Kei Nishikori trains hard but minus the racquet

Kei Nishikori recently blogged in his official website about training, getting treatment and rehabilitation, and his parents.

The Japanese tennis star said he has been training hard for a month now... but without a tennis racquet!

"Because it's been a considerable amount of time since I haven't played tennis at all, it feels pretty strange to me."

"I feel a bit uneasy that I won't be able to play like I used to before, because I have never experienced not holding a racket for such a long time."

Despite his elbow injury, Kei said his training is tough.

"My schedule is kind of tough. I train for one hour in the morning, get treatment and rehabilitation, and then train again for two more hours in the afternoon."

"Sometimes I focus on mental conditioning, depending on the day."

Then Kei joked about his parents who had stayed with him for about 5 weeks in Florida.

"Maybe they stayed for too long? Haha, I'm just kidding. We have a good time together."

"My mom's cooking made me gain a little weight. I wish I could gain muscle instead!"

Will he be able to recover on time for Roland Garros?

Chances seem to be very low.

(Images by IMG via Kei's official blog)

When two Spanish greats meet...

Former tennis great Manolo Santana and Rafael Nadal exchanged racquets during a promotional event for Nadal's Fundación Rafa Nadal.

Santana gave the foundation his heavy wooden Dunlop racquet used in the year when he won the Wimbledon Championships.

In exchange, Nadal gave Santana his modern Babolat racquet which helped him won the 5th consecutive Monte Carlo Open last week.

Nadal apologized to Santana and said, "This is not so much history (referring to his Babolat tennis racquet)."

Nadal who is a four-time defending champion here at the ATP 500 World Tour Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell tennis tournament will debut tomorrow against Frederico Gil in the second round.

(Image via elmundo.es)

Andy Murray, David Beckham suit up and back malaria charity

Sports stars David Beckham, Andy Murray and Denise Lewis have been named as members of the leadership council of new campaign group Malaria No More UK and were helping to mark its launch.

Right after the meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Downing Street, they posed together for photographs.

Malaria No More UK wants to ensure the Government meets its promise in full as its share of a total of 100 million nets pledged by the world's eight richest state.

Britain's number one tennis star Murray said, "This is the first global charity I've been involved with in this capacity and it was an easy decision."

"Malaria is completely preventable and stoppable but yet it still kills more children in Africa than any other single disease."

(Via The Press Association; Images by AP/Getty Images via ATP Mens Tennis)

Finally, Roger Federer's wedding photos have surfaced!

Roger Federer doesn't want to lose out to Andy Roddick this time, so he released his wedding photos first!

Schweizer Illustrierte has the exclusive wedding photos of Roger Federer and Mirka Vavrinec!

The private photos in the Monday issue shows 12 pages full of lovely and intimate moments.

Any Swiss friends bought the magazine yet?

Updated: Lana of Great Tennis Photos just found a photo that shows a full spread of that magazine bearing the husband and wife team.

And according to Gototennis, a Basel paper reported that Roger sold the photos for "just the customary fee" which went to his foundation.

More photos and video updates!

(Via menstennisforums.com; Updated image from rogerfederer.com via Great Tennis Photos)