PHOTO OP: Dani's headlights are, like, WAY on

Thanks to DtL reader Coco for sending me the link to this hysterical pic of Daniela Hantuchova getting her sweat on.

Dani that top needs a bra. Just sayin'.

(image via wtnphotos.com)

Quote of the Day: Fed on Nole

I think Andy forced him also. If Novak were up two sets to Love I don't think he would have retired 4‑Love down in the fourth. Thanks to Andy that he retired in the end. Andy pushed him to the limits. Hats off to Andy.

- Roger Federer on Nole's mid-match retirement in his quarterfinal match against A-Rod

I'm with Fed on this one (shocker, I know!). It's a pretty harsh assessment and it's always hard to predict what could've happened, but A-Rod did make Nole feel even more miserable on the court than he already was feeling. He still had to win the match and, ultimately, the Serb couldn't stand the heat and left the kitchen.

Oh well - that's tennis.

(image via Getty)

(UPDATED) Rafa reacts to Nole retirement, takes in some timely meat

Rafael Nadal, who battles French kisser Gilles Simon in the Oz quarterfinals, is still answering reader questions for The Times.

In his latest Q&A, the Mallorcan Matador was asked about Nole's sketchy mid-match retirement during his quarterfinal match against Andy Roddick:

What do you think of Djokovic's retirement? How do you train yourself to play in the extreme heat of Australia? Miho, San Francisco

RN: I don't know well what happened. I didn't see all the match and haven't been able to speak to him so I prefer not to comment. It is tough though to see a player retire and it is obvious it was very hot today. Too bad but I am sure he had good reasons.

Smart move Rafa - take the high road. The world's top baller also posted the latest entry to his blog for the UK site:

Hi everyone,
Once again I am here writing this blog, that more than a blog is a diary. Maybe blog means that... or it should have been named digital diary... or maybe I am just not right. In any case I am good at doing this if I have to write about what I did during the day and a few thoughts, but not more...

So today I went pretty early to the tournament site. I practiced for over an hour and 30 minutes and tried to stay very little on-site. I think today it has been the day I have gotten back earlier to the hotel in many years. At 2pm I was back at the hotel and rest all day long. I did go to the gym a bit with my physio Rafa Maymo but not much.

We just came back from dinner where we were a few of us. My whole team Toni my uncle, Carlos Costa my manager, Rafa Maymo my physio, Benito Perez-Barbadillo my PR Manager, Tuts Robert from Nike, my father, Feliciano Lopez and his team Jose Perlas and his physio Marc.

We had a nice dinner at a place with excellent meat. It is funny since I normally don't eat meat the day before a match. I try to eat something lighter. But tomorrow I am playing at night so it is OK if I would play at 3 or something like that I would not have eaten it. I will go to the site at 4 to warm up around 5.30 and be ready for the match at 7.30. So plenty of time to get that meat well in my body.

Hope I can be with you writing again in 2 days...
Thanks
Rafa

Believe me Rafa, that's more than enough time to get that meat well into your body.

OH MY...

*faints twice*

UPDATE: Thanks to DtL reader Holly for pointing out that the "meat" reference was mysteriously removed from Rafa's above-mentioned blog. He also apologized in his latest blog for the slip saying, "Yesterday I made a mistake with my English (actually Benito who translates for me) so apologies for that."

Oh sillies - don't you know you can't remove the meat once it's been taken in? Well, unless you ask nicely...

(images via Getty)

PHOTO OP: JD waves off loss to Dinara in Oz quarterfinals

Jelena Dokic's Aussie Open dream run is over.

The 25-year old, who became the "It Girl" of Australia with her inspiring run, was defeated by Dinara Safina in the quarterfinals 4-6, 6-4, 4-6. JD hit 54 errors against 29 winners and 8 double faults. Not gonna cut it. Dinara will now face compatriot Vera Zvonareva, who blasted Marion Bartoli, for a spot in Saturday's final.

JD refused to blame the left ankle she rolled in her previous match for the loss saying, "It was fine". She also told the press,

Like I said, it's been a great start to 2009. I couldn't have asked for anything more. I have to take all the positives and negatives out of today and really learn for the rest of the year about what I will do differently in a match like that. But, yeah, like I said, there's absolutely nothing to be disappointed about.

Agreed - it surpassed anyone's expectations. Now the true test comes: can JD build on this momentum and stake her claim in the elite level of the WTA Tour? She showed the talent, skills, and fight to do it but it's a long season. Only time will tell.

PS - Is anyone else disappointed that we won't be seeing anymore of sexy coach Borna Bikic and his sick arms getting all emotional and excited?

*wears VERY sad face*

(image via Getty)

FASHION FIX: Mirka watches Regal Rog crush J. Martin, works pretty LV metallic satchel

Mirka Vavrinec was spotted working a beautiful Louis Vuitton metallic silver satchel (though the fuzzy white heart is questionable) while watching her man, Roger Federer, absolutely annihilate Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 and reach his record 19th straight Grand Slam semifinal.

The stats tell the tale: 38 winners against 9 errors, 70% success on first serve deliveries, 12 aces, 21 of 25 net approaches, and converted 7 of 11 break point chances. Yikes. He'll take on a resurgent Andy Roddick for a place in Sunday's final.

So what was Juan Martin del Potro's assessment of why he was completely whitewashed in their match: "He's Roger Federer."

Clearly Fed's feeling good after being given a second life after his 5-set, fourth round escape against Tomas Berdych and he's letting his game fly now. Watch out.

But back to RoKa: they seem alive and well, as usual. And, I'm sure there'll be more LV satchels in Mirka's future though I imagine she's probably looking for something a little smaller, shinier, and has a diamond or 10 on it.

(image via AP)

A-Rod makes Aussie Open semis when Nole retires...AGAIN

Andy Roddick is getting his year off to a flying start in Oz.

The former US Open champ, who made the final in Doha earlier this month, continued his solid run of form advancing to the Aussie Open semifinals when defending champ Novak Djokovic retired from their match while A-Rod was leading 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-2, 2-1. It's his fourth semifinal appearance Down Under and first since 2007.

The American baller believes his much-improved fitness allowed him to be aggressive with his positioning on-court:

Yeah, I noticed [the positioning] a lot on the first ball. When they hit a return, I'm able to stabilize on that one, or at least get there a second quicker and at least neutralize that one. I'm not getting hurt on that ball as much, which helps. When I get going, I'm able to kind of move a little bit, and that's nice also.

And did he realize Nole was struggling with the conditions?

I didn't. I was kind of just playing my side of the court and I didn't notice until the umpire said that they had someone coming out to see him.

In his post-match presser, Nole discussed his reasons for retiring in the big match:

Well, the main reason is cramping and soreness in the whole body. I think the people could see that I was struggling with movement. I couldn't serve the way I served in the first two sets. That third set I just started dropping 20, 30 kilometers per hour first serve. Obviously wasn't ‑‑ it was much easier for him to return. He saw that longer rallies are not comfortable for me at that point, so he was using it wisely. Really unfortunate way to end up my Australian Open 2009 here in this way. Really tried my best, but sometimes you can't fight against your own body.

Nole also revealed he made a request for a night match after finishing his fourth rounder against Marcos Baghdatis at 2:30am on Monday but was denied due to Jelena Dokic's quarterfinal being broadcast in primetime:

It's on the tournament organizers to decide whether they going put me or her or whoever plays on prime time. I don't blame them putting an Australian on at 7:30. It's obviously it attracts most people and attention. You got to think about people, about the public, about everybody. That's what it's all about. You can't think only about the players, which is normal. But sometimes you got hear what the players have to say. Things like this happen for ‑‑ not for a reason.

And is he prepared for any criticism for notching another career retirement under his belt?

I wasn't thinking about that. This is all part of the sport. I did have some retirements, but I always retired with a reason. I don't see why should anybody, you know, take it or mean it that way. Whenever I retired, I retired because I felt I cannot go on. I mean, I don't ‑‑ that's the only reason.

Sure you always had a "reason" but was the reason always worthy of a mid-match retirement? That's questionable, especially when you respond "Yeah, I feel better. I feel better now. I want to get on the court again" when asked how you were feeling in presser.

And, correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this Nole's seventh retirement from a match since 2005? Regardless I find it truly disappointing and annoying that he couldn't finish out this match being down 1-2 in what would likely be the final set because of cramping and soreness. That's crap.

Even a wobbly Victoria Azarenka tried to push through obvious dizziness and illness to complete her match against Serena Williams before being forced to retire. A pretty pathetic attempt by Nole here but apparently more par for the course.

He also continued his country's Serbian Slide following Ana Ivanovic's + Jelena Jankovic's early round exits. *clap*

Big kudos, however, to A-Rod for coming through this section of the draw and making me look like I might know a little something of what I blog about. He's looking fit and confident but he'll have a stern, if near impossible, task of defeating a now-zoning Roger Federer (more on his crushing win over Juan Martin del Potro later) for a spot in the Aussie Open final.

(images via Getty)

Quote of the Day: Rafa on Rafa

My iPod, my laptop and probably my Playstation, well not really, I suppose the company of someone from my team instead of the PS... But if I can have those 4 even better...

- Rafael Nadal on the three things he can't live without on the road

Are you insane Rafa? Screw the "someone from my team" crap. You MUST bring the Playstation.

¿Por qué? Mira.

(image via Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

PHOTO OP: A French kiss can cure all ills between friends

Following in the footsteps of Gonzo + Richard, Gael Monfils and compatriot Gilles Simon shared their own intimate post-match moment after their fourth rounder was cut short in Oz.

The pair had split the first two sets and Sneaky Simon had just clinched the third set 6-1 when La Monf retired from the match with a right wrist injury.

At least these Frenchie ballers know the best cure for some really bad news: a little man-on-man action.

Trust me, it works every time.

PS - Thanks anonymous DtL reader for the image links!



(images via MTF)

SIGHTING: Sexy Borna Bikic smolders through JD's dream run

As excited as I am for Jelena Dokic to continue her dream run at the Aussie Open this week (and I really REALLY am), I'm equally excited about the fact that we'll all continue to get glimpses of her steaming hot coach Borna Bikic.

"Giiirl, it looks exactly how you'd imagine it would look - solid."

His toned arms and broad shoulders are seriously hinting at something scarily sexy underneath. *sweats + swoons*

Plus, he gets all emotional with his brother and JD's boyfriend, Tin, after her big win.

Is it possible to put in a request to the powers-that-be for a "Coach Cam"? I'm in (no pun intended, I swear.)

Serena advances when Vika retires, continues 'war of words' with A-Rod

The "war of words" between Serena Williams + Andy Roddick continued to gather steam in Melbourne today.

A concerned ReRe advanced to the quarterfinals in Melbourne when her opponent, Victoria Azarenka, retired from their match citing illness after looking wobbly and near-faint towards the end of their fourth rounder (kinda scary, actually.) The 3-time champ was down and set but up a break in the second when Vika called it quits; she'll face Svetlana Kuznetsova for a semifinal spot.


In her post-match presser, talk turned back to her defeat of A-Rod in '93:

Q. Obviously good early on beating Andy Roddick when he was 10 years old. Any hopes of a charity rematch?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I don't think it's necessary to have a rematch. You know, I won. I was clearly the better player. I beat Roddick, you know. Andy Roddick, yeah (smiling). There's really no need to have a rematch. It's unimportant [sic] now.

Q. The score speaks for itself. What was the score?
SERENA WILLIAMS: 6‑1. The score absolutely speaks for itself. He always jokes, Rematch, rematch. But I don't even have time for a rematch (smiling).

Q. What was Andy like as a 10‑year‑old kid? Was he a brat or a good kid?
SERENA WILLIAMS: You know, he was a sweetheart. He was so sweet and he was so small. His older brother played really good tennis, John Roddick. He was always John Roddick's younger brother. I was kind of Venus' younger sister. I just remember he was a really sweet kid. You know, he could never really beat me (laughter).

Q. If you don't want to play Andy in a charity match, maybe a dump‑truck‑pressing contest?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Pardon?

Q. Did you hear about the dump‑truck‑pressing comment he made?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Andy's always exaggerating. I was so small for my age. He was small, too. But he just got jealous because my body was more fit and that my biceps are probably still bigger than his (laughter). Andy is incredibly jealous of me. You know, I just don't know why. I can't blame him really (smiling).

Q. His exact comment was that, at the time he had to run around in the shower to get wet while you were bench pressing dump trucks.
SERENA WILLIAMS: Again, I'll have to talk to him, because he clearly didn't have to run around. He wasn't that thin. Andy's a fit guy. Like I said, he was always trying to get muscles like mine, get more developed. I guess it still hasn't happened yet (laughter).

Q. Andy Roddick has been in the top 10 for seven straight years. I know you can appreciate that consistency. Can you talk about him as a competitor.
SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, he's clearly a great competitor. You know, Andy influenced me. I think a couple years ago he wasn't playing his best tennis. The guy never gave up. He was at every event, playing every tournament. He never lost confidence. That actually motivated me at that point to do well. I was able to win some tournaments after watching his spirit and competitiveness. I never told him that, but he definitely did influence me to do better and to work harder. So I think he's a great competitor. Too bad he can't beat some women players, but nonetheless he's pretty good (smiling).

Damn - I'd kill to be a fly on the wall of ReRe's post-match pressers. Pure entertainment.

But kudos to her for showing real concern and class where Vika was concerned.

(images via AP)