10th Annual BNP Paribas Taste of Tennis

I've been out of town for the past couple of days so I haven't been able to update some of the pre-US Open events that took place over the weekend.

In a quick update, let's start off with the 10th annual BNP Paribas Taste of Tennis, which is famous for its food, drink and celebrities.

Held at the W Hotel, and the Food Bank for New York, it has some of the biggest names in tennis including Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt, Billie Jean King, Sam Groth, Vera Zvonareva, Fernando Gonzalez, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, David Ferrer and Asia's very own Rendy Lu Yen-hsun.

Roddick mixing drinks with Natural Food Chef Bethany Frankel.

Left to right - Chef Ariane Duarte, Jo-Willy, newscaster Hannah Storm and chef Carla Hall.

HCFoo's favourite, Rendy Lu serves up a tennis-themed cake :D

David Ferrer

Vera Zvonareva

Fernando Gonzalez

(Images by Donald Bowers/Getty Images North America)

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.

Andy Roddick leads the NAB Taste of Tennis Australia event

Andy Roddick joined by fellow American Justin Gimelstob in tasting the oyster cocktails of the Press Club restaurant's George Calombaris.

The dry ice cocktail made him breathe smoke out of his nose and mouth.

Gimelstob was quick to publicly point out the aphrodisiac properties of the shelled treats to Roddick whose fiancee Brooklyn Decker, a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, arrived in town on the weekend.

Fernando Verdasco, Tommy Robredo, Andre Sa and Aleksandra Wonziak also joined the fun at the inaugural Australian Open tasting, which has become a regular event at the US Open in New York blending tennis aces with super chefs.

Looks like they are now bringing the fun to Australia.


(Via news.com.au; Images by Luis Ascui/Getty Images for AYS Sports Marketing)

What's Cooking?: Andy Roddick & James Blake at the 9th Annual BNP Paribas Taste of Tennis

Andy Roddick and James Blake attended the 9th annual "BNP Paribas Taste of Tennis" event before the start of the U.S. Open.

Roddick was cooking with Food Network host Ingrid Hoffmann while Blake with Gotham Bar & Grill chef Alfred Portale.


(Via U.S. Open site)