia lead 2-0

CZECH REPUBLIC v ARGENTINA
Venue: Cez Arena, Ostrava
Surface: Indoor hard courts
Times: Friday (1300), Saturday (1200), Sunday (1100)
Head-to-head: Czech Republic lead 2-1

ISRAEL v RUSSIA
Venue: Sport Palaces, Tel Aviv
Surface: Indoor hard court
Times: Friday (1000), Saturday (1200), Sunday (1200)
Head-to-head: Russia lead 1-0

SPAIN v GERMANY
Venue: Plaza de Toros de Puerto Banus, Marbella
Surface: Outdoor clay
Times: Friday (1100), Saturday (1400), Sunday (1100)
Head-to-head: Germany lead 9-5

SPAIN team: Fernando Verdasco, Tommy Robredo, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Feliciano Lopez; Captain: Albert Costa

GERMANY team: Philipp Kohlschreiber, Nicolas Kiefer, Mischa Zverev, Andreas Beck; Captain: Patrik Kuhnen

RUSSIA team: Igor Kunitsyn, Marat Safin, Igor Andreev, Mikhail Youzhny; Captain: Shamil Tarpischev

UNITED STATES team: Mardy Fish, James Blake, Mike Bryan, Bob Bryan; Captain: Patrick McEnroe

The other members of the following teams are:

CROATIA: Marin Cilic, Ivo Karlovic, Roko Karanusic, Lovro Zovko; Captain: Goran Prpic

CZECH REPUBLIC: Tomas Berdych, Radek Stepanek, Ivo Minar, Lukas Dlouhy; Captain: Jaroslav Navratil

ARGENTINA: Juan Martin del Potro, Jose Acasuso, Leonardo Mayer, Juan Monaco; Captain: Tito Vasquez

ISRAEL: Dudi Sela, Harel Levy, Jonathan Erlich, Andy Ram; Captain: Eyal Ran

(Images via Getty Images)

Daniel Nestor, Nenad Zimonjic repeat as Wimbledon doubles champs

Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic won their second straight Wimbledon men’s doubles title, defeating top-seeded American twins Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6 (7), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (3), 6-3.

“It’s a great accomplishment,” Nestor said.

“One of the first things I noticed was our name on the board, on the big plaque. Now we get it twice."

"It’s obviously going to be special to come back next year and see that.”

Nestor and Zimonjic were playing in their third Grand Slam final together.

This year’s final was the first time that Nestor and Zimonjic have played the Bryan brothers in a Grand Slam tournament.

“It’s great to be able to play them on a big stage and be able to beat them,” Nestor said.

(Via AFP; Images by Getty Images)

Rome-ancing the clay court season

If Rafael Nadal wins his fifth consecutive French Open later this month, probably 2009 will be the best clay court season he ever had.

Fresh from winning his fourth Rome Masters title on Sunday, beating reigning champion Novak Djokovic 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 in the final, Nadal looks confident for Madrid Masters and the French Open.

Now Nadal owns 15th Masters Series title and only Andre Agassi has won more with a whopping 17 titles!

"I would love to have more than 17."

"Right now I have 15, I'm very happy for that (but) I'm going to try my best in the next tournaments," said Nadal.

In the men's doubles final, Nenad Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor continued their European clay court domination by defeating defending champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan 7-6(5), 6-3.

While in Stuttgart, Germany, Svetlana Kuznetsova stunned world no.1 Dinara Safina 6-4, 6-3 to win the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on Sunday.

American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Russian Nadia Petrova won the doubles title with a 5-7, 6-3, 10-7 victory over Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta.

(Images Ryan Pierse/Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Rafael Nadal celebrates 5th straight Monte Carlo Masters title

I was really pissed off with Astro, my local paid TV for not showing Rafael Nadal's historic win at the Monte Carlo Masters tournament yesterday because football is always their top priority.

It's totally absurb when they diligently covered the earlier rounds but when it comes to weekend's semifinals and finals they took away the live coverage just to pave ways for some unimportant football matches.

Enough of my rantings, I should be happy because Nadal managed to overcome Novak Djokovic, beating the third-ranked Serbian 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 for his fifth straight Monte Carlo Masters title after losing a set here for the first time since the 2006 final against Roger Federer.

“Everyone can improve in every surface, no? No one is perfect. Sure, I can improve,” Nadal said.

“I always work to improve because when you feel you can’t improve, is difficult to wake up and go on court and practice.”

Nadal is now favored to also collect a fifth straight French Open title.

He was unhappy with how he served, and plans to improve on it before heading to Roland Garros next month.

In the men's doubles final, second seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic beat top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan 6-4, 6-1 in just 48 minutes.

Meanwhile, Roberta Vinci won her second WTA Tour title at the Barcelona Open on Sunday, beating beat defending champion Maria Kirilenko 6-0, 6-4.

In another WTA tourney, Sabine Lisicki beat Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 6-4 to win the Family Circle Cup and her first tour title on Sunday.

The 19-year-old Lisicki, who is ranked No. 63 and bounced Venus Williams earlier in the tournament, consistently had serves around 120 mph at the tournament on the green clay at the Family Circle Tennis Center in Charleston, S.C.

(Via AP; Images by Michael Steele/Getty Images Europe)

The Ratiwatana twins simply not ready for the Bryan twins

Wildcard recipients, the Ratiwatana twins knew they were in trouble before lost to world no. 1 doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan 6-0, 6-3 in the opening match at the US$436,000 SAP Open in San Jose on Tuesday.

The Thai twin brothers were simply not prepared for tough opponents like the Bryan twins.

The problem started on Monday when Sonchat and Sanchai were stuck at the airport in Philadelphia due to flight delays and were only due to fly to California on Tuesday morning for the match scheduled for evening.

"We asked the organisers to move the match to Wednesday but they didn't seem to sympathise with us."

" We just hoped to have a day's practice and be fresh for the match,'' complained Sonchat, who won a challenger event in Poland on last Sunday.

However the Ratiwatana twins expressed they were excited to play the world top doubles pair, especially when they are twins like them.

(Via nationmultimedia.com; Image via SAP Open website)

Mahesh Bupathi not a big fan of receptions; Mike Bryan doesn't need to pick up the bills

"Hopefully not too big. I'm not a big fan of receptions. I'd like to sneak out the back door at the airport tomorrow."
~ Mahesh Bhupathi on the reception he expects back in India after winning the country's first Grand Slam mixed doubles title with Sania Mirza.

Mirza and Bhupathi beat Nathalie Dechy of France and Andy Ram of Israel 6-3, 6-1 at Rod Laver Arena.

"All I know is Serena usually picks up the bill."
~ Mike Bryan makes plan for an all-American celebration in Melbourne.

American twins Bob and Mike Bryan won their seventh Grand Slam title with a 2-6, 7-5, 6-0 win over Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles in the Australian Open doubles final.

The brothers, who regained their No. 1 ranking by reaching the final, were the second set of American siblings to win Grand Slam titles after Venus and Serena Williams won the women's doubles.

(Images via Yahoo! Sports)

Bryan Brothers jam out at Prince EXO3 Player Party

Twins Bob and Mike Bryan put up a great performance at the Prince EXO3 Player Party at the Southern Star Observation Wheel on the eve of the Australian Open.

Bob showed good form on the keyboard, while Mike gave the drums a good pounding.

Mike Bryan plays the drums.

Bob Bryan on the keyboard.

Guess what, Frenchman Gael Monfils also ended up on stage, taking over from Bob on the keyboard!

Vince Spadea and Gael Monfils

The Prince team organised the party for its players to take a spin on the Observation Wheel.

However Daniela Hantuchova missed the party at the very last minute.

Apparently she suffers from a form of motion sickness and did not want to risk a spin in the wheel on the eve of the Open.

(Via news.com.au)