Novak Djokovic at tennis clinic for kids in Shanghai

For a player who is well-known for his 'over-inflated ego', it's very heartwarming to see Novak Djokovic conducting a tennis clinic surrounded by kids in Shanghai in these pictures.

This event is sponsored by Wilson.


(Images via Osports.cn)

What is going on with Kings of Tennis / Big Bang Penang? Arianna Teoh, Penang Government, please answer.

For those who are regulars at HCFoo's Tennis Blog, they know I don't post rumours.

I only post facts which are cited from credible and relevant source such as the media person directly. Well, except for Anando's case which is solely based on a photo, which turns out to be true.

I don't post the cancellation of the Kings of Tennis for nothing.

I'm doing my bits to provide the latest development in tennis. If do not care about this event, I wouldn't have contacted the media team and management at Kings of Tennis based in Sweden for media accreditation from day one.

And I wouldn't have written to Arianna Teoh, the organizer too for the latest development and press releases which she never get back to me with those info although she promised to do so.

One thing for sure, I always appreciate media team and publicists especially those I've been in contact with in the US, UK and recently in Tashkent who are usually very professional and always furnish me with the latest info about the players they work for as well as tournament events.

So when Johan P. at Kings of Tennis (also work for TENNIS.SE) wrote back to me informing me that Kings of Tennis has been cancelled for the very last minute, I was shocked too.

Even SK Boey, whom I get to know about this event, doubt me at the beginning... until he called up Roy Emerson, supposedly the Captain for Team America.

Emerson is still in LA right now and has already unpacked his suitcase, as quoted from SK Boey's website. And in the latest post, SK Boey mentioned that Emerson personally wrote him an email confirming the cancellation again.

So now, the questions is why Arianna and Penang Lawn Tennis still insist the event is still ON?

Why Arianna has not reply to my email saying that this is all rumour and confirm that there is a plan B after all?

Are there actually changes in the players list? If Emerson is not coming, who's going to replace him?

I know this is a bad news looking at all the efforts put in to make this event a successful one. I wish the media team at Kings of Tennis will come back to me and tell me it's on again. Or Emerson tells SK Boey that he'll be flying to Malaysia now.

I'm not sure if you have been to the construction site where the stadium is being built in these few days. Perhaps you can do so this weekend.

In a forum discussion at lonelyplanet, Melissa1234 expressed her worry:

The venue is very slowly getting into shape. Looks like a rush job and they better hurry with 11 more days to go before the Big Bang . I was there yesterday and looks like it will not be ready. I really hope my judgement is wrong ~ Nov 3, 2008

You know what, searching for info about Kings of Tennis is not easy. There are almost no reports on this event in the newspapers (online or offline, national or international). Try google Kings of Tennis or Big Bang Penang under news and see.

If this event is so huge, participated by former world no.1 players in the world, why the international media almost don't give a damn about this event? And why the Swedish entreprenuers want to have it in Penang in the first place? Why not in Sweden itself?

Also, why suddenly Kings of Tennis a supposedly an international event want to localize themselves and use a government domain (.gov.my) for their website?

Can someone explain what is going on here?

Without proper explanation regarding the current issue or worse the failure of this event, the opposition party (which is the Barisan Nasional here) will have an opportunity to question the Penang government (who is the main sponsor) on the money spent in this project.

Read here and here for why I think Penang government try not to get involved in the confusion between the local organiser and the owner of this event.

I've just checked that Kings of Tennis has been removed from the Visit Penang website. Click on images to enlarge.

Seems like the Penang government has turned their back on this event and delete it from the official programme.



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

Rafael Nadal slams Argentinean media on false political comment

Rafael Nadal is setting the record straight. He's not interested to get involved in anything political be it locals, national or international.

Here's what he has posted in his website today:

I don’t usually like to get involved in anything tabloid related, but given the seriousness of the matter I would like to straighten things out a bit.

It appears that some Argentinean media publishers have released a statement directed to me in regards to a ‘comment’ that apparently I made about their politics.

Well, I would like to say that those comments are completely false and my team is now going to get involved to try to track the source of these lies. We are going to take the necessary steps to stop this from happening again.

I am the kind of person that doesn’t like to get involved in politics, not local, nor national, and specially not international. That’s the way it is, and the way it will remain.

I really hope that all the Argentinean people that read the article know that it wasn’t me who said those things but instead it was someone else who just wanted to take advantage of my name.

Thank you everyone!

Rafa

I'm not sure what kind of comment falsely reported by the media publishers in Argentina.

But one thing for sure, the heat of Davis Cup final has begun!

(Via Rafael Nadal's official website, Image via zimbio.com)

WTA Championships: Ana Ivanovic gets her cake then pulls out; Serena Williams withdraws too

We don't get to see Fernando Verdasco celebrating Ana Ivanovic's 21st birthday.

Instead WTA boss Larry Scott and tournament director Karim Alami were the guys celebrating Ivanovic's birthday at the VIP Village of the Khalifa International Tennis Complex.

They presented her with a cake, shaped like a tennis racquet, made by Le Notre Paris.

The bad news is Ivanovic announced today that she has withdrawn from the Sony Ericsson Championships due to a virus.

The 20-year-old beauty has felt unwell throughout her stay in Doha and was affected by illness in her opening two round-robin matches.

Good for Agniezka Radwanska though as she will take on Svetlana Kuznetsova in Ivanovic's place.

"It's obviously, very, very hard for me," said Ivanovic.

"After the other night's match, it was a very intense and long match. I actually started to feel worse. Yesterday I didn't feel good, and today even worse."

"I tried to hit yesterday actually. I was on the court for about ten minutes, and as long as I didn't move it was okay. But if I tried to hit a little bit harder or to move to the side, it was impossible to do."

"Even if I were to step on the court [tonight], I wouldn't even be able to go through a few games."

The withdrawal is obviously a disappointing and sad ending to an otherwise glorious season.

But 2008 isn't all bad as Ivanovic won her first ever Grand Slam title and reached No.1 in the world (plus she also pocketed $100,000 at Doha despite the disappointing result).

She said: "Even though I had a tough few months, I still think this was the best year of my career so far. I won a Grand Slam, and I reached the position of No. 1. So there's lots of positive things to take from this year."

In another shocking withdrawal, Serena Williams cited a stomach injury when she pulled out of her match at the Sony Ericsson Championships against Elena Dementieva, who advanced to the semifinals.

“I did feel pain last night,” the U.S. Open champion said.

“I was still in pain just getting out of bed.”

Williams lost to her sister, Venus, 5-7, 6-1, 6-0 on Thursday.

Serena said she might have tweaked a muscle and that doctors had told her to rest.

(Via AP, Ana Ivanovic website, Images via zimbio.com, Yahoo! Sport)