practice makes perfect: roger federer at indian wells ’09

Roger Federer might have a lost a spring in his tennis step, but he’s business as usual when it comes to his Nike practice tees at this week’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

TSF narrowly missed his Saturday practice (but Cipolla as a consolation isn’t so bad), so we didn’t get a chance to see things up close. Thank god for the hundreds of other digital cameras that snapped all these pics.

Scoreline: He’s facing Andy Murray in the semis after beating Verdasco. Roddick and Nadal are playing the other semi.

More: Plenty more shirts (and warm-up jackets)

public service announcement: tretorn nylite

If any of you are out in the desert and in need of some simple shoes, consider the Tretorn sale going on at the Puma outlet in Cabazon. The Tretorn Nylite was designed in 1967 and became the “it” tennis shoes in the 70s.

I picked up this pair of white/yellow Nylite for $25 (they normally retail for $55). FYI, the outlet has seven or eight other styles that are all marked down 50%.

fashion focus: royal blue for a royal shirt

TSF normally doesn’t look twice at the offerings over at Prince (sorry), but that’s not the case this year. We’re totally in love with the tops from their Spring Gold Collection. The line’s distinguished by a playful take on plackets — basically, putting one where one needn’t be.

We first saw this shirt on Bjorn Rehnquist at the 2009 Australian Open. The Sweded drew Andy Roddick in the first round and went down in three quick sets, but not before getting photographed (the only perk of playing a top seed early, probably) and letting us see the Prince kit in action.

Austrian Oliver Marach wore the sleeveless version at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells this week, where he was entered in the doubles draw. TSF sat next to him at the Haas/Schuettler match last Saturday, and later spotted him as a hitting partner to the hitchy backhand of quarterfinalist (and compatriot) Sybille Bammer.

Scoreline: Poor Bamma Mamma had to withdraw from the quarters with a shoulder injury, giving Ana Ivanovic one less reason to NOT be hoisting the trophy tomorrow. The Serb will face Pavlyuchenkova (who took out the seventh [!!] seed, Agnieszka Radwanska). Meanwhile, the other semi features Vera Zvonareva — whose groundstrokes were lookin pretty darn good when we saw her practice — and Victoria Azarenka (the lady who downed Dinara).

Buy: Prince Spring Gold Collection, in Cloud/Ocean (blues), Anthracite Grey/Black, Flame/Japan (red), White/Black; Crew, $37.99; Polo, $45.99; Sleeveless, $33.99; Knit Short, $36.99.

(top image via SI.com)

you can stick it wear the sun shines a lot

Congrats to our buddy Joe Durica and his Stick It Wear?! for getting some pretty prime retail space at the BNP Paribas Open tennis shop (it’s in that tent that’s neither TW nor Fila).

He chose to bring in four player-inspired shirts: Swiss Superstar, Number One, Russian Meltdown, and Original Rebel in a variety of styles and colors.

If you’re at the tourney, go check out his goods!

sometimes, sports don’t keep kids out of trouble

Efficent kid, this one. While he wasn’t using his Sharpie to amass players’ autographs, he used it for some good, old-fashioned huffing.

Meanwhile, his dad sat in front of him totally engrossed in the competitive first set of the second-round match between Lleyton Hewitt and Fernando Gonzalez.

Scoreline: Hewitt lost that match; Gonzalez has since lost — to Federer in the fourth round.

More: Two more pics

sightings in the stands: rainn wilson

It’s always fun to see the world’s role models patronizing tennis, isn’t it? The Office‘s Rainn Wilson was a few boxes away from TSF at the second-round match between Andy Roddick and Daniel Koellerer at this week’s BNP Paribas Open. That was the same night that Roger lost his doubles match.

Mr. Wilson scurried out of Stadium 1 as soon as the umpire called the match (perhaps not wanting to get mobbed).

He is taller than we expected.

nalbandian pushes rafa with five match points

Rafa Nadal had to work for his place in the quartefinals of the BNP Paribas Open. The top seed fended off the always dangerous David Nalbandian, who now has a 2-1 record against the Spaniard (with two wins in 2007 — Madrid and Paris).

Another kit: Nadal and Nike came up with another variation of his Bold Crew Men’s Tee, this time in white/neon turquoise/charcoal.

Scoreline: Nadal saved five match points (four on his own serve, one on Nalbandian’s) to take the second set to a tiebreaker. The third set did not start until 1:30 a.m. The final score: 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-0. After this test, Rafa will face Juan Martin del Potro in the quarters. Del Potro beat John Isner 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3) in the battle of the beasts.

Buy: Nike Bold Crew Tee, $45; Re-Invent Shorts, $55.

(images via Getty Images)

atp’s players page

Kudos to whomever dreamed up this graphic for the landing page of the players section on the ATP website.

From left to right, that’s Davydenko, Roddick, Djokovic, Federer, Nadal. Murray, Blake, and del Potro.

See it: Click on that link above to see it enlarged. Pretty cool stuff.

(image grab from the ATP site)

david ferrer: biohazardous to roddick’s game

Andy Roddick got his first taste of trouble in the hands of fiery Spaniard David Ferrer, who took the top-ranked American to three sets — 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-3 — in the fourth round of this week’s BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.

Lotto’s new look: We’re not quite sure what to think of this biohazard-esque graphic splayed on David Ferrer‘s spring Lotto kit, but its definitely a welcome change from the teal/white colorway he sported in the last few months.

He wore a red/white version during last week’s Davis Cup tie between Spain and Serbia; the white/mustard colorway during his matches earlier this week, and the mustard-only made its debut last night.

Looking ahead: Still, Andy got through and will next face Novak Djokovic in the quarters. They’re even in their head-to-head with two apiece. They’re most recent match was at this year’s Australian Open (Nole retired in the fourth).

(images via Getty Images)

oh, mirka!

Here’s Gwen Stefani with son Zuma (in his Burberry check bloomers, of course) sitting next to Mirka Vavrinec during Roger Federer‘s fourth round match vs. Gonzalez at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

Be patient, Mirks — you’ll have your own baby soon enough! By the way, TSF’s been wondering: will you be picking up a Silver Cross (though be careful, you might end up mired in a legal mess), or is Marc Jacobs already working on your monogrammed Louis Vuitton baby carriage?

Another pic of Gwen and Zuma here.

(image via Getty Images)

fashion focus: roger + nike mourning his oz loss

As if the folks at Nike knew what would go down in Australia, Roger Federer‘s kit for the North American spring swing is tail-‘tween-legs muted. He wears a navy blue ribbed v-neck with white trim at the sleeves. He pairs this with herringbone shorts (the white “tux stripes” are back).

Key accessories are his classy and classic Rolex and a white belt. A monogrammed white warm-up jacket and his Australian Open duffel round out the look.

Tag-teamed by Fernandos: With weight off Roger’s shoulders both on the court (now shared with colleagues Nole, Rafa, and A. Murray) and off (he’s distracted by preggers Mirka, I’m sure), he can now swing that one-handed backhand with abandon and get back to his winning ways. At this week’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., Roger beat Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 in the fourth round and will face Fernando Verdasco in the quarters.

Buy: Nike Spring V-Neck Top, charcoal/obsidian/concord/white, $60; Woven Tennis Shorts, charcoal/obsidian/white, $45.

(image via Getty Images)

video: fila players working the catwalk + peep show

Click above for the video of the Fila/Trina Turk fashion show we sat in on over the weekend.

Carlos Diaz worked uber-hard for Jax (yes, my friends, a model named Jax — are we surprised?) to show off his tummy. Happens at minute eight, in case you’re wondering.

(video courtesy of Fila)

anti-murphy’s law: igor andreev

Lots of things are going right in Igor Andreev‘s book:

1) The 22nd seed at this week’s BNP Paribas Open just upset 11th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round (and will face Ljubicic in the fourth).

2) He’s wearing some nice Under Armour right now. That Dropper Sleeveless Crew, in azure/sunlight, is $39.99.

3) Who knew he had pecs like throw pillows? ❤

(IW photo via Getty Images; practice photo via Craig Hickman)

sightings in the stands: nadal d. tursunov

Top seed Rafa Nadal is looking to better his 2008 performace at Indian Wells (he lost to Novak Djokovic in the semis) and he seems to be on track. The Spaniard faced Dmitry Tursunov in the third round and got through 6-3, 6-3.

Here’s Nadal’s assessment of the match: “[Dmitry] didn’t give me a lot of rhythm. He played good shots, but at the same time, he made mistakes” — 37 of them, in fact.

Bracketology: The men’s fourth-round match list reads like the draw for a major tournament; all but three of the 16 are seeds. It’s Rafa vs. Nalbandian, Isner vs. Del Potro (battle of the beasts!!!), Wawrinka vs. Djokovic, Ferrer vs. Roddick, Ljubicic vs. Andreev, Robredo vs. Murray, Federer vs. Gonzo, and Kohlschreiber vs. Verdasco.

We’re hoping for a Nadal-Djokovic top-half semi, and Murray-Federer for the bottom half.

(photo via Getty Images)

our favorite headline ever?

Perhaps. It’s definitely a contender.

sa watch 2009: indian wells

No TSF tourney journey would be complete without a peek at what our favorite Brazilian duo — Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa — is up to. At the first Saturday of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Calif., we spotted them in the middle of a scrimmage match against Bob and Mike Bryan. Both Marcelo and Andre were wearing their Centauro red.

On Sunday (we missed it, le sigh), the eighth-seeded team took out Paul-Henri Mathieu and Marat Safin in the first round, and are currently facing Ross Hutchins and Andy Murray (who took out Tommy Berdych and Nikki Kiefer). We hope for Sa’s curly hair and beauty marks to see another desert day!

Update: The Brits upset the Brazilians 6-1, 6-3.

(image via Getty Images)

i am being BLINDED

Roger Federer‘s watch is darned shiny. Way shinier than the unpolished game he and partner Yves Allegro brought to their first round BNP Paribas Open doubles match against the Bryans. I hope this wasn’t R-Fed’s way to stymie his current funk, because…

Scoreline: Bryan/Bryan def. Allegro/Federer 6-2, 6-0. Match time: 42 minutes.

Buy: Federer sports watches from Rolex‘s Oyster Perpetual line — the Yacht-Master II and the Milgauss. Check them out at rolex.com.

(image via Getty Images)

fila for the masses

No Dima or Janko at the show, unfortch, but Taylor Dent, Andreas Seppi, Marin Cilic, Agi Szavay, and Anna Chakvetadze walked down the BNP Paribas Open catwalk last night in Fila and Trina Turk fashions.

Anna was the, uhm, most efficient of the ladies, darting in and out with no love to the camera. She can chalk (chak-?) it up to her being under the weather; we’ll let it slide this time.

We heard that Agi, who came out in some yoga gear, had a really good time backstage. Dent hammed it up as the first player down the catwalk.

Meanwhile, the only non-athlete male model, who we saw wolfing down hors d’oeuvres right before the show, flashed his abs to the audience at the host’s request. And it looked good. Life isn’t fair.

Of the Fila goods, we really loved the his-and-hers cable knit sweater vests and the totes embossed with the company logo (available in gold, red, or black). We’ll post pics later.

Price points are pretty low ($30-$60 for bags; $1OO for shoes). I’m pickin’ up a pair of White Line Mids before I leave tonight.

Buy: Women’s Essenza vest, $80; men’s version, $80; terra rosa jacket in navy/cream and lime colorways, $175; terra rosa polo, $150; White Line Mids, $99.

asians represent!

Gilles Simon just got a standing ovation after successfulluy fending off Taiwanese player Yen-Hsun Lu in three sets. The second round men’s singles the BNP Paribas Open was pretty high-quality… 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 or something like that.

Congrats to him and a pat on the back to Lu for showing the world that the Chinese men can play ball like the rest of ’em!

Event minutiae: Meanwhile, we’re all waiting for Blake and Nieminen to go into a third set at Stadium 1, because if Blake wins in 2, we’ll have to schlep all the way there to watch Hewitt/Gonzo. Otherwise, Hewitt/Gonzo stays here, as planned.

(Yep, folks, these are the things tourney organizers have to think about!)

…Poor Blake, but yay for us, because he’s mired in a third set against the Finn. Hewitt/Gonzo starts soon.

the king(ston) has entered the building

Gavin and Gwen are going to be watching this afternoon’s 2nd round singles match between Roger Federer and Marc Gicquel.