Weekend winners: Nikolay Davydenko, Gilles Simon, Maria Sharapova

Top seed Nikolay Davydenko defeated Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 7-5 to win the Malaysia Open on Sunday.

Poles Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski took the doubles title after beating Igor Kunitsyn and Jaroslav Levinsky 6-2, 6-1.

In Bangkok, Gilles Simon won the Thailand Open after down Viktor Troicki 7-5, 6-3 for his first ATP title of the year and sixth overall.

In the doubles final, Americans Eric Butorac and Rajeev Ram beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Mischa Zverev 7-6(4), 6-3.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, Maria Sharapova won her first tournament since returning from a 10-month injury layoff when Jelena Jankovic retired because of an arm injury in the first set of the Toray Pan Pacific final.

Sharapova was up 5-2 at Ariake Colosseum when the seventh-seeded Serb took a timeout to have her right arm examined by the trainer. Jankovic returned to the court and lost the first two points of the eighth game before retiring.

(Via AP; Images via Yahoo! Sports)

A conversation with chair umpire Carlos Bernardes

Thanks to a contest by Astrolife I had the opportunity to toss coin for the doubles semifinals match last night.

It was such an honour to be able to step onto the Centre Court. [Click here to check out the court preparation, if you haven't seen it yet]

I was introduced to the chair umpire Carlos Bernardes by the international Media Director Craig Gabriel.

I congratulated Carlos as his country Brazil won the rights to host the Olympics 2016.

I teased him by saying that the organiser should have a special autograph signing session for the chair umpires as he and Mohamed Lahyani are very popular here.

Then we started talking about Malaysia - he said he had now know the meaning of 'Malaysia Truly Asia'.

Carlos said he had seen the commercial countless times on CNN but only understand the true meaning of that famous tagline when he reached this country.

Everywhere he went, including the KLCC, he was truly amazed by how the different races in this country able to live together despite social and cultural differences.

As we walked towards the middle of the Centre Court, waiting for the players to join us, Carlos added that the ATP World Tour tried very hard to promote the doubles event - having the players' names on the back of their t-shirts is one way to do so.

I shook hands with all the players and tossed the coin. Mariusz Fyrstenberg joked/praised me for that nice flip :P

What a priceless experience that was on Friday night.

I'm glad I made full use of that opportunity to speak to one of the best and nicest chair umpires in the world.

(Images by HSFoo/hcfoo.com)

Proton Malaysian Open: Results and OOP for Final Day

Davydenko vs Verdasco in the final showdown

RESULTS - SATURDAY, 3 OCTOBER, 2009
Singles - Semifinals
[1] N Davydenko (RUS) d [3] R Soderling (SWE) 16 76(1) 62
[2] F Verdasco (ESP) d [4] F Gonzalez (CHI) 64 75

Doubles - Semifinals
[1] M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) d [3] M Damm (CZE) / R Lindstedt (SWE) 63 67(4) 10-4
I Kunitsyn (RUS) / J Levinsky (CZE) d S Huss (AUS) / S Lipsky (USA) 36 76(5) 10-3


ORDER OF PLAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 04, 2009
CENTER COURT start 2:30 pm
[1] M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) vs I Kunitsyn (RUS) / J Levinsky (CZE) - DOUBLES FINAL
Not Before 3:45 PM
[1] N Davydenko (RUS) vs [2] F Verdasco (ESP) - SINGLES FINAL

(Images by Proton Malaysian Open)

TENNIS WATCH: Ana Ivanovic's out, Rafael Nadal's in

Modeling - Ana Ivanovic's back up plan? During a photo shoot in Beijing

• Ana Ivanovic has withdrawn from the China Open with an upper respiratory infection. She said in a statement on Saturday that it has been a very disappointing season.The 21-year-old Serbian said her body was “quite fragile” following a combination of too much training and not enough recuperation.

• Rafael Nadal has recovered from an abdominal injury and made himself available for Spain’s Davis Cup final against the Czech Republic in December. He plans to resume playing at next week’s China Open, before traveling to the Shanghai Masters, the Paris Masters and the ATP World Tour finals in London.

• Austria's postal services announced they will issue a 65-centime stamp honouring Roger Federer as the world's best tennis player. Some 400,000 stamps which show Federer winning the French Open last June will go on sale next February.

• Just 15 months after they were married, golf star Greg Norman and tennis great Chris Evert (the original Ana Ivanovic-Adam Scott) announced they have separated. They did not elaborate on the split or on whether a divorce was impending.

• Belgians Yanina Wickmayer, US Open semifinalist, and Xavier Malisse have been called before the nti-doping tribunal for not fulfilling their anti-doping responsibilities. Wickmayer has missed filling out her whereabouts requirements three times, while Malisse has not filled his whereabouts information twice and has also missed a test.

• Hong Kong’s highest-profile women’s tennis tournament JB Group Classic has asked the government for a $700,000 bailout after its main sponsor withdrew backing for the early season exhibition event. Tourney director Terry Catton added that the tournament would still go ahead “whatever happens”.

(Via AP, tennis.com)