Roger Federer shaves for Gillette at Shanghai

While in Shanghai for Tennis Masters Cup, Roger Federer makes some money by squeezing in a Gillette promotional campaign in between his training.

This event named Boys To Men were attended by a thousand of university students. Check out the youtube posted by The Star Online at the end of this post.

Roger Federer competes in a shaving competition.

"What was that?"

Couldn't be bothered, Mirka finds something to do to kill her time.

I guess Federer lost in the competition. He haven't finish the other half of his face.

A token of appreciation for Federer.

(Images via sina.com)

Random pictures at the Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai

Everyone already know why Rafael Nadal is not in Shanghai for Tennis Masters Cup.

But I don't see Andy Roddick and Nikolay Davydenko either. I've been surfing some of the popular Chinese websites trying to dig some photos of the two but to no avail.

However here are the rest of the guys. But before that look at the robin group allocations below (numeric prefix denotes seeding)

Red group
1. Roger Federer (SUI)
3. Andy Murray (GBR)
5. Andy Roddick (USA)
8. Gilles Simon (FRA)

Gold group
2. Novak Djokovic (SER)
4. Nikolay Dawydenko (RUS)
6. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)
7. Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG)

The lovely Mirka and Roger Federer. You know what? I'm actually rooting Federer to win here.

Novak Djokovic has not been his usual self lately. Either the US Open impacted his

confidence or he has been partying really hard.

Andy Murray is a hot favourite but let's rewind back to the recent Olympic Games, he was beaten
by Rendy Lu in the first round. China has been quite tough on Murray, so he's not really my pick to win here.

Murray took part in the Tennis Masters Cup draw ceremony at the Hilton Shanghai on
Wednesday. The names of the players were inside traditional Chinese fortune cookies.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, fresh from winning the Paris Masters looks confident and ready
to win again.

The Chinese people believe that number 8 is a lucky number. Gilles Simon believes it too.

Frenchmen Gilles Simon and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga practice together.

Juan Martin del Potro looks yummilicious here.

Thanks to anon, now we can finally see Nikolay Davydenko in Shanghai!

(Via sina.com, fft.fr)

Kings of Tennis is cancelled; Showdown of Champions draw near

Unfortunately, the first ever team event featuring former world no. 1 players, Kings of Tennis, will not be realized in Penang.

The event dubbed as Big Bang Penang is confirmed canceled today.

In their e-mail, the press officer at Kings of Tennis explained that the event has to be canceled due to the current financial crisis and the uncertainty of the world economics which resulted in the pulling out of some of their key sponsors.

As what SK Boey has predicted, Big Bang Penang has blown up.

P/S Anyone who wants to comment about this part of the post can try answer my doubts in this post too: What is going on with Kings of Tennis / Big Bang Penang? Arianna Teoh, Penang Government, please answer.



However the good news is, Showdown of Champions which is going to be held on the 18th in Stadium Putra KL is going strong!

In the past few days, there are quite a lot of visitors dropping by this blog searching for news regarding this exho.

I was informed that James Blake will be conducting a tennis clinic for LTAM junior players on Nov 18.

There will also be an autograph-signing session at KLCC, which I'll let you know the time, date and place in the next few days.

Drop me an email if you are interested to meet Roger Federer, James Blake, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe.

If you still haven't get your tickets to the showdown, which is priced between RM108 and RM498, go to Ticket Axcess outlets or call +603 7711 5000 for enquiries. The official Showdown of Champions website is at www.showdownkl2008.com.

Updates:
Click here to read about the event which is now officially cancelled.

Boris Becker, fiancée call off engagement

Boris Becker, 40, called off the engagement to 25-year-old Sandy Meyer-Wolden after just three months.

Everyone knows this engagement is a joke in the first place. Becker told German newspaper Bild:

"Sandy and I split up at the weekend. We really tried and we wanted to get married next year, but sadly it just wasn't working."

"There was no third person involved, we just couldn't both get on on a day-to-day basis. Maybe the 15-year age difference was actually too much."

Rumours of a break-up began at the weekend when the German sports star turned up alone to a ball in Frankfurt, where he was accepting a lifetime achievement award.

The couple were last seen out together 10 days ago at an Alicia Keys concert in Munich.

Meyer-Wolden was the daughter of Becker's late manager, Axel, who died in 1997.

She was still a baby when Becker clinched his first Wimbledon final in 1985.

Becker proposed during a holiday in Sardinia in August, proclaiming:

"I am unbelievably happy and in love."

So, who's the next Mrs Becker-to-be?

(Via telegraph.co.uk, Image via sina.com)