that painting is brill

Upper right corner, my friends. Nole posing next to his Pacific Life Open trophy. Amazing.

(God, how we miss that whale.)

This photo was taken during the ceremony held at this week’s Serbia Open in Belgrade to hand diplomatic passports to Ana Jovanovic, Bojana Jovanovski, Janko Tipsarevic, Nenad Zimonjic, Viktor Troicki, and Novak Djokovic.

“I am honored to promote to diplomatic service people who have contributed to the popularity of Serbia in the world,” said Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic. “There is not a single country in the world which wouldn’t be honored to have you as ambassadors.”

More: See the whole story at the Serbia Open site and the full gallery here.

(img by Pedja Milosavljevic via serbiaopen.rs)

fed cup 2010 – first round

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) —

fed cup: in belgrade, jankovic welcomes us to her home

Jelena Jankovic‘s second outing with Chinese clothing sponsor ANTA is another boudoir-inspired piece (the first: a green teddy), this time a white sleeveless dress with ruffle detail on the straps. Jankovic wore it while respresenting Serbia in the Fed Cup World Group II tie vs. Japan.

As expected, the Serbian team, which also included Ana Ivanovic, Ana Jovanovic, and Teodora Mircic, played well in front of the hometown crowd in Belgrade. They rolled over the Japanese team of Ai Sugiyama, Akiko Morigami, Rika Fujiwara, and Ayumi Morita. The lone Japanese victory was the doubles point.

From the trenches: Marija of Women’s Tennis Blog was at the event. Check out her coverage.

(images via Getty Images)