Our hats are off to Jelena Jankovic and the folks at ANTA for producing one of the better Fed Cup outfits of 2010 so far. (I know Nick wasn’t really a fan, but I will stick to my guns!) She and the rest of the Serbian gals couldn’t fight off the hard-hitting Russians in this first round tie of the World Group I bracket.
Especially with all the talk of Venus‘ skin-colored undies at the Australian Open, it’s refreshing to see someone take a step back and go with sheer instead. (See the panels on the chest and the side of her dress.) We could have lived without those awkward slits that made Jelena’s dress look like it got caught in an escalator, though.
FYI, she wore a white version during her doubles match with Ana Ivanovic.
Again, the details: We love the red nails, the red and gold in her bracelet and necklace, and the same color motif in her shoes. See ‘em all after the cut…
We’re all about Samantha Stosur’s patriotic Oakley glasses, which show off Australia’s national sporting colors. Sam helped her country defeat Spain 3-2 in the 2010 Fed Cup World Group II first round by winning both her singles rubbers and the doubles with partner Renae Stubbs. Further reading: Read the Fed Cup write-up about the tie here.
Lacoste: This dress is part of the same spring collection that includes the orange separates Alize Cornet wore during the 2010 Australian Open last month.
I know it’s turning out to be a heavy flow day from adidas, but we have one more bit…
Silver lining: In the wake of her dismal Fed Cup performance against Russia (which saw her lose both singles rubbers and the doubles rubber), Ana Ivanovic can take a breather after an announcement today that she’ll extended her partnership with adidas to last for her whole career — and she’ll even become a brand ambassador once she retires. “I feel thrilled to be a member of the adidas family and I am very much looking forward to working with adidas on many projects in the future,” she shared through a press release.
Here’s hoping Ana will find her game soon. Otherwise, she’ll be a brand ambassador before she knows it!
See-through: We’re all about that ton-sur-ton jacquard white top that she wore for her doubles match (alongside Jelena Jankovic), though we were hoping she’d have picked a different, bolder color for her singles rubbers.
We had a hunch that the current adidas Spring Edge line for men didn’t look quite right in the white/green colorway, but looks pretty darn good in black/green. And to prove our point, here’s Jurgen Melzer on his way to a semifinal exit at last week’s PBZ Zagreb Indoors. He lost to eventual champMarin Cilic.
Flavia Pennetta and the rest of the Italian girls swept past Fed Cup Team Ukraine at this weekend’s tie in Kharkiv. (The only point to the Ukranians came during Alona Bondarenko’s win over Francesca Schiavone.)
After a logo-less January, which saw Flavia wearing purple and white at the Australian Open, she emerged for the Fed Cup tie in adidas‘ adilibria line, which is the one headlined byAna Ivanovic.
Pennetta, who was previously with Sergio Tacchini, has a partnership with adidas through 2012.
More: See two more pics — the back of Flavia’s shirt and her warmup suit (by Australian by L’Alpina) — both after the cut…
The women took a week off to fight for the flags, but the men were vying for titles this past week.
Marin Cilic defended his title at the PBZ Zagreb Indoors with a 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3 win over Michael Berrer. After the match, Marin explained that second-set hiccup that went Berrer’s way.
“I was surprised with the level of [Berrer's] game. It’s not that I underestimated him; it’s just that I did not expect this level of tennis in his first major final. There were no ups and downs in his game; I had to earn every point.”
Marin currently has a 15-1 record for 2010. He won Chennai and made it to the semis of the 2010 Australian Open.
South Africa and South America: See the other two singles winners after the cut…
It was a wild weekend on the Fed Cup front as Melanie Oudin led the American charge in a 4-1 upset over France. Bethanie Mattek Sands contributed the biggest W for team USA, charging back from a first-set deficit to defeat the tough Alize Cornet in the opening rubber.
The US will now take on Russia, which withstood a spirited challenge from Jelena Jankovic. Luckily for the Russians, Serbia was bogged down by a error-ridden Ana Ivanovic (surprise!).
Belgium rode the talents of two youngsters in World Group II, and China’s Aussie bliss couldn’t carry over into the Fed Cup weekend. For full results, visit the Fed Cup web site.
We’re wondering: What did you think was the most compelling story of the Fed Cup weekend? Oudin’s double victory? Ivanovic’s implosion? Jankovic’s win over Sveta? Italy’s overwhelming of Ukraine? World Group II’s rowdy results? Wickmayer’s incredible upset?
Check out Daniela Hantuchova’s wild hair and a couple other Fed Cup shots after the break.
We’re still the stepchild: While Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Melanie Oudin are busy defending USA’s honor in this weekend’s Fed Cup tie against France, the top two American tennis players — Venus and Serena Williams — are busy with football. As part-owners of the Dolphins NFL franchise, the sisters are in Miami as the city plays host to Super Bowl XLIV.
But ya might as well make some dough on your down time, no? Venus hosted the launch of a new Tide product: Tide plus Febreze Freshness Sport. We’ll get back to you as soon as we find out what that means.
(By the way, this 44th Super Bowl will have the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts playing for the title.)
(By the way, the U.S. is up 2-0 against France after the first two singles rubbers. Doubles and reverse singles will be played tomorrow.)
More: A few more shots (including ones of her and Serena) — all after the cut…
We still don’t know what the heck Tide Plus Febreze Freshness Sport is, but we know that Kellan Lutz was at its launch party (hosted by Venus Williams at the W Hotel in South Beach on February 5).
Come to think of it, we’re not sure about Mr. Lutz, either. That hair isn’t helping his cause. On the other hand, there’s exhibit B: him and his Calvins…
Along with participating in Roger Federer’s impromptu fundraiser at the 2010 Australian Open, Serena Williams did her part for raising moolah for Haitian earthquake survivors by appearing at BET’s oddly named SOS Saving Ourselves: Help for Haiti telethon on Friday night.
The event had performances from Chris Brown, Justin Bieber, Nas, Ludacris, Robin Thicke, Mary J. Blige, Ne-Yo, and a few others. View: Click here to watch the video.
If you didn’t get the chance to read the ESPN.com piece written by John Buccigross in December about hockey’s royal family the Burkes, now might be a good time to do so. It told of their 21-year-old son Brendan, who had courageously come out of the closet both privately and publicly in a sport that likens itself more to back woods pond brawls than it does to modern-day queer culture.
On Friday, young Brendan’s life was cut tragically short by a vehicle accident in Indiana. TSF honors those – like Brendan – who strive for equality in our society at large, and in cultures – like hockey – where the fight remains dauntingly uphill.
It was doppelganger week last week on Facebook, and thousands of self-promoting social media-ers (myself included) made sure to post which celebrity they looked like… or wished they looked like (mine).
With all the buzz around the “Red Riding” trilogy, we couldn’t help but notice lead actor Andrew Garfield resembled one Andy Murray, circa 2006/7/8. Thank god Murray cut that mane, it’s the best thing the Scot has done in his career so far, no?
So if Murray traded the racquet in for a cig, could he go the way of Djoko? We’re not sure about that…
A cute pic of Alize Cornet as she gets ready to play in this weekend’s Fed Cup tie against the United States. She’ll play the tie’s first rubber (against Bethanie Mattek-Sands). The varsity lettering on the french warmup jackets are cuuute.
In Melbourne, Cornet bageled 17th-seed Francesca Schiavone before losing 6-0, 5-7, 0-6. Ouch. At least we liked her orange and white Lacoste separates. Note the horizontal orange stripes near the hem of her skirt.
(Fed Cup photos by Corinne Dubreuil; aussie images via Getty Images)
That’s Bojana Jovanovski, Ana Jovanovic, captain Dejan Vranes, Jelena Jankovic, and Ana Ivanovic at the official Fed Cup dinner on the eve of the tie between Serbia and Russia. As you can see from the schedule below, the headcase Ivanovic will go up against Svetlana Kuznetsova first, and then Jelena, whose back injury could hamper her performance, will then face the hard-hitting Alisa Kleybanova.
Russian team: Captain Shamil Tarpischev, Vera Dushevina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and Alisa Kleybanova.
If the tie was based solely on footwear, the Serbians win. What is up with Anastasia’s red bra??
Who’s playing whom + TV: Here’s the line-up for all four World Group ties (plus TC’s coverage of the US/France tie) — after the cut…
Ask and you shall receive: Thanks to Amy for sending us links to some Janko images with his new tattoo. As he had explained on his website, this latest addition (on the back of Janko’s left arm) is the chinese/japanese character for “black”.
Tattoo watch: Read some more from the Tattoo Watch blotter here.
Read up on Jamaica’s No. 1 tennis player, the 6′5″ serve-and-volleyer Dustin Brown on the ATP site. He’s currently through to the quarterfinals of the SA Tennis Open in Johannesburg. This is only his second tour-level event.
Chris and I headed over to The Viper Room last night to see David Baron perform with special guests Mike and Bob Bryan. The twins, fresh from their 2010 Australian Open men’s doubles title win (their eight career major), played the guitar and keyboard through the roughly 45-minute set. They opened with “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas and closed with “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” by Tom Petty. In the middle were original songs by Baron, and one that was recently co-written with the twins as support for Andre Agassi (“Open My Heart”) amid all the slack the tennis legend has received for writing his memoir, Open.
As you may remember, the twins collaborated with Baron on their first album, Let It Rip.
I wasn’t expecting much, to be honest, expecting that the $10 cover and the prospect of watching some dilettantes perform live music could be washed down by a PBR or two. But that definitely was not the case. The music was polished, the songs well-written; this was definitely not amateur night. I could have lived without Bob’s omnipresent necklace (and one of the scariest sex faces I have ever seen, ever), but all in all a good show.
Sam Querrey and Justin Gimelstob were also in attendance. We asked Justin what he thought about the Bryan’s performance. “It’s amazing to see two guys who are as talented in tennis as they are in music,” he shared.
Bonus: Here is a video of Bob and Mike accompanying David through U2’s “All I Want Is You”.
… and nope — it has nothing to do with those pictures of Fernando Verdasco in CK chonies.
Instead, this other Spaniard is struggling with the high altitude of Johannesburg, South Africa, where a bunch of the ATP dudes are currently playing in the SA Tennis Open. Feli will face Rajeev Ram in the third round before possibly facing top seed Gael Monfils in the semis. Waiting on the opposite side of the draw is second seed David Ferrer.
We’re not quite sure what’s going on with this filmstrippy print on his Joma crew — his first kit of 2010 — but it was fun variation from the usual color blocking they’d done in years past. Lopez made it as far as the third round of the Australian Open before falling to Andy Roddick.
Joma adds a second: And speaking of the Spanish clothier, they’ve added former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero to their roster. The partnership began at the beginning of this year. He was previously with Lotto.
More: A few more looks at Feli’s Joma kit after the cut…
Where do we sign? You know that we here at TSF are split about our love for Fernando Verdasco (and after a recent trip to New Haven, I think I snapped Nick out of his, ahem, FeVer) — but consider us converts after seeing these preview pics of the Spaniard showing off his goods in Calvin Klein underwear.
Calvin Klein X is a new range of men’s briefs being marketed around the world, and they’ve signed on Kellan Lutz (one of them Twilight vampires), Mehcad Brooks (True Blood), and soccer player Hidetoshi Nakata along with Verdasco to promote the line.
Set your alarm: Our mice will be clicking over to xmarkyourspot.com to see more of these guys’ goods (shot by Mikael Jansson) on February 15. A belated Valentine’s Day present for everyone.
That’s right, folks. Sury Serbian Janko Tipsarevic now has his very own website. It loads a little slow (which, in this age of seemingly unlimited bandwith, is “unacceptable”, as they say), but we’re definitely looking forward to keeping in touch with the munchkin.
Tattoo watch? In the fan question section (“Ask Him“, someone asked about the meaning of Janko’s new tattoo. His response? “Black”. Is there really a new tat? If you have info (or images), please send our way!
the fed cup runneth over with all the exciting ties from this past weekend's fed cup, which one was your favorite?
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