Monday, April 26, 2010

Kim Clijsters could miss French Open due to foot injury

Belgian tennis star Kim Clijsters suffered a muscle rupture in her left foot on Saturday and could be sidelined for up to six weeks, putting her status for next month's French Open in doubt.

The injury occurred during the second set of her Fed Cup match with Estonian Maret Ani. After her 6-4, 6-2 victory, Clijsters went to the hospital, where an MRI revealed there was bruising of bones in her left foot.

Clijsters, currently the 11th ranked player in the world, was twice a finalist in the French Open in 2001 and 2003. This year's event commences May 24.

The 26-year-old returned from a near two-year retirement last year and went on to win the U.S. Open. She reached the third round at the Australian Open earlier this year.

She has won 37 WTA singles titles during her career, two coming this year in Brisbane and Miami.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/25/1597860/clijsters-could-miss-french-open.html#ixzz0mGTHqGYk

Damn, and I was so looking forward to watching her at the French Open, get well Kim :). Here's to a speedy recovery!.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Maura Tierney on leaving 'Parenthood' and working in a theatre

After wrapping her last full season on the NBC series “ER” in May 2008, the actress Maura Tierney placed a phone call that would prove prophetic.

Eager for a rigorous acting experience after nine years on that fast-paced melodrama, Ms. Tierney arranged to visit the Wooster Group, the New York theater troupe known for experimenting with language, movement and multimedia. She ended up spending two days watching the company’s actors improvise with a Tennessee Williams play, “Vieux CarrĂ©,” and left hoping to work with them someday.

A year later, in the summer of 2009, the Wooster Group began planning a revival of its 1983 play “North Atlantic,” an absurdist portrayal of life on an aircraft carrier during the cold war, and reached out to Ms. Tierney about playing the sexually frisky role of Cpl. Nurse Jane Babcock. What no one in the ensemble knew was that Ms. Tierney had been given a diagnosis of breast cancer that June, underwent surgery in July to remove a tumor and planned to begin chemotherapy in the fall.

In her first interview since undergoing treatment, Ms. Tierney said that she quickly accepted the Wooster Group’s offer, seeing it as a chance to challenge herself physically and artistically after cancer. She said she thought that the theater company’s aesthetic, which emphasizes technical precision and stylized line reading over emotionally wrought acting, was a good fit with her mood at the time.

“What appealed to me was that the focus of ‘North Atlantic’ was more about performance rather than emoting, because I was at a point in life where it was nice not to have to emote all over the place,” Ms. Tierney, 45, said during the conversation at a restaurant near her home in Greenwich Village one afternoon before a performance. “North Atlantic,” which had a brief run in Los Angeles in February, concludes its New York run on Sunday at the Baryshnikov Arts Center.

“A theater role was also a much better fit for me last fall than television,” she continued, referring in part to her decision to drop out of the NBC series “Parenthood” last September after her diagnosis. (Lauren Graham replaced her.) “I felt terrible leaving the ‘Parenthood’ team in the lurch, but doing the show would have been very stressful because I didn’t want that phase of my life documented on film. There is no HD in the theater.”

Ms. Tierney lost her long brown tresses to chemotherapy; her hair is now a short salt-and-pepper. (She declined to be photographed for this article but said that the treatment went well and that she was healthy.)

She was also drawn to playing a role that was a sharp departure from the serious-minded characters that she is known for, like Abby Lockhart in “ER” — a recovering alcoholic with a tumultuous personal life and medical career — and her roles in films like “Primary Colors” and “Scotland, Pa.” Only an occasional stage actress, she appeared Off Broadway in the roles of an ex-girlfriend in Neil LaBute’s “Some Girl(s)” in 2006 and a distressed Manhattan wife in Nicky Silver’s “Three Changes” in 2008. She also once played Rosencrantz in Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” at her Roman Catholic high school near Boston.

Nurse Babcock is the most whimsical and sexually curious of the women on the “North Atlantic” warship; she also frequently joins other female characters, played by Kate Valk and Frances McDormand, among others, in a kind of flirty Greek chorus that makes coquettish and lewd comments in unison to the men on the ship.

“What’s been so fun for me is that you learn all of these acting muscles in television, so much that it can become facile, but the Wooster Group’s approach is about letting go of control and just doing the play and not caring about making the audience feel something,” Ms. Tierney said.

Elizabeth LeCompte, the director of the Wooster Group, said in an interview that she did not know who Ms. Tierney was before she showed up at the theater company’s home in SoHo in 2008. Ms. LeCompte, who also directed “North Atlantic” and is known as a tough, blunt-spoken artist, said that she came away from that first meeting feeling that Ms. Tierney was impatient to be tested creatively.

“Our actors were telling her, ‘You have to be able to do everything and anything if you work with us,’ and she just perked up right away,” Ms. LeCompte said. “I remember thinking that she wants that experience, whatever it is. I remember that, and I remember her very beautiful hair, because the next time I saw her she didn’t have any hair.”

Ms. LeCompte and Ms. Valk, two of the founders of the Wooster Group in 1975, said they were a bit worried at first about whether Ms. Tierney was up to the physical rigors of “North Atlantic,” which takes place largely on a stage tilted at a 45-degree angle. But Ms. Tierney was determined to power through, even as she dealt with the death of her father in mid-December during the final weeks of chemotherapy.

“I said to Maura once in January that I found it so moving, the fact that she was working with us,” Ms. Valk said. “And she said, ‘You don’t know how grateful I am to have this play to come to.’ ”

Ms. Tierney said she had no work projects beyond “North Atlantic,” though she has taped appearances on the FX series “Rescue Me.” The Wooster Group experience has been by far her best in the theater, she said, partly because the actors’ collaborative style helped lift the stage fright she felt in other theater work.

“I was often so nervous onstage before this play, and at first I felt like some TV actress dilettante trying to prove that I was up to a theater challenge,” Ms. Tierney said. “But Liz and Kate and Fran helped me to stop worrying, to trust in the collaboration, and that has been incredibly freeing for me.”

nytimes.com

Good to see her doing so well after such a difficult year. Glad to have you back Maura!.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Martina Hingis returns to Liverpool

MARTINA HINGIS will continue to combat post-retirement blues at this summer’s Liverpool International.

The former world number one, who reckoned the boredom of the professional tennis circuit forced her and several of her peers into early retirement, relishes the laid-back camaraderie of the legends circuit.

And after recreating her famous Wimbledon final with Jana Novotna at Calderstones Park last summer, she’s coming back for more this year.

The tournament has already secured a major coup with the appearance of John McEnroe and the current world number one doubles pairing Bob and Mike Bryan.

But Hingis was a popular addition to last summer’s event and is returning for the June 16-20 tournament.

The Swiss star has distant links with Liverpool.

She became the youngest Wimbledon champion of the modern era at the age of 16, the youngest champion since Merseyside’s Lottie Dod took the title in 1887. Her Centre Court triumph at the age of 16 was the second of five Grand Slam titles she won before she was 19 and Hingis looked set to dominate women’s tennis for years to come. But she quit the game at just 22 and after a brief comeback, gave up competitive tennis completely last year at the age of 27.

Other modern high profile retirements included Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin.

And Hingis explained: “Tennis takes a lot out of you.

“People think it is a very glamorous lifestyle, which in some ways it is.

“But it can also be tiring travelling from city to city around the world for most of the year. But girls tend to start their careers very young so by the time you have reached your mid-20s, you could have been on the tour for 10 years already.

“You don’t really have a normal teenage life, you spend those years on tour so you have to grow up very quickly.”

Hingis was helped on her way to retirement by a ban from professional competitive tennis for two years following a positive test for cocaine.

She denied taking the drug but saw the incident as an opportune moment to call time on her career.

“Travelling to new cities is always something I enjoy,” added Hingis.

She will be hoping for a trouble-free entrance this summer – after arriving at John Lennon Airport last year, only to discover her baggage had not followed her!

She was forced to pop into the city’s new Debenhams store to stock up on clothes before heading to Calderstones Park

liverpoolecho.co.uk

Boy, is her plate getting full with all these exhibition entries, someone must be getting really bored of living the quiet life ;).

Not that I can blame her being banned from the sport for those 2 years must have driven her nuts. I guess now she's making up for all that lost time.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

An "Earth Song" for Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day a beautifully poignant reminder why we should remember to respect our planet.



What about sunrise
What about rain

What about all the things

That you said we were to gain...
What about killing fields....

Did you ever stop to notice
This crying Earth its weeping shores?...

What have we done to the world
Look what we've done....

Hey, what about yesterday
What about the seas

The heavens are falling down
I can't even breathe...

What about nature's worth
It's our planet's womb

What about animals
We've turned kingdoms to dust

What about elephants
Have we lost their trust

What about crying whales
We're ravaging the seas

What about forest trails
Burnt despite our pleas

What about the holy land
Torn apart by creed

What about the common man
Can't we set him free

What about children dying
Can't you hear them cry

Where did we go wrong
Someone tell me why

Earth Song~ Micheal Jackson

Friday, April 16, 2010

Thomas Cook owns Kim Clijster's airplane

From Kim's official website

As of today, Thomas Cook owns a Kim Clijsters airplane. On Thursday, Kim herself went to baptise the Airbus on Brussels International.



More pictures on the site.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Roger Federer Jura Coffee Maker Ambassador



Expect the sales of this product to triple. I'm not a coffee drinker, but watching this makes me want to become one!.




Could this man be anymore handsome?. Seriously Mirka is one lucky woman!.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Martina Hingis breaks off another engagement?

The former tennis player Martina Hingis and her fiancé Andreas Bieri said to have parted company. The pair recently announced their engagement.

Martina Hingis and her (ex) fiance, lawyer Andreas Bieri, are clearly already off again. The former tennis queen has broken the engagement.

She is said to have confided to acquaintances. Officially, Hingis does not want to comment. "I do not want talk about my personal life at the moment".

And also the (ex-) fiancee is unresponsive. "I do not answer to this question," he said when asked if he was still with Hingis.

Six weeks ago, that was quite different. As was announced at the Zurich Opera Ball by Hingis that she and Bieri had engaged.

And that they will get married after a year relationship. Hingis proudly showed-off her engagement ring.

On the men count Hingis is struggling to score points. Bieri is the eleventh man, who passed after a short relationship again.

Source: a-z.ch

Edited (for grammer)

(Forgive the loose Google translations I don't speak German).


Looks like Martina's relationship roulette may continue to spin.

Since there's no official word from any of the family or the couple themselves however I'll put this in the rumor category for now.

And since neither party wants to dish on the details at the moment we may not know whether it's true for a while.

It doesn't look good though several other articles report that Martina hasn't been seen with Andy for 3 weeks.

She's busy with the horse thing, and he's working away at the law firm. Guess we shall wait and see.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Song of the Moment: Glee Cast-Somebody To Love



Since new eps of this awesome show start next week (can't wait!). I've been re-watching it to remind myself what happened earlier in the season.

This show just lifts you up and makes you smile no matter what may be going on in your life.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Shania Twain to star in own reality show!

Country icon Shania Twain is the latest celeb to get a reality show of her own!

The 44-year-old singer will star in Why Not? With Shania Twain, a series set to premiere on OWN (Oprah’s network).

“The show will follow [Shania] as she begins her climb back to the top, a personal journey filled with risk, revelations and unexpected adventures,” a statement from the network said (via People). Shania and her husband, Robert “Mutt” Lange, split up in May of 2008 after nearly fifteen years of marriage.

The start date for Why Not? has not yet been announced.

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Maura Tierney healthy and returning to t.v.

Maura Tierney has beat back breast cancer and will return to TV as Denis Leary’s love interest in the final season of “Rescue Me.”

As you may recall, the former “ER” doc had to bow out of NBC’s “Parenthood” last summer to undergo cancer treatment. She was replaced by “Gilmore Girls” star Lauren Graham.

The Hyde Park homegal, 45, has “finished treatment and is doing very well and is happy to move forward with the next phase of her life,” her spokesgal Christina Papadopoulos said yesterday.

Tierney has begun filming four episodes for the FX dramedy’s seventh and final season next year. When last we left Maura’s character Kelly McPhee, she had just had a disturbing sit-down with Tommy Gavin’s ex-wife, Janet, and cra-zee galpal Sheila that prompted a re-examination of her romance with Leary’s Tommy Gavin.

Source: bostonherald.com

Monday, April 05, 2010

Martina Hingis Strade2 (French) Interview



I found it interesting that Martina chose to speak English even though she knows French quite well.

Perhaps speaking French brings up too many bad memories of the '99 Roland Garros final.

So apparently she only follows the men's matches these days (guess she finds the WTA as boring as I do *lol*).

No disrespect to Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin of course.

Btw. I have to say lovin' her new haircut! (definitely suits her).

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Kim Clijsters Sony Ericsson WTA Champion!!


Belgian Kim Clijsters brought a swift end to Venus Williams's 15-match winning streak with a 6-2 6-1 win in the final of the Sony Ericsson Open final on Saturday



The 14th seed needed only 58 minutes to defeat the third-seeded American, who played with bandaging on both legs and said afterwards she may have trained too hard during the tournament.
The match was reminiscent of last year's final at Key Biscayne when Williams's sister Serena, also looking short of fitness, surrendered in similar fashion to Belarussian Victoria Azarenka.
Williams said she had worn the bandaging on her legs as she felt her knees, a frequent source of trouble, needed extra support.

She also said may have overdone her practice routine during the tournament.
"I think sometimes you have to be careful with practice, not to practice too long. I may have made a mistake with that a little bit. I know better, but 'Eager V' kind of burst through," she said.
"Overall I'm really happy with the tournament. Unfortunately, today I didn't win the match, although I felt like this is a match I could win. Unfortunately I made it a little bit too easy. Next time around I'll play better."

Clijsters returned to tennis last year from a two-year break to give birth to daughter Jada, who watched from the stands. 

  The Belgian, winner of this event in 2005, never looked back from the moment she broke in the third game of the first set. She won 55 points to Williams' 29 
  

Well I said I wanted a one sided affair after all the drama with Justine, and that's exactly what I got.
Congratulations Kim on another awesome win! (way to end the hard court season back in the top 10!).
I could be wrong, but I think that's an even faster rise then Martina Hingis when she made her second comeback.

Here's to many more. Onward to the clay!.

Friday, April 02, 2010

Memorable Martina Moment: Australian Open Final 1997









Nothing more memorable then Hingis's very first grand slam title beating Mary Pierce at the tender age of 16.

I must admit I don't remember much of the match itself (probably because it was so one sided as it often was with Hingis throughout her career).

But I do remember the closing ceremony (a great reminder of just how far she has come with her English).

It was at this tournament and at that moment that I became a fan of hers. I just remember seeing this young kid with so much guile, cheekiness and poise.

Showing a lot of emotions that many players at the time just didn't do (many still don't in fact).

I think many people often saw her confidence at such a young age as arrogance, but it never came across that way to me.

I found it refreshing that someone so young was so fearless (especially on such big occasions as Grand Slams).

Most people at her age just chocked and could barely win a game being too intimidated by either the player they were facing or the event itself.

But not with Martina she just took it all in stride. That to me made her that much more intriguing to watch.

Watching old matches like these always makes me long for the good old days... *sigh*.

At least we'll be seeing a lot of her this summer, to say I'm looking forward to it would be the understatement of the year.

Thursday, April 01, 2010

Kim Clijsters overcomes Justine Henin in Miami

Kim Clijsters has defeated fellow Belgian Justine Henin 6-2, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (6) in a seesaw semifinal at the Sony Ericsson Open.

Clijsters needed four match points in the second tiebreaker to close out the victory Thursday night. Her opponent in the final Saturday will be three-time champion Venus Williams, who beat Marion Bartoli 6-3, 6-4.

Clijsters appeared on her way to an easy victory when she led 3-love in the second set. Henin rallied and took a 2-love lead in the third set before the momentum again swung, with Clijsters winning 13 of the next 14 points.

Much of the match was sloppy, with 18 double-faults and 103 unforced errors. Some of the best exchanges came in the final tiebreaker, when Clijsters hit five winners.

CBS13.com


I had the privilege (and the misfortune) of seeing this match live thanks to the internet (you'll understand why I say that in a bit).

Clash of the Belgians it was indeed, and 'seesaw' doesn't even begin to describe this match.

I actually thought that nothing could rival their last meeting in Brisbane Australia earlier this year (and I don't think this one quite did as well in terms of quality).

But it certainly delivered in the drama department once more. Boy did it ever!.

If there were anymore double faults or unforced errors I think my computer would have ended up in shambles.

Anymore momentum changes and I would have ended up with a serious case of whiplash *lol*.

The whole match was equally as dramatic as it was frustrating. I honestly did not know who would win till the very last point.

Next Kim faces Venus Williams in the final. As much as I would love for the match to be entertaining and for the fans to get their money's worth.

I think just this one time I'm going to opt for a boring one sided victory (with Kim in full control). One roller coaster match per tournament is enough.

Save the rest of the drama and excitement for the French Open in May. That tournament is gonna need it.

With all that being said, I have to thank Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin for deciding to comeback on tour.

Matches like these remind me why I fell in love with this sport in the first place. So thank you Kim and Justine for a somewhat crazy, but undoubtedly unforgettable ride.

And for bringing some vigor back to the WTA.