Unseen before practice photos: Lesson learnt

Practice court supposed to be a popular hangout place for tennis fans during any tennis tournament.

However, it was a different case at the PROTON Malaysian Open last week.

The seats at the practice courts (gym hall) were empty. Popular players came in and out without being mobbed by fans simply because there were almost none.

The crowd was slightly better when the players practice on Court 1, behind the Centre Court.

Hopefully the number of fans at the practice courts improve next year.

We attended a few practice sessions and here are some of the pictures we've got.

Left - Thumbs up from Rohan Bopanna
Right - Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi experimenting a simple yoga position

Igor Kunitsyn - "What are you looking at?"

Mikhail Youzhny - Maybe it's a Russian thing. They are not impressed with Nikon-toting mamarazzi

Tennis talk - David Ferrer, Andre Sa, Marcelo Melo, Jose Acasuso

Left - Marcelo Melo says hi to Jose Acasuso
Right - Ferrer crotch grab picture revealed

Keep your chins up, Acasuso

Happy people are beautiful people - Jose Verdasco, Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez

Fernando Gonzalez arrives at the practice court with his entourage

(Photos credit to HSFoo/hcfoo.com)

India, Taiwan to face off in Davis Cup tie

The Indian Davis Cup team believe they have the extra edge against Taiwan in the second round tie of the Asia/Oceania Zone Group I, starting tomorrow.

Based on ranking, new poster boy Somdev Devvarman who will take on Chen Ti in the opening singles rubber could win the first point for India.

Taiwan will heavily rely on Asia's no. 1 Rendy Lu Yen-Hsun. He missed Taiwan's first round tie against Kazakhstan, so his return has made the Taiwan team more confident.

But let us not forget that Rohan Bopanna is 2-1 in head-to-head against Lu over the last two years. Bopanna could steal a point in this second singles rubber if Rendy is to continue with his fluctuating game.

World's top doubles players Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi is expected to have little problem in dealing with Yang Tsung-Hua and Yi Chu-Huan.

The fourth and fifth rubbers are going to be tough and unpredictable. I do believe that Rendy will at least win a point from the two matches he's playing.

To watch the Davis Cup tie live streaming online, click here.

(Images posted by Elvis via menstennisforums.com)

Sania Mirza out of Fed Cup, missed 'Slumdog Millionaire'

Sania Mirza is never far from controversies, isn't she?

After winning a Grand Slam with Mahesh Bhupathi last week, she announced earlier today that she had to skip India’s Fed Cup campaign this week.

She blamed it on her abdominal pain, apart from the fatigue following the Australian Open.

Asked about her decision not to play in India to steer clear of controversies, Sania said, “I never said I am going to boycott (events in India). As usual, it was blown out of proportion. Who does not want to play in India? I love to play in the country. But not many tournaments are happening now.”

Her absence has left India with just three players for the event, which features eight nations, split into two groups, in round robin ties including two singles matches and a doubles clash, over three days before the top side from each division meets in Saturday's final.

The Indian team is world no.377 Abkita Bhambri, Sanaa Bhambri (478) and Rushmi Chakravarthi (509).

The winner of Saturday's final advances to the World Group II play-offs in April.

The other nations in the Asia-Oceania play-offs are Australia, Thailand, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Indonesia and Korea.

Meanwhile, Sania sounded upset with Bhupathi for not taking her to watch 'Slumdog Millionaire'.

Sania wanted to watch the much-acclaimed film, but instead of taking her along, Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna went ahead and saw the movie.

“Mahesh and Rohan ditched me,” Sania said.

(Via telegraphindia.com, AFP; Image via Yahoo! Sports)

An interview with Rohan Bopanna at Tashkent Challenger

Thank you Esther for sharing this piece of interview via the media people at Tashkent Challenger.

So here you go:

An interview with Rohan Bopanna

India’s top tennis player Rohan Bopanna who has been performing exceedingly well in the doubles scene on the ATP Tour , is all set to partner leading doubles specialist Max Mirnyi of Belarus at the ATP Tour event at St Petersburg next week.

“I’m looking forward to play with Mirnyi, it’ll surely be a great experience for me to play with someone like him”, said Bopanna after entering the main draw of the Tashkent Open.

“I called up Mirnyi after he broke up with his regular partner Jamie Murray and he instantly agreed to play with me. I can surely learn a lot from his caliber and experience at the highest level”, said an elated Bopanna

Asked whether they will play in the future as well Bopanna replied, there is no commitment, but if they can do well and progress at St. Petersburg they will decide the future steps and hopefully continue partnerships on a long term basis.

Bopanna however added that his partnership with Aisam Qureshi would continue as they will be playing at the German and Slovak challengers in the next few weeks.

“Knowing each other for so long and our off court relationships have helped me and Aisam to pull off some very good matches, he said.

Expressing bitterness over being dropped for the Davis Cup for Romania, Bopanna said

“I was surprised at not being on the Davis Cup team for the tie against Romania, normally we have 5 players traveling on the Davis Cup team for the away tie, but for this tie only 4 players were sent to Romania."

"I’ve been in the team from 2002 and also have played singles all the while. I was told I was dropped because my performance was not good enough in the singles for a place in the squad," he added.

Bopanna, who was among the players who rebelled against the captaincy of Leander Paes, said

"He admitted that we have had differences in April, but I guess some grouses we raised have been sorted out, we need to have high team morale and good camaraderie amongst team members, which helps in close Davis Cup ties, this was missing," he added.

“Now that we are back to Group I and have to keep fighting to get back into the World Group."

On his rankings in the singles, Bopanna replied

“Many don’t know that my singles ranking has been affected because of my doubles performances. Many a times I can’t play qualifying in the singles as I’m playing in the finals of a doubles event."

"I’ve had to miss quite a few singles events as the qualifying is played on weekends, and so are the semifinals and finals of doubles.”

"But I guess that’s part of the profession, I’m playing well and will be playing at the Challengers in Germany and Slovakia , and also qualifying at Tashkent , will surely help my singles rankings. My performance at Newport, where I reached the quarterfinals in singles has been the best so far this year."

"I’m just trying to leave everything behind me and trying to improve my singles rankings and get back my place back into the squad for the tie which will take on the winners of Kazakhstan and Chinese Taipei in April 2009."

Bopanna also added that travelling with his trainer Shyamal Vallabhjee, have helped him immensely to overcome his injuries.

“Shyamal who has also been a trainer of the South African cricket team, and also travels with Mahesh Bhupathi has done a great job for me in getting me out of injuries.”

"I’ve realized how important it is to have a trainer on the professional circuit, if I would have had a trainer before it would have been a boon, he said. I feel some times it is more good to have trainer on the tour than a coach," he added.