Tennis

[lpatrice]

As glad as I am that Andy took out both Nadal and Nole, I gotta say I'm rooting for Feli for this one - he is just so nice to look at, those eyes!!! And he is an excellent player too, but I must give props to Andy for a great tournament and he'll probably win - so good for him.

[Deleted]

Congrats Andy!

According to other tennis fans I missed quite the match.

[onyxrose81]

You did! Andy really needed this title but Feli was a most deserving runner-up. Not that many unforced errors; it was just an awesome match. I hope now that Andy's found his forehand, he can carry this momentum into Indian Wells and Miami.

[Deleted]

A little late seeing as it' in progress now, but Sampras v. Federer on Madison Square Guarden is now on The Tennis Channel and available on livestream on USTA website.

[OnyxRose]

Congrats to Andy Roddick. He's engaged to SI model Brooklyn Decker. She's so young and they've only been dating for a year but whatevs.

[Sunnyhorse]

Wow, I hope Venus is OK -- any guesses as to what the "issues" are?

[Fraggle Rock]

Does the general tennis thread mean that we don't talk about Venus in her own thread anymore? I was going to post some stuff about the sisters and their situation with Indian Wells there yesterday, but I got distracted and forgot about it.

RE: Venus's issues

I have no idea - can't even begin to guess, but I find it kind of funny that the AP article mentions that she won't be playing the Fed Cup semi. Say "aye" if you actually expected her to go. I didn't. I thought both she and Serena played last year to get their Olympic qualification. No reason for them to play again this year.

(edited - I just looked it up. Both of them did play last year, so I wasn't counting on either of them to be named to this squad this year - even though Venus has played FC more than her sister.)

----

Some news...

* Daniela Klemenschits died of cancer today at age 25.

* And Ashley Harkleroad (a kind of middle of the road American player)had to have an ovary removed.

From the Ashley article:

The discomfort worsened, and Harkleroad underwent a diagnostic ultrasound that showed she had a blood-filled cyst on her ovary.

"The advice I was given was that I could play with it as long as I could deal with the pain," she said. "So I took four Aleve and two Pamprin and went out for my third-round match."

She declined to say who gave her the advice or whether she is contemplating legal action.

Since Ashley isn't saying who gave her the advice, it makes me think it was either the tournament physician or PHCP. I know the WTA are the ones who provide the PHCP, but I think the tournament in itself are the ones who provide the local physician (correct me if I'm wrong).

Any lurking (or non-lurking) lawyers around to say exactly what kind of legal action Ashley could take? If she wanted to file a suit, what kind of suit would it be?

[Deleted]

Venus has anemia. Tennisheads are speculating her hiatus is because of that.

[oceansun]

Justine Henin has retired today.
I'll miss her a lot. A big loss for the sport.

[Fraggle Rock]

Dude, this sucks.

I liked Justine. She was a refreshing departure from the "I only know how to hit hard" crowd. I was really, really hoping that she would become the first female player to win RG four years in a row in the open era, but given her form this year, the chances of that happening were looking slim. I think it's kind of cool that she's retiring as the number one player in the world. She goes out as the defending RG champ, defending USO champ, defending YEC champ, and defending Olympic gold medalist.

All of my favorites are calling it quits in 2008. Monica, Guga, Justine... Amelie isn't looking too good at the moment. I've already mentally prepared myself for her retirement. If Marat or Rafa leave on me too, I'm going to have a meltdown. I know Rafa isn't likely to retire at 21/22, but I'm always on edge with Marat.

Oh well... Go Kuzzie!