tick tock: marton fucsovics

For those keeping count, 2010 Wimbledon juniors singles champ — Hungarian Marton Fucsovics — turns 18 on August 2, 2010.

it must be love

Somehow, TSF got ahold of this photo, a promotional shot for the US Open‘s “It Must Be Love” campaign featuring Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner. It was poo-pooed for being a bit too racy, but we think it works just fine!

golden smiles

Serena and Rafa are all smiles at the Champions Ball earlier tonight after their victories this weekend to capture their respective titles at Wimbledon, 2010.

ushering in a new era in post-match celebration

Twirls, salutes, scissor kicks are all so passé. Rafael Nadal‘s tumble on dusty Centre Court — after winning against Tomas Berdych 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 — will be the new way to celebrate a significant victory.

(image via Getty Images)

sightings in the stands: nadal vs. berdych

The girlfriends were out in force today, with Xisca Perello and Lucie Safarova cheering on Rafa Nadal and Tomas Berdych at the 2010 Wimbledon Men’s Singles final.

Safarova lost in the first round of this year’s singles draw, upset by Dominika Cibulkova. In doubles, she and Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak lost in the second round to the fifth-seeded team of Huber/Mattek-Sands.

(images via Getty Images and Hola)

serena, queen of aces

Gatorade has put out the first post-Wimbledon win ad featuring Serena Williams, and we’re liking it okay. We wish she would’ve kept a little bit more of a retro look in costuming, but the girl can smile, twirl, swing (and serve!) and we gotta give her props for smashing 89 aces in seven matches, a tournament record on her way to the title. Click the image above to watch the commercial!

(screen grab via youtube)

tsf podcast: wimbledon (w/ david thorpe)

What moment created this sort of celebration from Serena? It wasn’t Championship Point. Find out in this installment of the TSF podcast.

Freelance tennis writer David Thorpe joined me and Erwin this morning to talk about the 2010 edition of Wimbledon that, with Serena Williams‘s clinical win on Saturday, is almost over. Click the file to upload to your iTunes and hear us rattle off our thoughts on everything from NBC‘s commentary quality, to the roller coaster that is Venus Williams, why the Queen makes us hungry and just who will make good on their Wimbledon breakthrough and become a top-tier player.

David Thorpe joins to talk on the TSF Wimby Women

the homage to federer continues

Nevermind that Roger Federer‘s Grand Slam semifinal streak has been snapped, nay, smashed by Tomas Berdych 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the quarters of this year’s Wimbledon — because the rest of the world’s celebration of the tennis champ keeps on going. A few weeks after we unearthed the woman with the RF tattoo, we’ve come across a Chicago-based artist who’s sculpted R-Fed’s likeness in clay.

Raul Gautier, a recent immigrant from Mexico, took a day and a half to create this piece. Up next are figurines of Nadal and Agassi. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a Federer toy, of course. Nike collaborated with Michael Lau to come up with this Hulk-esque plastic mound in 2007.

For sale: Federer figurine, $650. Mr. Gautier’s website will be up soon. Contact TSF if you’d like to get in touch with him.

More: See a few more looks of this sculpture

breakfast at wimbledon: 2010 ladies’ final

Trophy time: A women’s doubles final between Vesnina/Zvonareva and Shvedova/King doesn’t exactly inspire a ratings smash, but NBC Sports should be showing that instead of the Nadal/Murray semi, no?

A very eloquent and appreciative Zvonareva puts it all in perspective: it’s every player’s dream to play Centre Court at Wimbledon, and she got it done!

6-3, 6-2: For the fourth time, Serena wins a major without losing a set. Mazel!

5-2: Serena’s up to bat for her 13th major singles title. Opens with an ace.

5-1: Zvonareva had the tape working in her favor in the seventh game to hold. Fun fact: her favorite college subject is statistics. Oh, those Russians!

3-1, deuce #2: Vera hits her first two forehand winners to dig out of a break point… aaaaand Serena ends up winning the game anyway.

3-1: Roger Federer will fall to No. 3 in the world when the rankings come out next week. It’ll be the first time he’ll be down there since 2003. Who were the top two back then?

2-1: Centre Court looks pretty banged up — it’s playing like a clay court, says Nadal — but we’d really like to know how Court 18 is faring…

2-0: One game later, Vera’s still beefing about losing her serve to open the second set. She rights the ship and holds.

0-0, second set: SERGEY.

6-3: Serena, even with some faulty serving — winning points on 27% of her second serves — takes the cake.

5-3: Awesome defense by Serena leading to a break of serve. There probably won’t be a third set the way this is going. BTW, Zvonareva’s wearing the Open Racerback Tank from K-Swiss. That teal and yellow motif is much better than the navy she had on for the first few rounds.

4-3, Serena: FYI, Mariana Alves is calling this match.

3-3: Vera digs out of a break point with some awesome serving. That forehand of hers, though…

3-2, Serena; And now begins the sightings in the stands: BJK, Navratilova, Brazilian Maria Bueno, and Christie Brinkley.

Changeover: Back to the drawing boards, Geico. You have Billie Jean King sitting in a linesman’s chair in that ad with the Caveman… but she ends up looking like a geriatric in a wheelchair.

2-2: Vera holds again with some good defense but some horrible slicing. (She’s in the doubles final with Vesnina.) Stat: this is the 16th major in a row that Serena’s played. If the kids only knew how spotty her attendance used to be…

2-1, Serena: At least Vera’s getting into points even with Serena’s crazy first-serve percentage for the tournament (over half have been unreturnable!). On another note, when do we get to see Sergey??

1-1 Serena’s serving again after holding to open the match. Is it really just Mary and Ted in the booth? With no McEnroe to hog up air time, we’re excited to see what she’ll spew!

Warm-up: We still have beef about those warm-up pants on Vera Zvonareva.

let’s celebrate america the way we know best

While we’ve got visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads (and by “sugar plums” we mean “the abs of Sergey Demekhine“), don’t think that TSF’s forgotten about Independence Day. We plan to take in some Breakfast at Wimbledon (live blogging!), catch some rays, and beef up our closets. And to whet the appetite, a little patriotic window shoppin’:

ASOS: Paul Smith Jeans Curved Buckle Belt, $91.31; Bill Amberg White Canvas Rucksack, $211.36; ASOS Overdyed Slim Jeans, $47.35.

Tobi: Nixon The Time Teller P Watch, $60; Alex & Chloe Bermuda Triangle necklace, $48; incase Perforated Snap iPhone Case, $29.

UO: Night and Day Sofa, $499.99; Henry the Boxer Bank, $9.99; Giraffe Duvet, $39.99.

weekend programming: let the live blogs begin

We know you’ll be glued to your TV and the last thing on your mind will be to hit the “Refresh” button on the TSF page, but just wanted to let you folks know that we’ll be live blogging both the women’s and men’s finals at Wimbledon this weekend. No, that’s not the keyboard we use, but we decided with all the white happening at the All England Club that we need a little color in our lives. Check back later this weekend to read just how we saw and heard the 2010 edition of Breakfast at Wimbledon!

(photo by noeltykay via flickr)

short balls 2.0: like a train, we’re still going

Who knew today would be such a busy tennis news day?! And here we were thinking all we’d have to do is count how many times John McEnroe used ”she” in his commentary instead of identifying Zvonareva, Pironkova or Kvitova by name. We think it was somewhere in the ball park of 2,000 or so.

My first-person account of trying out to be a US Open ballperson is up on the New York Times Straight Sets tennis blog. No, I haven’t heard back yet, but I can assure my tryout wasn’t quite as entertaining as Jimmy Fallon’s from last year’s Open. Hilarity.

In case you haven’t heard yet, Justine Henin has sustained an elbow injury at Wimbledon and has already stated she’s likely not to play the US Open. So much for that comeback, eh? Oh, and remember the 35,000-seat stadium that was going to host the Justine versus Kimmy exhibition? 34,999 people are breathing a sigh of relief that Serena signed on to take her place.

(OT) The Target Corp. is opening a new store in Manhattan’s Spanish Harlem nabe, on 116th and Pleasant Avenue. The company is going all out with advertising, including buying and entire 6 Train (which runs on the east side through Spanish Harlem) – inside and out – for brand advertising. Click the image above to see video.

Pardon our forgetfulness, but we had somehow lost track of the kennethinthe212 blog, a witty and well-written corner of the web that dedicates a good deal of virtual ink to the world of tennis. Or, more importantly, the catfights of tennis. Most recently, Kenneth made sure to post Sandra Bernhard‘s angry Tweets scolding Pam Shriver for existing… er, we mean, for ridiculing Venus Williams. You tell ‘em honey!

And in a not-so-surprising move, the Huffington Post has selected Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic as the top two male hotties at Wimbledon. #3? John Isner. We’re not so sure about that one…

in vera’s corner, a&f model/ hitting partner/ distraction tactic

Models, actresses, singers and political powers have made their presence felt in the players boxes at Wimbledon and beyond over the years, especially as tennis has transitioned the last few years as more of an entertainment sport. But how often can we say a model slash coach slash hitting partner sits him or herself in the box to watch a major semifinal? Not often. Well, if you count Matthew Perry as a hitting partner, maybe… but the boy is no model, that’s for sure!

Vera Zvonareva’s surprise run to the Wimbledon final can now add this footnote: she has a model in her corner. Sergey Demekhine, a former touring pro from Russia, has been spotted in her box throughout the tournament, as well as hitting with her on the practice court. On Zvonareva’s web site, he’s listed as the 25-year-old’s coach.

Somewhere along the road, Demekhine has put his tennis body to work for him in different ways, most notably as an Abercrombie & Fitch model. Check out the pictures after the jump to see the proof.

andy’s campers

The tents are a poppin’: Big-time Wimbledon fans were already lining up Thursday afternoon for the chance to get Centre Court tickets alloted to the first 500 people in the queue. A Centre Court ticket would assure the sighting of Andy Murray, the nation’s great hope for the title.

(getty images via yahoo! sports)

short balls: wimby’s week 2

Week two at The Championships, Wimbledon is coming to a close. It’s most certainly been a wild ride, and TSF is pretty sure that this is one of our more favorite slams from the last few years. Can the final weekend produce the high-quality tennis (and drama!) that would put the cream on top of the strawberries?? We hope so. For now, let’s get to those short balls that haven’t quite been bouncing on the court but have been getting plenty action off of it…

Thumbs up to the folks over at Flavorwire for coming up with the seven films that are longer than the Isner-Mahut match. Didn’t know they existed? Neither did we. At first we didn’t think there could be anything more boring than watching two men serve bomb after bomb at one another for 11 hours, but The Longest Most Meaningless Movie in the World (48 hours) sounds absolutely torturous. But don’t worry, that’s just a third the length of Cinematon, which is almost a week long (150 hours). Hand over the popcorn and the triple shot cappuccino, y’all, we’re gunna need it!

The city of San Diego is double fist-pumping after it was announced earlier this week that it will host the Fed Cup final between the US and Italy. San Diego lost its beloved WTA Tour stop two years ago during a restructuring by the tour, but it was announced earlier this year that the Mercury Insurance Open would return to the tennis hotbed, and with the announcement of the Fed Cup final San Diego is swagging like Birmingham, Ala., did a few months ago.

The days of teen domination of the WTA Tour? Probably over. At least that’s what Doug Robson wrote this week in USA Today, siting the success of veterans Francesca Schiavone, Sam Stosur and Vera Zvonareva at recent slams. Want other evidence that the teens are going the way of the dinosaur on tour? Robson notes just one teen is in the top 10 (can you name her?!) and six are in the top 100. Speaking of the youngsters: Brit Laura Robson (no relation to Doug) has advanced to the semifinals of the juniors draw at Wimbledon.

Want some French fashion to make your Wimbledon feel complete? Yeah, we understand that doesn’t make complete sense, but if Serena can don her nails in diamonds and strawberries, then we can help reveal the secrets of a French woman’s style. What’s stylish for a former Wimbledon champ from France who’s now retired? See above. She couldn’t look better, even as a coach.

And yes, we heard about Jennifer Capriati this week. Who didn’t? But, what to write? It’s impossible to know whether the claims of a suicide attempt are true, or if Capriati was indeed taking prescription medications or if it was another type of overdose. In any case, this might have been the kind of incident that will turn Capriati’s life for the better. As far as we knew here at TSF, she was still mulling a comeback to the tour, but it might be safe now to officially write “Retired” next to her name and see her blossoming in new and different ways. We can only hope.

(photo by getty images)