Istanbul Cup: Partying in Turkey can be fun, even without booze

You've read about Vera Zvonareva attended the Istanbul Cup’s official opening ceremony that took place at the Archeology Museum.

Among the tennis players appear in this tournament are Anabel Medina Garrigues, Vera Dushevina, Aravane Rezai, Patty Schnyder, Timea Bacsinszky, as well as Turkish girls Ipek Senoglu, Cagla Buyukakcay.

The girls attended the ceremony which lasted three hours and ended with a concert by Eurovision singer Hadise.

And of course the girls know what they are supposed to do there - dance and have fun!


(Images via Istanbul Cup official website)

Could Vera Zvonareva be the "Mall Queen of Tennis"?

Roger Federer and Jelena Jankovic are some of the tennis players who have done it.

Vera Zvonareva joined them by making an appearance at the largest local shopping mall in Istanbul, Turkey as a part of a promotion event for the Istanbul Cup this week.

Now this is really weird because Zvonareva kind of remind me of Tiffany, the red-haired all-American teenage singer who promoted her songs by touring shopping malls across America back in the late 80s!

At the event, Zvonareva played tennis on a mini tennis court with Turkish player Ipek Senoglu and then signed autographs and interacted with the local tennis fans.

She also took part in the tournament's opening ceremonies at the Archeological Museum on the same day.

Thanks to IMG for the photos and updates.

(Images by Turgay Arslanturkoglu)

Roger Federer's the biggest gainer but here are the weekend winners...

A slightly late update but here's the list of the weekend winners.

It's a pity that German Open Hamburg, an ATP 500 event, has lost its crowd and sponsors due to the non-participation of top tennis players and well, bad timing.

But it's certainly not bad timing for Nikolay Davydenko who won his first title of the year, beating Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-2 in the German Open final.

The second-seeded Davydenko captured the 15th title of his career and became the first Russian to win the clay-court tournament.

Mathieu, the 13th-seeded Frenchman, was playing his first final of the year.

In Indianapolis, Robby Ginepri, ranked no. 95 in the ATP rankings, won his third career singles title on Sunday by upsetting no. 3 seed and fellow American Sam Querrey, 6-2, 6-4, in the final of the Indianapolis Tennis Championships.

Dinara Safina thinks she needs more confident boost.

She gets what she wants by winning her 12th WTA tournament on Sunday, rallying to beat defending champion Sara Errani 6-7 (5), 6-1, 7-5 at the Slovenia Open.

Earlier, Andrea Petkovic bagged her first WTA Tour title, beating Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-2, 6-3 at the Nuernberger Gastein Ladies in Austria.

(Via AP, Images via Yahoo! Sports)

Charlene Riva & Myla Rose Federer tipped to win Wimbledon?

Nuh-uh... this is not one of the Federer twins.

Gotta be kidding me!

In just less than 48 hours after Roger Federer's twin girls were born, British bookies had already posted odds on Charlene Riva and Myla Rose.

The bookies offered 100-1 for either Charlene Riva or Myla Rose to win the Wimbledon championship title.

The twins are 25-1 to claim one of the four grand slams with all bets based on either doing so before their 25th birthdays.

The girls are also 50-1 to win a grand slam as part of the same doubles team and 200-1 to take the Wimbledon doubles crown.

Roger Federer and parents visiting Mirka and babies at the clinic.

If I were one of the twin tots, I would grow up and do something else besides tennis... perhaps be a fashion designer.

(Via Reuters)