new balance tee: tennis playahs

Sightings in the stands: We always forget that New Balance is in the tennis business. Their novelty tee for the season is this one, worn by a fan watching yesterday’s Fish/Harrison semi at the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles. Props to the layout and color choices — it’s white/blue for the summer and red/white/black for the fall — but a play on “playahs” (having “game”)? Give us something fresher and wittier next year, ok?

Buy: New Balance Summer Playah Tee, $16.99. Browse the rest of the NB line (including threads for Fall ’11) here.

(photo by TSF)

we give our love to men’s doubles

And by doubles, we mean a two-for-one: shirtless AND tattooed.

Farmers Classic semifinalist Alex Bogomolov, Jr. showed TSF some love before his match-up against Ernests Gulbis yesterday. Alex was on the Grandstand court playing points with a decent-hittin’ tween. BTW: Gulbis won that match 6-2, 7-6 (4).

We already logged his right shoulder tat, and this is our first the Chinese characters on his left shoulder.

More: Two more images

fish and chipper

Spreading cheer and love, that one. I guess that’s what you do when you’re having a great start to your summer.

Buy: K-Swiss MS Awesome Day Tee; in black, heather grey, and white; $25; kswiss.com.

(photo by TSF)

practice makes perfect: ernests gulbis

Facing Fish: Ernie Gulbis hits with Canas a few hours before his final match against Mardy Fish at the Farmers Classic, being contested this week at UCLA. This is Gulbis’ second appearance in an ATP World Tour final; his first was at Delray Beach last year, where he won his first career title. Bracket: See how the men fared in Los Angeles.

What a trooper: Browse the goods from the Fall/Winter 2011 adidas Originals x Star Wars collaboration here (and grab the goods here. Our fave? The Flight Jacket and the AT-AT sweatshirt.

(photo by TSF)

shirtless: guillermo canas

So are we the only ones seeing more and more men wear their long hair in buns these days? Kinda loving it as a summer look…

Speaking of bun (and buns) Guillermo Canas has been popping in and out of our line of sight at this week’s Farmer’s Classic, where he’s been working with semifinalist Ernests Gulbis. The lanky Latvian booked his spot in the final four with that upset of second seed Juan Martin Del Potro 6-4, 7-6 (3), making this his first semi appearance since January in Sydney. Gulbis will play Alex Bogomolov, who staged his own upset in the Grandstand court in his quarterfinal against Thomaz Bellucci.

Stacking up: See the draws here.

(photo by TSF)

farmers classic rides the betty white bandwagon

“An Evening With Betty White” Coming To Farmers Classic Presented by Mercedes-Benz

A bit of a stretch, but we’ll go with it. (Hey — it’s all good press, right?) Betty White will be at UCLA’s Royce Hall on the Friday before the start of the Farmers Classic, also held on campus. She’ll give a talk about her career (including a Q&A portion!), moderated by her “Hot in Cleveland” co-star Wendie Malick.

She’s not cheap: Ticket info here to see Betty; you’ll have to fork over $50 for the nosebleeds.

More: Full release

ask and you shall receive: marat safin

Mila: this isn’t a picture from Thursday’s practice, but still a recent one of Marat Safin. Here he’s talking to the press after a match at last month’s Los Angeles Tennis Open.

Marat’s swan song sees him without a coach after parting ways with Hernan Gumy (an unnecessary expense for this last year). He keeps to himself and doesn’t have many good friends on the tour. “Everybody walks with five or six people nowadays… [The game] is not as much fun. It’s too professional. Everyone’s hungry for money.”

After Marat serves his last fuzzy ball into the sunset — the final tournament on the schedule is Bercy — the Russian plans to take six months off. After that break, he doesn’t know what’s in store just yet. Safin will just be relieved to be free of competitive tennis: “no more match points, no more deuces, no more second serves.”

The final episode: At the 2009 U.S. Open, Marat opens with a match against Jurgen Melzer and will face either del Potro or Monaco in the second round. If he pulls that one out (not likely, le sigh), there’s a fourth-rounder against Gilles Simon and a quarterfinal against second seed Andy Murray.

(photo by TSF)