TENNIS WATCH: US Open wildcards, Serena Williams can't kick shopping habit

The U.S. Open men's and womens' wildcard recipients are out.

In the men's singles main draw, wildcards go to Devin Britton, Chase Buchanan, Taylor Dent, Brendan Evans, Jesse Levine, Rajeev Ram, and Chris Guccione, with the French reciprocal wildcard still to be announced.

Qualifying wildcards go to Lester Cook, Grigor Dimitrov, Alexander Domijan, Ryan Harrison, Scoville Jenkins, Ryan Lipman, Tim Smyczek, Blake Strode, and Michael Venus.

In the womens' singles main draw, wildcards go to Gail Brodksy, Mallory Cecil, Kim Clijsters, Alexa Glatch, Vania King, Christina McHale, Kristina Mladenovic and Olivia Rogowska.

Qualifying wildcards go to Kristie Ahn, Lauren Embree, Irina Falconi, Nicole Gibbs, Asia Muhammad, Alison Riske, Laura Robson, Sloane Stephens and Coco Vandeweghe.

*******

Venus and Serena will join celebrities like Gloria and Emilio Estefan and Marc Anthony as stakeholders in the Miami Dolphins.

The Dolphins are scheduled to officially announce the William sisters investment coming this Tuesday, reports AP.

During the earlier part of her career, Serena Williams has dated two NFL players before.

(Via tennis.com)

VIDEO: Malaysian Open Tennis promo video, sponsors

Today I was at the Malaysian Open media briefing again.

This time around, the Tournament Director, Nick Freyer not only unveiled the tournament promo video, he also announced new and strategic associations with three major international companies.

Junji S. the Sales Director of CNN, SEA, Nick Freyer the Tournament Director and Giri the winner of "Best Job in Malaysia".

Malaysian Open welcomed CNN as the Official Sponsor and International Media Partner.

During the tournament, the sponsor will be showcasing CNN and the CNN World Sport products at the entertainment village and via player computer terminals.

Meanwhile TennisWeek.com, one of the world's most viewed tennis websites and Tecnifibre, the "Official Stringer" also come in to further strengthen the tournament.

During the event, the Tournament Director also announced the winner of "The Best Job in Malaysia" competition which went to 25-year-old Giritharan Sithambarnathan from Perak.

To read my tweets regarding the event, click here.

(Via IMG/Malaysian Open Tennis)

Malaysian Open Tennis 2009: Here's the official entry list...

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I have to republish this again.

1 Davydenko, Nikolay RUS (currently ranked at no.8)
2 Verdasco, Fernando ESP 10
3 Soderling, Robin SWE 11
4 Gonzalez, Fernando CHI 12
5 Monfils, Gael FRA 13
6 Berdych, Tomas CZE 18
7 Ferrer, David ESP 19
8 Tursunov, Dmitry RUS 32
9 Lopez, Feliciano ESP 36 (Wooohooooooooo! My prayers answered!)
10 Gasquet, Richard FRA 38 (Wonder if he's ready to make a return trip to Malaysia and play here...)
11 Hewitt, Lleyton AUS 42
12 Kunitsyn, Igor RUS 43
13 Vassallo Arguello, Martin ARG 49
14 Vliegen, Kristof BEL 50
15 Acasuso, Jose ARG 51
16 Serra, Florent FRA 56
17 Golubev, Andrey KAZ 57
18 Rochus, Christophe BEL 60
19 Youzhny, Mikhail RUS 64
20 (SE)
21 (SE)
22 (Q)
23 (Q)
24 (Q)
25 (Q)
26 (WC) (Will be given to Kei Nishikori if he can recover in time for this tournament... very unlikely though)
27 (WC)
28 (WC)

Alternates
1. Greul, Simon GER 66
2. Bellucci, Thomaz BRA 67
3. Ginepri, Robby USA 70
4. Hernych, Jan CZE 72
5. Koellerer, Daniel AUT 73
6. Lu, Yen-Hsun TPE 74 (If Nishikori can't recover in time for MO, then please bring Rendy, Asia's best here!)
7. Crivoi, Victor ROU 75
8. Gabashvili, Teimuraz RUS 76
9. Zeballos, Horacio ARG 78
10. Luczak, Peter AUS 79
11. Kendrick, Robert USA 80
12. Korolev, Evgeny RUS 82
13. Hernandez, Oscar ESP 84
14. Odesnik, Wayne USA 85
15. Phau, Bjorn GER 87

If you're impressed with the line-up, then get your tickets fast! Go to www.MalaysianOpenTennis.com

In the meanwhile, HCFoo is hoping and drooling for a pair up between Verdasco and Lopez at the Malaysian Open doubles match.

TENNIS WATCH: Richard Gasquet's return, Andy Murray's white boy rap

Richard Gasquet could be making his competitive return at New Haven next week.

He has not played since Rome after tested positive for cocaine in Miami.

A hair test recently has cleared Gasquet of regular cocaine use, while a hair test on Pamela, the woman Gasquet cited as the source of the cocaine in his system, indicated regular use of the banned substance.

Gasquet said he repeatedly kissed Pamela at a nightclub the evening before his positive test.

Pamela is reportedly suing Gasquet for defamation.

*******

After Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray is the latest tennis star who will be featured in one of the Bryan Brothers Band's song.

The Bryanbros tweeted about Murray rapping a verse for one of their song to be included in their debut album, Let It Rip scheduled to release on September 1.