Svetlana Kuznetsova receives birthday gift from Zenit Football Club

It's Svetlana Kuznetsova's 27th birthday today. Coincidentally her birthday also falls on the 27th.

So it makes sense when Russian Zenit FC presented a football jersey with the number '27' as a birthday gift for her.

However the bad news is her Wimbledon campaign has ended after losing the first round to Yanina Wickmayer.

(Image via Svetlana Kuznetsova's Twitter page)

TENNIS WATCH: First time voter, football, injuries & Mother's Day

Murray holding his ballot.

Andy Murray is a first time voter when polls opened for the British general election on Thursday last week.

Murray did not reveal who he voted for, but he was said to have been closely following the election campaign before the general election.

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Rafael Nadal was spotted at the stand watching the football match between Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao.

Nadal will have a chance to reclaim the no.2 ranking after Novak Djokovic pulled out from Madrid Masters this week due to illness and allergies.

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Yanina Wickmayer who has undergone arthroscopic surgery on her right elbow to remove a floating bone spur is estimated to recover in 10 days, hopefully in time for the French Open.

Meanwhile compatriot Kim Clijsters is also trying to recover from her foot injury to play in Paris.

Oh yeah speaking about Clijsters reminds me that she's a mom.

Here, I'm wishing all moms have a great Happy Mother's Day!

Weekend winners

Nikolay Davydenko recovered from being bagelled in the first set and then saved two match points in the second set to defeat Rafael Nadal 0-6, 7-6, 6-4 and win the Qatar Open title in Doha.

Wildcard recipient Yanina Wickmayer won the Auckland title, defeating top seed Flavia Pennetta 6-3, 6-2 in the final.

In another women's tennis event Down Under, Kim Clijsters defeated Justine Henin 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 in an all-Belgian final in Brisbane on Saturday.

The doubles final was won by Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka who edged Melinda Czink and Arantxa Parra Santonja in a match tie-break victory, 2-6, 7-6, 10-4.

In the men's event, Andy Roddick took the Brisbane title by holding on for a 7-6, 7-6 win over Radek Stepanek.

In the men's doubles final, Marc Gicquel and Jeremy Chardy upset no. 1 seeds Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes in the final, 6-3, 7-6(5).

Marin Cilic has defended his Chennai title by defeating Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6(2), 7-6(3) in the final.

Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Santiago Ventura won the doubles title, defeating Janko Tipsarevic and Rendy Lu Yen-hsun 7-5, 6-2 in the doubles final.

(Images via Yahoo! Sports)

All's Well That Ends Well

Richie accepted a TV appearance on the Canal + Le Grand Journal talk show.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) gave Richard Gasquet an early X'mas present by clearing him of drug charges.

The CAS dismissed appeals by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and International Tennis Federation (ITF), which wanted Gasquet banned for up to two years.

In his defense, Gasquet said he went to the nightclub with friends to see a French DJ perform after pulling out of the Miami Masters in Key Biscayne with a shoulder injury. He met a woman named Pamela there and kissed her several times.

The court said experts “agreed that the minute amount of cocaine could have been transferred in this manner.”

The verdict however was greeted with dismay by WADA and the ITF.

Earlier this week, Belgians Yanina Wickmayer and Xavier Malisse also have their suspension lifted.

They were banned in November for breaking WADA regulations by failing to report their whereabouts for drug testing.

Neither of them failed a doping test.

Wickmayer claims she was not properly informed of the online reporting requirements for drug-testing that led to her ban.

Wickmayer and Malisse are cleared to play in tournaments by ITF while Gasquet is legally allowed to compete in tournaments.

(Via AP)

How e-mail & communication breakdown cost Yanina Wickmayer her future

Here's the transcript from Yanina Wickmayer's presser today at the Koning Boudewijn Stadium in Brussels, Belgium.

Let's hear her side of the story...

Welcome,

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who is present here today. It is extremely important for me to be able to tell my story.

- November and December 2008, I was training in Switzerland.

- In January 2009, I was in Australia to prepare myself for the Australian Open.

- Because of this, all of the letters that were sent to my house that had to be signed for, I was unable to receive and were returned to sender.

- On February 18, 2009 I went online and Googled the general email address of the doping agency, and sent them and email to ask for information as I had heard several players talk about the new anti doping program.

- On February 19, 2009, I received an email back, which included a login and did not include any information about the one failed update I had already missed, without knowing that this system even exists, even though all the letters that I had to sign for upon receipt and were sent back to the Flemish Anti-Doping Agency, meaning that they did know that I never received them.

- After this email, I left for the United States for 7 weeks and have tried numerous times to sign on to the system with the login details that they provided to me, which failed time after time.

- In early April, I then sent an email myself again to notify them that I could not get into the system.

- After the weekend, their reply to me was simply that there was a problem with my login and that they have reset this so I can log in with a new login into the system. There was no indication in this email that I now had already had two failures to update behind my name, even though I had not even logged into the system once.

- Following their reply to me and using the new login information, I mistakenly completed the online whereabouts details wrong, as I did not know that you could not select the option ‘competition’ and instead had to select the option “permanent residence”, which I had no idea about.

- In June, I then called Mr. De Bruyn myself to ask him information as to how top complete the wherabouts correctly. I got the information that day for the first. This conversation took place after my 3rd missed update had already happened, even though I had not received any word about this.

- From that day on, my WADA has always been updated correctly and I have been tested out of competition at home.

- At the end of June it was that the Belgian Tennis Federation was notified about the situation. They notified my father about this by email.

Consequences for my career:

- As a result of this, I am being punished extremely hard. I will lose my ranking and will have to start again from 0. I will fight back but there is nothing that guarantees me that I will return to the same ranking - Throughout the year, I have had numerous doping test, and I have never failed or refused one.

- I have never had any education or information about it.

- The system is needed and I find it a good idea but it should happen in a more personal manner.

- Tennis players travel a lot so these updates are sometimes very difficult to do.

We are going to appeal this ruling and will do everything we can to get it overturned. If this decision is not overturned and I am not able to compete for a year, I am going to do everything I can to be back at the end of the year even stronger. I am a fighter and won’t give up.

I would also like to thank my team, my fans, and anyone else who have supported me so intensely. Words can not explain how much that support means to me.

So, what was reported by AP wasn't entirely accurate.

In fact, Wickmayer is determined to appeal and fight to clear her name.

Thanks to IMG for the transcript.

Teary Yanina Wickmayer refuses to talk about doping ban appeal

A teary Yanina Wickmayer held a presser today saying that she has never tested positive for drugs.

The Belgian was suspended last week by the ITF for failing three times to report her whereabouts for testing.

She complained that tennis and anti-doping authorities did nothing to educate her about how to report her whereabouts online as required by international anti-doping rules.

However, it was unsure whether Wickmayer will appeal her one-year ban or accept the ruling.

She added on saying that the rulemakers “are not really conscious of what this means for my future.”

Updates: Based on the original transcript from Wickmayer presser, she will indeed make an appeal and fight to clear her name. The report by AP here is not entirely accurate.

(Via AP)

Weekend winners: Davydenko, Stosur, Wickmayer

Sorry for the lack of post recently. I was enjoying my break from tennis blogging and twittering :P

Thanks to Astro, I did not miss a single night match of the Shanghai Masters.

It was a bit frustrating because I really thought Rafael Nadal could have clinched his 4th Masters title this year in Shanghai.

Nevermind, let's wait for Paris in early November.

After winning the Malaysian Open earlier this month, Nikolay Davydenko is taking home yet another trophy.

This time he upset Nadal 7-6 (3), 6-3 to win the Shanghai Masters for his fourth title of the year.

A kiss from wifey Irina.

In the men's doubles Frenchmen Julien Benneteau and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga surprised us by defeating Poles Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-2, 6-4.

In Osaka, Samantha Stosur finally earned her first WTA singles title with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Francesca Schiavone at the Japan Women’s Open.

In the women's doubles final, Chuang Chia-Jung and Lisa Raymond win their first doubles title together after defeated Chanelle Scheepers and Abigail Spears 6-2, 6-4.

Somewhere far from Asia, Yanina Wickmayer won her second career WTA Tour title, defeating Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-4 in the Generali Ladies final in Linz, Austria.

Meanwhile Katarina Srebotnik and Anna-Lena Groenefeld won the women's doubles title by overcoming Meghann Shaughnessy and Roberta Vinci 6-1, 3-6, 14-12.

(Images via Yahoo! Sports)

Robin Soderling, Yanina Wickmayer kung fu fighting in Beijing

Robin Soderling and Yanina Wickmayer were said to receive some kung fu lessons at the China Open promotional event yesterday evening.

Using my research skill, I managed to find this picture of Soderling. His pose looked quite convincing, right? No?

Earlier, a teacher and his students from the Shaolin Temple put up a display before the players arrived, showing off different skills in kung fu, with some of them even breaking small metal rods over their heads.

(Via China Open official website)

TENNIS WATCH: Ana Ivanovic's out, Rafael Nadal's in

Modeling - Ana Ivanovic's back up plan? During a photo shoot in Beijing

• Ana Ivanovic has withdrawn from the China Open with an upper respiratory infection. She said in a statement on Saturday that it has been a very disappointing season.The 21-year-old Serbian said her body was “quite fragile” following a combination of too much training and not enough recuperation.

• Rafael Nadal has recovered from an abdominal injury and made himself available for Spain’s Davis Cup final against the Czech Republic in December. He plans to resume playing at next week’s China Open, before traveling to the Shanghai Masters, the Paris Masters and the ATP World Tour finals in London.

• Austria's postal services announced they will issue a 65-centime stamp honouring Roger Federer as the world's best tennis player. Some 400,000 stamps which show Federer winning the French Open last June will go on sale next February.

• Just 15 months after they were married, golf star Greg Norman and tennis great Chris Evert (the original Ana Ivanovic-Adam Scott) announced they have separated. They did not elaborate on the split or on whether a divorce was impending.

• Belgians Yanina Wickmayer, US Open semifinalist, and Xavier Malisse have been called before the nti-doping tribunal for not fulfilling their anti-doping responsibilities. Wickmayer has missed filling out her whereabouts requirements three times, while Malisse has not filled his whereabouts information twice and has also missed a test.

• Hong Kong’s highest-profile women’s tennis tournament JB Group Classic has asked the government for a $700,000 bailout after its main sponsor withdrew backing for the early season exhibition event. Tourney director Terry Catton added that the tournament would still go ahead “whatever happens”.

(Via AP, tennis.com)

US Open Day 13 Wrap-up: Gonzalez eats bagel, Clijsters wins but Serena steals the show, Wozniacki stays in the shadow

Rafael Nadal beat Fernando Gonzalez pretty quickly to win 7-6, 7-6, 6-0 in a match that began Thursday evening.

Gonzalez who seemed not getting enough warm-up kept looking at the sky and scoreboard, perhaps was looking for a sign of rain.

It started to drizzle a bit and Gonzalez sought treatment from a trainer for his feet but that didn't help to delay his lost to Nadal for another day.

Light shower continued through the evening but I was glad that both women's singles semifinals finally took off.

Kim Clijsters reached the final by beating Serena Williams 6-4, 7-5.

Kimmie, I'm sorry I stole the limelight from you tonight.

However the match was marred by controversy after Serena was docked a point for yelling at an official who called a foot fault.

I may look very calm on the outside but guess what, I'm shit scared of Serena inside.

The line judge reported it to the chair umpire which led to the chair umpire awarding a point to Clijsters, ending the match.

Serena already had been given a code violation warning when she broke her racket after losing the first set.

At the press conference, Serena denied she threatened to 'kill the line judge' and it was unnecessary to apologize to the lady. You can read the full transcript here.

In another women's semifinal that took place at the same time, Caroline Wozniacki's victory was overshadowed by the controversy.

Wozniacki will play in her first Grand Slam final after defeated Yanina Wickmayer 6-3, 6-3.

Here's Sunday's order of play on day 14 at the U.S. Open (prefix denotes seeding):

(Starts at 12:00 PM)
1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) v 4-Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
3-Rafael Nadal (Spain) v 6-Juan Martin del Potro (Argentina)
9-Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) v Kim Clijsters (Belgium)

(Images via Yahoo! Sports)

US Open Day 10 Wrap-up: Oudin runs out of magic, Federer reaches 22nd Grand Slam semis

It's curtain call for Melanie Oudin at the US Open but as she stepped out of the Arthur Ashe stadium last night, her life will change forever - as the media said, she'll step into "a world of jostling paparazzi, autograph signing and an endorsement-filled future".

Caroline Wozniacki who ended Oudin's dream run with a 6-2, 6-2 victory, will go into her first Grand Slam semifinals for the first time.

In an earlier quarterfinal match, Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, who never before past a Grand Slam second round, beat Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko 7-5, 6-4.

Both Wozniacki and Wickmayer will meet in a Friday semifinal to determine the winner to play for a US Open title on Saturday against either Serena Williams or Kim Clijsters.

In the men's singles, Roger Federer defeated Robin Soderling 6-0, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 to extend his winning streak to 39 at the US Open.

Federer will play Novak Djokovic in the semifinals, after the Serbian pulled off a 7-6, 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 win over the unfit Fernando Verdasco.

Here's Thursday’s order of play on day 11 at the U.S. Open (prefix denotes seeding):

(Not before 1100EDT)
6-Juan Martin del Potro (Argentina) v 16-Marin Cilic (Croatia)

(Not before 1900EDT)
11-Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) v 3-Rafael Nadal (Spain)

(Via AP; Images via Yahoo! Sports)

Tamarine Tanasugarn, Caroline Wozniacki win Wimbledon warm-up tournaments

Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand has become the first player to successfully defend the Ordina Open women's title by beating Yanina Wickmayer 6-3, 7-5.

In Eastbourne, Caroline Wozniacki won the Aegon International title after defeated unseeded Virginie Razzano 7-6, 7-5.

This is the Dane's second title of the year and fifth of her career.

(Images by Rober Vos/Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)