Australian Open 2013: The heat is on

Last year I had the opportunity to attend my first Grand Slam tournament in Melbourne. Everything was great except the crazy weather. Although I only spent one day at the Australian Open due to a packed schedule but I thought I had enough of the heatwave. I only managed to sit through a game where Stanislas Wawrinka was playing and that was it.

While I look to bet on march madness online, the same month Rafael Nadal is scheduled to be back on court in Indian Wells, I'll still be following up closely with the AO tournament despite the absence of Nadal. I believe the competition is going to be very tight this year (isn't that happen every year?).

Here are some training pictures from Melbourne before the tournament kicks off next week.

Ana Ivanovic (she looks too skinny these days)

Novak Djokovic

Andy Murray

Victoria Azarenka

Lleyton Hewitt

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Serena Williams

Roger Federer

(Images via Sina Sports)

Caroline Wozniacki and defending champion Hsieh Su-Wei commit to play BMW Malaysian Open 2013

Malaysian tennis fans will be in for a treat next year as former world no. 1 Caroline Wozniacki will play in the BMW Malaysia Open from Feb 25-March 3 at the Royal Selangor Golf Club.

Wozniacki who is now ranked no. 10 will be joined by defending champion Hsieh Su-Wei.

Earlier Wozniacki was spotted at the Miami Heat game with her golfer boyfriend Rory McIlroy who reportedly bought a $10.9 million home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

(Image via Tennis Forum)

Malaysian Open, PTT Thailand Open named their marquee players

I'm all excited because the Malaysian Open has named Juan Monaco as one of the four marquee players for this year's tournament. The Argentinian who is a fresh face to the tournament just won the Hamburg title on Sunday and enters the top 10  for the first time today.

The other three marquee players are David Ferrer, Kei Nishikori and Alexandr Dolgopolov.

Meanwhile, PTT Thailand Open who will be celebrating its 10th anniversary has named their marquee players as well. They are Janko Tipsarevic, Gilles Simon, Fernando Verdasco, Richard Gasquet, Milos Raonic, Gael Monfils and Bernard Tomic.

(Images via Malaysian Open and PTT Thailand Open's Facebook fan pages)

Tennis newlyweds: Marcos Baghdatis and Karolina Sprem get married!

I read about the marriage between Marcos Baghdatis and fellow tennis player Karolina Sprem from Marija's Women's Tennis Blog .

The two tennis players tied the knot in a fairy tale wedding complete with horse carriage witnessed by friends and family.

The wedding took place at the Trakoscan castle in the bride's native Croatia.

(Images via index.hr)