Proton Malaysian Open: Results and OOP for Day 2

Wild card Marcos Baghdatis pumped his fist with relief as he scores a two hour 49 minute 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) victory over Rendy Lu Yen-Hsun at the PROTON Malaysian Open.

Baghdatis has been struggling with confidence lately and he said the win was an important boost for him.

Earlier, Taylor Dent, also a wild card recipient, fought hard to come back in his match against Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4).

I did not follow the earlier session but here's the complete results and OOP for Day 2.

RESULTS - SEPTEMBER 28, 2009
Singles - First Round
[WC] T Dent (USA) d A Golubev (KAZ) 46 63 76(4)
[Q] B Evans (USA) d [Q] M Yani (USA) 63 64
[WC] M Baghdatis (CYP) d Y Lu (TPE) 46 63 76(5)

Doubles - First Round
[WC] R Bopanna (IND) / A Qureshi (PAK) d [4] S Aspelin (SWE) / P Hanley (AUS) 63 64
S Huss (AUS) / S Lipsky (USA) d C Rochus (BEL) / M Vassallo Arguello (ARG) 64 63

ORDER OF PLAY - TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009
CENTER COURT start 11:30 am
F Lopez (ESP) vs M Vassallo Arguello (ARG)
J Acasuso (ARG) vs [Q] R Bopanna (IND)

Not Before 3:30 PM
I Kunitsyn (RUS) vs [6] T Berdych (CZE)

Not Before 5:30 PM
[7] D Ferrer (ESP) vs M Youzhny (RUS)
[8] L Hewitt (AUS) vs [WC] J Johansson (SWE)
A Golubev (KAZ) / D Istomin (UZB) vs J Acasuso (ARG) / F Gonzalez (CHI)

COURT 1 start 2:30 pm
[1] M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) vs J Cerretani (USA) / R Wassen (NED)
[Q] M Kukushkin (KAZ) vs K Beck (SVK)
K Beck (SVK) / J Kerr (AUS) vs I Kunitsyn (RUS) / J Levinsky (CZE) - After Suitable Rest

(Image by IMG)

Rooting for Rendy Lu Yen-hsun at the Malaysian Open

I'll be attending the evening session matches at the PROTON Malaysian Open tonight.

I'm extremely excited about this as the tournament has one of the fastest tennis court surface.

Wild cards recipients Taylor Dent and Marcos Baghdatis will begin their first round match at 5PM.

Dent will face Andrey Golubev first and followed by Baghdatis against Rendy Lu Yen-hsun.

I attended the pressers held for Dent and Baghdatis yesterday. Dent was super confident of his chance and said he was 100% fit.

Meanwhile, it didn't look too good for Baghdatis who refused to think much about his opponent.

Earlier I was at the practice court and saw Rendy practicing with another wild card Joachim "Pim Pim" Johansson.

I asked Rendy to comment about his first round match against Baghdatis (they never play each other before) after his practice. So check out this video.

(Photo credit to HSFoo/hcfoo.com)

Taylor Dent, Marcos Baghdatis in 'Baju Melayu' minus the 'sarong'

Check this out! Finally there are two players in traditional Malay clothing!

Nice shirts guys, but where are the sarongs?

Now click here to see the correct way to wear a fully dressed 'Baju Melayu'. LOL

(Image by IMG)

Marcos Baghdatis, Taylor Dent wild cards recipients for PROTON Malaysian Open

Marcos Baghdatis and Taylor Dent, ranked outside the top 100, have been given wild cards into the PROTON Malaysian Open main draw.

Marcos Baghdatis

Taylor Dent

According to the tournament director, Nick Freyer, the third and final wild card will be decided in the next few days.

If this article published in the Malay Mail is true, the wild card could go to Malaysian player, Si Yew Ming.

However, based information that I've gathered at press conferences, Yew Ming would probably get a wild card to play in the qualifying rounds, which I think is fair and fine.

There's also a considerable buzz on the Internet that a particular player has accepted the third wild card, but I won't mention his name here. I'll just leave it to the tournament director to announce it later this week.

The tournament will kick off this weekend from Sept 26 to Oct 4 and will see a strong line-up of marquee players including Nikolay Davydenko, Fernando Verdasco, Lleyton Hewitt, Robin Soderling, Fernando Gonzalez, Gael Monfils, Tomas Berdych, and David Ferrer.

For the latest on court and off court updates, follow me at: http://twitter.com/hcfoo

(Via Bernama)

TENNIS WATCH: Belgian media reports say Justine Henin to return to tennis

• Justine Henin is set to announce her return to competitive tennis today, according to two top Belgian newspapers. La Derniere Heure and Le Soir reported the comeback on Monday.

• Serena Williams appears in Procter & Gamble Co.'s lighthearted new print ad campaign for its Tampax brand, just weeks after her U.S. Open outburst. With the theme “Outsmart Mother Nature”, we believe that's Serena's promise that we will not see the same incident happen again in the future.

• Taylor Dent won the Oklahoma challenger, defeating Wayne Odesnik in the final. With this win, Dent continues to climb in the rankings (started the year at 865) and will be ranked 122 in the world this week. IMG also announced that Dent has been offered a wildcard into the Malaysian Open next week and he will fly there early to prepare for yet another big step in his comeback.

• Martina Hingis became the first person eliminated on BBC's celebrity dancing show Strictly Come Dancing despite earning respectable debut scores from the judges for both her waltz and her rumba.

(Image via tampax.com)

US Open Day 7 Wrap-up: Lack of star power, Clijster, Pennetta steal the show

I remember very well that in the last couple of years, there were quite a number of celebrities who added glitter to the US Open every single day.

So what happen this year?

Besides Alec Baldwin, Will Ferrell, Kim Cattrall, Patrick Stewart, Jason Bateman and Jennifer Love Hewitt, I haven't really seen any hotter stars than those I just mentioned.

Celebrities aside, I think the player of the day is Kim Clijsters.

Clijsters marked her dazzling return to the grand slam by ousting Venus Williams with a wild yet weird 6-0, 0-6, 6-4 victory!

The Belgian mum will face Li Na next after the Chinese beat Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 6-3.

In another exciting match, Flavia Pennetta saved six match points to advance to the quarterfinal with a 3-6, 7-6, 6-0 victory over Vera Zvonareva.

Pennetta will face Serena Williams next!

In the men's singles, Andy Murray joined Juan Martin del Potro, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Rafael Nadal and Fernando Gonzalez to the next round.

Earlier of the day, Nadal knocked off compatriot Nicolas Almagro 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.

During the match, Nadal was treated for a stomach muscle problem while Almagro also received a treatment for back problem.

Nadal's next opponent is Gael Monfils who advanced when Jose Acasuso quit because of left knee pain while trailing 6-3, 6-4, 1-0.

In the last match of the day, Murray, needed only 90 minutes to sent off Taylor Dent 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 and set up a fourth-round encounter with Marin Cilic.

US Open men's singles third round results from New York on Monday (prefix denotes seeding)

2-Andy Murray (Britain) beat Taylor Dent (US) 6-3 6-2 6-2
6-Juan Martin Del Potro (Argentina) beat Daniel Koellerer (Austria) 6-1 3-6 6-3 6-3
7-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) beat Julien Benneteau (France) 7-6(4) 6-2 6-4
11-Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) beat 17-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) 7-5 6-4 6-4
3-Rafael Nadal (Spain) beat 32-Nicolas Almagro (Spain) 7-5 6-4 6-4
24-Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) beat 9-Gilles Simon (France) 1-6 6-4 7-6(5) 1-0 (Simon retired)

US Open women's singles fourth round results from New York on Monday (prefix denotes seeding)

10-Flavia Pennetta (Italy) beat 7-Vera Zvonareva (Russia) 3-6, 7-6, 6-0
Kim Clijsters (Belgium) beat 3-Venus Williams (US) 6-0 0-6 6-4
18-Li Na (China) beat 26-Francesca Schiavone (Italy) 6-2 6-3
2-Serena Williams (US) beat 22-Daniela Hantuchova (Slovakia) 6-2 6-0

(Via AP, Reuters, TVNZ, US Open website)

Desert Fashions by FILA and Trina Turk

Fila-sponsored tennis players including Marin Cilic, Caroline Wozniacki, Anna Chakvetadze, Agnes Szavay, Taylor Dent and Andreas Seppi hit the runway at a private fashion show that includes the latest Trina Turk styles.

Check out these photos. The guys look awesome!

Taylor Dent

Andreas Seppi

Anna Chakvetadze

Caroline Wozniacki

Agnes Szavay

Behind the scene photos of Caroline Wozniacki and Anna Chakvetadze.


(Images by Getty Images via BNP Paribas Open)