nikolay rolls over for irina… or when it’s vodka straight up

In a charming display of devotion to his wife, Nikolay Davydenko didn’t give up the goods when asked if there’s any Russian tennis player he would want to marry. “Man or woman?”, he wanted to clarify, before explaining that he already has a “beautiful wife”. Good for him, since Irina was in the press room at the time.

We know how Kolya he likes his guys (nice eyes, nice hair), so in case those reporters are still wondering: we’re thinking he’ll pick Igor Andreev.

Another fun Davydenko fact: he’s weak sauce.

“I don’t drink so much because, you see, I’m skinny. I mix only, sometimes I drink clear vodka, sometimes mixed with Red Bull to give me a little boost in night club or disco.

“Because if I drink only vodka I go straight to sleep.”

Status quo: No new drops from Kolya’s clothing sponsor, Airness.

(image via Getty Images)

pico rolls over for kolya

As expected, Juan Monaco — the 30th seed at the 2010 Australian Open — rolled over for his third round opponent, Nikolay Davydenko. The score: 0-6, 3-6, 4-6.

To Juan’s credit, he had some pretty good wins in the prior two rounds, including one over Ernests Gulbis 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 in the first and a five-setter over Michael Llodra in the second (Pico came from two sets down).

Up next for Kolya is Fernando Verdasco, who walked over after Stefan Koubek retired with a fever (FeVer?) after losing the first set 6-1. And the potential quarterfinal matchup for the Russian is Roger Federer — sorry, Lleyton. (Draw: Men’s singles.)

It means go: Monaco’s wearing clothes from adidas‘s Spring 2010 Edge line, which is using green (“signal” and “dark”) as the contrast to the blue courts of the Australian Open. We’re all about the color blocking on the bermuda shorts, and pairing that with the intense graphic of the black/green crew gives a nice effect. Unfortunately, it just looks messy with the white/green colorway.

Buy: adidas Spring 2010 Edge Crew, $55; Edge Bermuda, $55; Warm-up, $80.

(images via Getty Images)

we ran out of ljub

Hard-serving Ivo Karlovic upset veteran Croatian Ivan Ljubicic 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7) in the third round of the 2010 Australian Open. Up next is Rafa Nadal, who lost the third set in his match against Philipp Kohlschreiber. (Draw: Men’s singles.)

Li Ning put him in the same multi-patterned mishmash polo (this time in a light seafoam green) to start out 2010. With all the sartorial switcheroos so far, it’s refreshing to see that Ivan and Li Ning have stuck together.

TSF spoke to Ljubicic back at the 2009 U.S. Open, and he told us all about how he’s worked closely with Li Ning to tweak and develop their tennis sneaks; he was their guinea pig. We look forward to what’s in store for Ljubicic in 2010. (Further reading: Ad Age named Li Ning their Marketer of the Year for 2009.)

More: See more pics of Ivan

petrova upsets clijsters + tattoo watch and fila heritage

The comeback story of Kim Clijsters hit a little bit of a snag when she ran into Nadia Petrova in the third round of the 2010 Australian Open. Many had high hopes that she’d join fellow recent unretiree Justine Henin — and the newbie Yanina Wickmayer — in a Belgian battle in the bottom half of the draw.

Instead, Petrova — who trained for six weeks leading up to Melbourne — gave Kim her worst loss in a very long time: a 6-0, 6-1 drubbing that booted the Fila mascot off the court in less than an hour.

“I was completely off,” Clijsters told reporters after the match. “I think tenniswise, I didn’t feel the ball at all.”

Henin and Wickmayer face each other in the round of 16; the winner of that match will play the winner of Petrova vs. Kuznetsova. (Draw: Women’s singles.)

Honorable mention: There weren’t really any good shots of it, but we are all about Fila’s Heritage skort. It’s got pleats just on the front left side, giving us a refreshing take on a classic tennis outfit.

Buy: Fila Heritage Cap Sleeve Top, white or red, $45; Heritage Skort, in white or peacoat (navy blue), $45.

More: See pics of Kim’s shoes and her two tattoos (!) — all

kirilenko: she’d look good in a potato sack

I assume you watched Project Runway last night? That Korean girl is craaaazeeeeee, but her dress was fantastic. And I never fall for anyone who uses the word “hoochie”, but I could not stop staring at Jesus Estrada. What is wrong with me??

Onto business: speaking of that potato sack PR episode, Maria Kirilenko is one lady who could look good wearing anything. Case in point: she looks wonderful in adidas‘ competition line, having been downgraded traded places with Caro Wozniacki as the face of Stella McCartney‘s line for the sportswear company.

Making lemons: Kirilenko shot to the top of Day 1 headlines with her upset of 14th seed Maria Sharapova in the first round. She’s now through to the fourth round and will face another Russian, Dinara Safina. (Draw: Women’s singles.)

A closer look: We love how Kirilenko’s made that adidas Competition Tank pop on the court. Contrasting that lime (“acid buzz”) with black is never optimal, but notice the use of color from her hair accessories, nail polish, and knee strap.

Buy: adidas Spring 2010 Competition Tank, in acid buzz/core teal, $45.

More: Pics

fashion focus: alona bondarenko’s fruity dress, not quite ripe

Alona Bondarenko bagged the first upset during Day 5 of play at the 2010 Australian Open with her defeat of eighth seed Jelena Jankovic in the third round.

The rusty (and “clogged-up”) Serbian never round her rythm, and the Ukranian took advantage, running away with a 6-2, 6-3 win. Up next for Alona is a match with Zheng Jie, who took out 11th seed Marion Bartoli. After that, it’s either Safina or Kirilenko. (Draw: Women’s Singles)

Pretty in pink: The “Raspberry Rose” halter dress has that faux layering at the chest (which everyone’s doing), chunky pleating, and grey and white stripes at the high waist to give the dress some extra shape (not that Alona needs the help). One of the cutest dresses of the tournament. Note that her shoes also have grey/pink detail.

Buy: K-Swiss Halter Dress, $75, in rose and white colorways; available February 3rd at kswiss.com. At some point I wish they’d figure out that this should go on sale the same day the tournament starts.

More: More pics of Alona

yawn: the aussie open e-store

While the other three majors are busy squeezing as much merch out of their brands (Roland Garros furniture, Wimbledon jewelry, Ralph Lauren’s U.S. Open gear), Melbourne is perfectly content just slapping their logo on anything China can churn out.

But if you insist on giving Tennis Australia some of your hard-earned bucks (Cruz Hewitt‘s college fund?), consider these gems in the rough: Official 2010 Women’s Player Towel, AU$55; Paper Fan, AU$5; plush wombat, AU$10.

(images via AO.com)

tommy haas, en fuego

Speaking of our HOATs (it’s that kind of a day), Tommy Haas was locked in a five-set battle against Janko Tipsarevic, which rendered us useless (and awake) for a few hours last night. Haas won and will now face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round. Draw: View his section of the draw here.

Tommy’s smokin’: The German’s no longer peddling K-Swiss goods, instead wearing pieces with the flame logo of Solfire, a Miami-based clothing company founded by artist Brendan Murphy. Note the use of graphics on the side and back of Tommy’s shirts. Check out some of the line (though not these specific performance pieces) on their site. We haven’t asked K-Swiss about who’s taking over Tommy’s place, but we’ll let you know when we find out anything more.

Uhm, can someone get him an underwear sponsor already? All that running around from side to side — it must hurt.

Bonus round: Yep, we couldn’t stop staring at his tummy, either.

(images via Getty Images)

janko’s out

The sandwich-loving Janko Tipsarevic is out of the 2010 Australian Open in the third round, losing to 18th seed Tommy Haas 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6.

Still, the Serb is having a good year so far: he got to the semis of Chennai (losing to Cilic) and was a runner-up for the doubles title (with partner Yen-Hsun Lu).

(image via Getty Images)

sightings in the stands: prince william

Most folks know that we’re with Team Ginger, but we have to give a little love to Prince William for doing his part to promote the sport.

The British royal made an appearance at Melbourne Park yesterday, watching second-round matches by Roger Federer (d. Victor Hanescu) and Casey Dellacqua (d. Karolina Sprem).

Here’s hoping that someone from the Obama camp will make it out to Flushing Meadows this fall. (It probably won’t be the President Obama, though. We can’t have him supporting tennis… it’ll be interpreted as “un-American”!)

(Image via Getty Images)

practice makes perfect: lleyton hewitt

Yep — after all these years, one of TSF’s original HOATs is still looking good.

Lleyton Hewitt has reached the third round after taking out Ricardo Hocevar 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 in the first round and American Donald Young 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-1 in the second.

Up next for the local (fave?) is a rematch with Marcos Baghdatis, whom Lleyton played in an epic 2008 Aussie Open match that lasted into the wee hours of the morning.

Funny, fellow Australian Bernard Tomic complained after his second-round, five-set loss to Marin Cilic in this year’s tourney. Other players were asked to comment about this. Their response? “Suck it up, Bernie!”

(Bad) Luck of the draw: Sadly for Hewitt, his 2010 AO run will likely end in the fourth round, where he’s up against Roger Federer. It was fun while it lasted! See the men’s draw here.

More: Speaking of stretching out the fun, more pictures of Hewitt’s shirtless practice pics

short balls: the diva collection

The first three days of action are complete at the Australian Open and the tournament has provided some interesting talking points thus far. There was the Maria Sharapova upset to start. And then the Roger Federer hiccup. Serena made sure she ignited some week-one controversy because the tennis isn’t entertaining her enough. And if you wanted entertainment hopefully you caught the dramatic match up between Elena Dementieva and Justine Henin. We’re just sorry we had to listen to it on AO Radio.

This week we have three videos we want you to check out, but only one of them features a player still in action in Melbourne. The first two are recently-released NikeWomen.com commercials that we found thanks to the prompt Tweeting of our good friend TheDoubleBagel. First Serena, then Maria. Check them… they’re pretty dang cool.

See our third choice after the cut…

i volunteer to make janko a sandwich

The web guys behind the 2010 Australian Open asked Janko Tipsarevic some questions before his second-round match against 18th-seed Tommy Haas.

TSF has learned that the man loves sandwiches for breakfast (“any kind”), finds escape in World of Warcraft (oy), and got engaged in the Maldives last year. Read the entire Q&A here.

Yes, the man is engaged. To a man, I hope.

FYI: Our munchkin Serb defeated Ryan Harrison 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the opening round.

(Image by Ben Solomon via AO.com)

masha opens tag heuer’s melbourne boutique

Show pony: Before crashing out in the first round of the 2010 Australian Open with a 6-7 (4), 6-3, 4-6 loss to fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko (another short-lived cameo for those fab Tiffany drop earrings, sadly), Maria Sharapova helped open the first Melbourne boutique for Tag Heuer.

Maria wore a white Chloe shirt dress and black pumps from her Cole Haan collection.

(image via Getty Images)

we all know exactly where yanina wickmayer is

Yanina Wickmayer had to qualify for the 2010 Australian Open — even though she’s the world’s 16th-ranked player — because of her alleged violation of the WADA’s whereabouts rule. She said they were looking for her in the wrong place (uhm, this sounds like a vicious cycle) and the anti-doping agency just slapped her with a one-year ban. She got it overturned, but not before it forced her to miss the entry deadlines for tournaments in Auckland and Melbourne.

Wickmayer’s quickly righting the ship, winning Auckland as a wildcard (defeating Flavia Pennetta in the final) and reaching the third round in Melbourne after beating the un-Tacchini-ed Pennetta again — this time 7-6 (2), 6-1.

Looking forward: Wickmayer has essentially taken over Flavia’s 12th seed spot in the bottom half of the women’s draw. We expect her to fall to fellow Belgian Justine Henin in the fourth round or to Clijsters in the quarters.

Lovin’ them drop earrings. She’s also put some light pink into her teal/white/black Erke rotation.

(images via Getty Images)

the outsiders

There are seven men gunning for the Australian Open title this January…

(illustration by troy venechanos)

aussie glimpses

Play is already underway in Melbourne, but check out these scenes from the last couple of days prior to the tournament’s start.

22nd seed Lleyton Hewitt on court with son, Cruz.

Check out more shots after the cut.

sunday survey: who’s your winner?

Time to pick who you think will take home the 2010 men’s and women’s Australian Open titles from Melbourne. Tell us!

(photo by jam343 via flickr.com)

video: australian open draw predictions

We break down the men’s and women’s draws for this year’s Australian Open, set to begin on Monday. Click the image to watch.

gallery perusing

There is always plenty of interesting (and sometimes questionable) photos to peruse on the WTA’s photo gallery from each tournament each week. This last week, the folks at the tour put together a couple of gems from Hobart and Sydney. We picked out a few of our faves.

Alicia Molik and Sania Mirza try on some cricket gear with a couple of beefies.

We really do believe that Daniela Hantuchova belongs in the ’70s. According to her tee, so does she.

Svetlana Kuznetsova and Jelena Jankovic on the red carpet at Sydney. Which outfit do you like better?

(photos via WTA.com/getty images)