Fernando Verdasco stands for hope

While at Indian Wells, Fernando Verdasco did his part for charity by attending Eva Longoria's Stand for Hope! 5K Charity Run/Walk held at LA Memorial Coliseum on last Saturday.

A day earlier, Nando was spotted walking with Camilla Bella to her car. It looks like they are merely good friends.


(Images via blogografia.com; menstennisforums.com)

Rafael Nadal overcomes Murray-complex; Vera Zvonareva beats Ana Ivanovic

Rafael Nadal overcame Murray-complex and powered his way to a 6-1, 6-2 victory at the BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells final this morning!

This championship not only avenged a loss to Andy Murray in the Rotterdam final this year but also shows that Nadal has already mastered the hard court surface.

“I felt I played really good,” Nadal said.

“Maybe I was a little bit more prepared. I think I accepted the conditions."

“I tried to play inside the court, go to the net some, move all the time. It’s important that you know you don’t have to find the lines all the time, but hit the ball inside, not so close to the lines.”

Murray said, “Rafa dealt with it well."

"He hit the ball cleaner and just seemed to get himself in better positions than I did. You want to be in the best position possible to hit each ball and I wasn’t."

"That’s why he managed to dictate most of the points.”

In the women's singles final, Vera Zvonareva defeated defending champion Ana Ivanovic 7-6 (5), 6-2.

“After a couple of games, I knew that the conditions were very difficult and it’s not going to probably change and I have to fight for every point, have to adjust my game,” Zvonareva said.

“Even though I had some mistakes and some frustrating points with the wind, I was still trying to put as many balls as I can in the court, try to concentrate.”

Ivanovic said the conditions were the worst she’s played in.

“It wasn’t much about the game plan. It was just who can handle the conditions better, and who can stay probably mentally tougher through it,” Ivanovic said.

“Today, she did. “Yeah, she played really well.”

The victory evened Zvonareva’s record against Ivanovic to 4-4.

(Via AP; Images by Matthew Stockman/Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

One with too much love; One who's out of love

It's amazing how Fernando Verdasco got Camilla Belle and Caroline Wozniacki sit in the same box during his match with Roger Federer at the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Too bad the girls weren't sit next to each other or else we could be seeing a catfight, no? :D

Moving on to another love gossip, many Japanese and Chinese media reported that Kei Nishikori has broken up with girlfriend Ai Fukuhara.

Will keep you guys updated on this.

(Images via Great Tennis Photos, cnwnc.com)

Zahed is officially Roger Federer's no.1 lookalike fan!

Congrats to Zahed for being a featured topic in Tennis Week.

Here's an excerpt from the article which I want to highlight:

"When I was in Shanghai for Tennis Masters Cup I was walking around wearing the "RF" cap and a fan walked up to me and said 'I have some extra tickets for the exhibition'," Khan said.

"So I ended up going (to Kuala Lumpur) to watch Roger, Borg, Blake and McEnroe. I wasn't planning on going but went."

"Roger was doing an autograph signing at a mall before the match and my mom and I went and as soon as he saw us, he remembered us from Shanghai and said 'Hey, it's you again.' He was very nice to my mom. She made a special Olympic t-shirt for him and he shook her hand."

Esther, a regular contributor at HCFoo's Tennis Blog, met Zahed at Shanghai and invited him and his mom to KL for the exhibition match and meet-the-fans session as the three of them didn't have a chance to see Roger in action as he missed the TMC final.

Here's a lovely photo of Zahed and his mom taken during lunch after Roger's autograph session. And that's their infamous t-shirts :D

The American is currently back in the states to watch a series of tournaments including the BNP Paribas Open and the Sony Ericsson Open.


(Via Tennis Week; Image by HCFoo)