Pim Pim receives Wild Card to play at the Malaysian Open

Pim Pim during his prime years

Former top 10 player, Joachim "Pim Pim" Johansson has been awarded a singles and doubles wild card into the Proton Malaysian Open, which begins today.

The Swedish joins Taylor Dent and Marcos Baghdatis as wild cards recipients.

In addition to receiving the singles main draw wild card, Johansson has also been given a main draw doubles wild card slot and he will be teaming up with a Malaysian player, possibly Si Yew Ming, who gains wild card entry to play in the singles qualifying round.

Due to his injuries and the surgeries he underwent, Johansson, who briefly retired from tennis only to launch a comeback in 2008, saw his ranking drop to No. 774 in January. He has brought his ranking up to 451 this week.

(Via tennisweek.com)

Tweet moment at Robin Soderling's practice?

Together with my sis, we headed to the Putra Stadium to pick up press kit yesterday.

The security was very tight and the IMG staff, contractors and volunteers were as busy as bees getting ready for the biggest tennis tournament in this country.

I didn't expect to see any players at the centre court, so I wasn't prepared (not equipped with camera).

I managed to Tweet a bit before my phone battery went flat.

• http://twitpic.com/j1uva - I can't believe @RSoderling's the first player i met here. He said 'hi' to me...

• fuck. Low batt. Didn't expect to watch practice.
• Magnus hitting with Soderling.. I think Magnus is better looking on tv
• http://twitpic.com/j1wd9 - Here's Magnus Norman warming up

• i don't know why i'm feeling guilty watching Soderling practice for almost an hour
• @tennislust @RD_Tennistalk I hate to admit this but I think I'll forgive @RSoderling for beating Rafa at FO
• @RD_Tennistalk it was his smile and 'hi'... he gave me a good impression I almost forgot he's the evil one

If you're interested to follow my experience at the Malaysian Open, you can follow my tweet at http://twitter.com/hcfoo

TENNIS WATCH: Richard Gasquet's lawsuit dismissed, Pamela to check into rehab

• A lawsuit filed by Richard Gasquet has been dismissed, with no finding on whether he took cocaine nor whether an outside source was responsible. Pamela, the woman who kissed him was part of the investigation was ordered to attend a drug rehabilition program after she was found to be a regular cocaine user.

• Serena Williams has pulled out of Tokyo with knee and toe injuries.

• Roger Federer has pulled out of Toyko and Shanghai. He did not mention any specific reason for the withdrawals. In his website, Federer said "After consultation with my team and doctors, I decided to take the difficult decision to withdraw from both tournaments so that I can give my body a chance to rest, rehabilitate and fully recover from a physically challenging year."

• Kim Clijsters will centre her 2010 schedule around young daughter Jada and around the four Grand Slams, planning a limited program that will put family first. Clijsters said she ultimately plans to play a total of about 16 tournaments, concentrating on the four Grand Slams. For the rest of this season, she will play in two exhibition matches.

• Jelena Dokic's dad, Damir was sentenced to a 15-month jail term for threatening the Australian ambassador in Belgrade. The threats were made in relation to comments by Jelena in an interview with an Australian Sports & Style magazine.

PROTON Malaysian Open: Here's the Qualifying Draw

The singles qualifying draw has been announced and surprisingly Malaysia has seven (7) players in it!

They are Nazim Khan, Azli Zainudin, Raj Kanagar, Faizal Osmann, K Somasundram, Si Yew Ming and Adam Jaya.

If you look at the line-up in a positive way, you can call it one of the easiest to qualify for the main draw!

Good luck to fellow Malaysians!

ORDER OF PLAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2009
CENTER COURT start 10:00 am
Qualifying - B Evans (USA) vs [WC] M Bin Othman (MAS)
Qualifying - [WC] K Somasundram (MAL) vs A Qureshi (PAK)
Qualifying - R Bopanna (IND) vs [WC] K Balakrishnan (MAS)
Qualifying - M Yani (USA) vs S Huss (AUS)

COURT 1 start 10:00 am
Qualifying - M Kukushkin (KAZ) vs [WC] A Bin Zainuddin (MAS)
Qualifying - [WC] N Khan (MAL) vs W Jun (KOR)
Qualifying - M Fyrstenberg (POL) vs Y Si (MAS)
Qualifying - S Lipsky (USA) vs A Jaya (MAS)

Click image to enlarge

(Via IMG)