KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 3, 2010): Tennis fans, make a date with a SIX-STAR EVENT, with a star-studded line-up on October 8.
Six of the biggest names in world tennis – Boris Becker, Ivan Lendl, Pat Cash, Goran Ivanisevic, Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova – will descend upon Malaysia for the Showdown of Champions 2010, billed A Night of Aces.
Complementing action on the court at the Malawati Stadium will be the special appearance by British rapper Jay Sean in a concert to complete a one-night spectacle combining sports and sheer entertainment.
Six-time Grand Slam winner Becker, the once all-conquering Lendl, Aussie hero Cash, former Wimbledon champ Ivanisevic and Hingis are looking forward to their maiden trip to Kuala Lumpur, whereas Kournikova is keen to compete after a brief appearance as event ambassador for the launch of the Showdown of Champions, Asia versus Russia – the Glam Slam last year.
The annual spectacle is organised by LD Sports Sdn Bhd and supported by Ministry of Tourism Malaysia.
In announcing the line-up in Kuala Lumpur today, LD Sports chairman, Datuk Mohd Taufik Omar, said:
“We are pleased to be able to showcase the six stars for this year’s Showdown of Champions, which is a sign of our commitment in promoting sports tourism.
“The line-up is also an ample illustration of our efforts in having the best tennis players here to help promote the sport to the masses.”
The event is scheduled to start at 6.00pm on Oct 8, with Ivanisevic taking on Cash in a best of three tie, followed by Becker versus Lendl. The doubles will see Ivanisevic and Hingis playing Cash and Kournikova (one regular set), followed by Becker/Kournikova versus Lendl/Hingis (one regular set).
Martina & Anna posing with Pat Cash & Mats Wilander
Love the all-black attire reminds me of darth-Federer circa U.S. Open '07 (I think) 
NEW YORK -- Martina Hingis was sitting above Arthur Ashe court, her eyes occasionally drifting up to a suite television to watch Venus Williams and Francesca Schiavone in a women's quarterfinal match.
Here they were, two women from her era a lifetime ago, with forehands heavy enough to have survived the Jurassic age of women's tennis while Hingis and her cagey game struggled to evolve. The camera showed a closeup of Williams as she walked to the baseline in a sparkly pink spandex creation.
Hingis smiled. "The dress."
The former Swiss Miss is at the U.S. Open this year, playing doubles with her old partner Anna Kournikova in an exhibition match against Mats Wilander and Pat Cash to start the Thursday night session at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Now a few weeks shy of 30, Hingis seems happy with a schedule-free existence in Switzerland, where she rides horses and hits tennis balls with students from her mother's tennis academy.
"Being on the tour was so demanding," Hingis said. "It's nice just to lean back and enjoy life, have more private time. Not every second is planned."
During her career she sparred with Monica Seles, Steffi Graf, and Venus and Serena Williams.
She won three of four Grand Slam singles titles in 1997, the year she turned 17. In fact, Hingis won five of the seven Grand Slam finals she played between the '97 and '99 Australian Opens, and speculation at the time was that a crop of teenagers would supplant adults in the women's game. But it never came to pass. Hingis didn't win any of the five Slams she played from then until ligament damage in her left ankle precipitated her first retirement in 2002.
Three years later, she missed the game and came back, starting with World TeamTennis. As she went from tournament to tournament on the WTA Tour the next year, Hingis said seeing old friends from Stanford to Tokyo was a homecoming. "I was missing it that time," Hingis said. After winning two tournaments in two years, the renaissance ended early with a positive test for a banned substance in 2008 and a two-year suspension -- a charge for which Hingis has maintained her innocence.
"I feel you shouldn't have any regrets," Hingis said. "It was great to come back when I did."
Unlike other child prodigies who have an uncomfortable relationship with the sport in retirement, Hingis said she does not want to stay away. Despite the public trials of her positive test and her meltdown at the '99 French Open, where she cried to her mother after losing to Steffi Graf, she likes running into Iva Majoli, Chanda Rubin and other women she played with, and still makes appearances at the Slams.
"It's all my friends who are out here," Hingis said.
She has stayed in touch with Kournikova, and they visit when Hingis goes to Florida. They won two Grand Slam doubles titles together, and Hingis won seven more with other partners. Kournikova and Hingis reunited for Wimbledon this season, and the U.S. Open was a natural.
Hingis does not know what her Act III will be, but for now she is content and, after two decades on the road, that is enough.
"I'm sure in the near future there will be something I put my focus on, but now it's really [that] I want to profit off what I achieved," Hingis said.
As Roger Federer wakes up in New York Sunday morning he is sure to reflect on another US Open that got away. Normally it’s not like this. As he himself noted earlier in the year, he’s supposed to come through in the clutch.
Yet for the second consecutive year his US Open campaign – and dreams of a sixth title at Flushing Meadows – have ended in heartbreak. Last year the Swiss was within two points of victory in the fourth set of the final against Juan Martin del Potro but he couldn’t close out the match. On Saturday he held two match points late in the fifth set but couldn't finish off Novak Djokovic.
It is the third time this year that Federer has lost a match on hard court after holding match point. He failed to convert three match points against Marcos Baghdatis at Indian Wells and squandered one match point against Tomas Berdych in Miami.
“I lost a couple more with match points this year, so they all pretty much feel the same,” Federer said in his post-match press conference Saturday. “They feel somewhat empty at the end because you have tried everything, and maybe it was luck. Maybe it was he played well. Maybe you didn't pick the right shot; maybe he did.”
Although Federer was the more aggressive of the two players and found success in regular forays to the net, he was ultimately brought undone by 66 unforced errors to Djokovic’s 38. He also struggled on serve, putting just 53 per cent of first serves into play.
The five-time ATP World Tour Champion also paid the price for twice handing back the momentum to Djokovic after winning the first and third sets.
Federer said that he shared the disappointment of many tennis fans that a dream No. 1 vs. No. 2 final with Nadal would not eventuate. “I would have loved to play against him here. I did my hard yards the last six years making it to the finals, and he was unfortunately never there. That's obviously disappointing. And now one point away from this happening, obviously it's a bit of disappointment.”
Federer said that he knew from the outset that this year’s US Open was going to be tough, but said that fitness was not an issue in his loss to Djokovic.
“[I was] not really tired. Just, I guess, tense from the situation and from the crowd. It was electric. It was good tennis at the end, so that was the tougher part. I came into this match perfectly ready, didn't drop any sets, didn't waste any time on the court. I felt good out there… I had a tough draw with Soderling and Novak in my section. I knew I had my hands full with those kind of matches.”
Federer said that he had seen enough tennis at this year’s US Open and would not watch the final. “I've been around tennis for weeks and weeks and weeks right now. Last thing I want to do is watch another tennis match where I'm not a part of. I will spend some time with my kids and take it easy, maybe go shopping. I don't know if shops are open here in New York Sundays, but I'm sure something is open."
I'm not even gonna post the score-line of this tortuous match. Feel free to look those up yourselves.
I'm going back to looking at the pretty pictures of Kim Clijsters with her shiny new trophy, and living in denial.
Also, like Roger skipping tomorrow's men final. I've had enough of tennis for the next little while myself. At least in the watching sense.
Mom Kim Clijsters and daughter Jada enjoying the moment for the second straight year :).
I remember the same pics from last year Jada has grown so much!.
Pics courtesy of tennisforum.comNEW YORK -- From the time she was a teen, Kim Clijsters loved playing on American hard courts. She liked the way she could move on the surface, liked the way she could see the ball.
Her game is now as good as it gets on this stuff.
Clijsters won a second consecutive U.S. Open championship and third overall Saturday night, easily beating Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 6-1 in a final that lasted exactly one hour and lacked any drama.
Clijsters is the first woman since Venus Williams in 2000-01 to win the title in Flushing Meadows two years in a row. And Clijsters' U.S. Open winning streak is actually up to 21 matches because she also won the 2005 title. She missed the tournament in 2006 because of injuries, including wrist surgery, and skipped it the next two years while taking time off to get married and have a baby.
Her 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Jada, was in the stands at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday night, munching on a thick slice of watermelon, then sucking on some candy. Sort of like "Take Your Daughter to Work Day," except how many kids get to watch Mom win a Grand Slam championship?
Last year in New York, when Jada pranced around the court during the post-match ceremony, Clijsters became the first mother since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980 to take home a major trophy.
On Saturday, in addition to another silver cup, Clijsters was awarded US$2.2 million -- the champion's cheque of $1.7 million, plus another $500,000 for finishing second in the U.S. Open Series standings that take into account hard-court tuneup tournaments.
"I've always felt more comfortable on this surface. Not just this year, but even when I was 14, 15, 16," the 27-year-old Clijsters said in an interview the week before the U.S. Open began. "Everything comes easier."
Sure does, nowadays.
After losing the first four Grand Slam finals of her career, Belgium's Clijsters has won her last three. Perhaps that will give some hope to Russia's Zvonareva, who is now 0-2 in major championship matches, after losing to Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final in July.
Not since 1995 has a U.S. Open women's final lasted three sets, and this one wasn't about to end that trend. Indeed, you have to go back to 1976 to find a women's final in which the loser won only three games.
Put simply, the second-seeded Clijsters was too dominant; the seventh-seeded Zvonareva too shaky.
Over and over, Clijsters would scramble to balls that seemed out of reach and get them back over the net, sometimes doing full splits right there along the baseline. She compiled a 17-6 edge in winners, and made nine fewer unforced errors than Zvonareva, 24-15.
Clijsters broke twice to take the first set, and she did it by letting Zvonareva cause her own problems. Clijsters needed only four winners in that set, because Zvonareva made 13 unforced errors, including dumping a backhand into the net on the last point.
After that mistake, Zvonareva told a ballkid to get out of the way, so she could take a practice swing on her backhand side.
Didn't work.
When Zvonareva failed to get to a backhand and fell behind 40-love in the opening game of the second set, she cracked her racket against the court twice, breaking it, and earning a warning from the chair umpire.
Then things got worse for Zvonareva.
She yelled at herself after two unforced errors in the second game of that set, and proceeded to double-fault to get broken at love and trail 2-0. All things considered, it was nothing compared to the tantrum Zvonareva threw in her fourth-round loss at last year's U.S. Open, when she wasted six match points. She bawled. She pounded her palm on her leg while sitting on the court. She slammed her racket against her leg. She begged the chair umpire to let her have some scissors so she could cut tape off her knees.
Zvonareva seemed to be much better at harnessing her emotions of late, perhaps thanks in part to her habit of placing a towel over her head during changeovers to block out distractions. That worked wonders at Wimbledon this summer, and for nearly two weeks at the U.S. Open.
But Clijsters never gave her a chance to get into this match. It was so lopsided, CBS analyst John McEnroe felt compelled to tell viewers: "This might be the most I've ever wanted Kim Clijsters to lose serve. She's such a great person, but this is difficult to watch right now."
I said in my last post Kim would perhaps have a bit of revenge against Zvonareva for beating her the last 2 times.
Well revenge she did, and how!. Never lost serve totally dominated, played the best she had all tournament long.
So well in fact that I actually felt a little sorry for Zvonerava.
Not that I'm complaining. Kim played outstanding!.
And I'm so happy that she was finally able to successfully defend her title for the first time ever.
Unlike John McEnroe, I didn't really mind the one-sided women's final (although I did think it would be a lot more competitive then it turned out).
After the nightmarishly close 5-setter on the men's side, which saw Roger Federer out of the tournament courtesy of Novak Djokovic (don't even get me started too depressed to even fully comprehend it yet) .
I've had my fill of drama for the rest of the tennis season!.
Congrats Kim on your 2nd successive U.S. Open Championship! (and 3rd Grand Slam). Here's to a few more titles by the end of the year :).
(Reuters) - Former world number one Martina Hingis said on Tuesday she may make a second return to the women's tour, this time on the doubles circuit.
The 29-year-old Swiss, who won Wimbledon at the age of 16 and picked up four other grand slam singles titles, quit the sport for a second time in 2007 but said she could be tempted into returning if she can find a partner.
"I've been asked here and there, with Lindsay (Davenport)," Hingis told a select group of reporters at the U.S. Open on Tuesday. "But she wanted to come back too soon and I wasn't ready for that. Then she won (the title) in Stanford."
Hingis said playing recently at the Team Tennis competition in the United States gave her the taste for the game again but she would only return if her heart was completely in it.
"I don't know, I couldn't say right now, it's always maybes," said Hingis, "I need to find a partner first and commit to really wanting to do it. I really enjoyed playing Team Tennis, playing singles and doubles, and the doubles felt really good, so ..."
Hingis quit the sport for the first time in 2003 at the age of 22, suffering from ankle injuries. She returned in late 2006 and finished the following year ranked seventh.
But she quit for a second time in 2007 under a cloud after she tested positive for cocaine at that year's Wimbledon.
Hingis served a two-year ban but maintained her innocence and was welcomed back to Wimbledon this year when she played with Russian Anna Kournikova in the invitational doubles event.
(Editing by Frank Pingue)
I hope we get some concrete answers from her on that matter soon, would be great seeing her play doubles at the Grand Slams.
Despite what she thinks, she's not too old to have some success there.
But she's right it's all about choosing the right partner, I'll be very curious to see who she does choose to play with once she decides.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Roger Federer won a measure of revenge as he beat fifth-seeded Swede Robin Soderling 6-4 6-4 7-5 on Wednesday to reach the semi-finals of the U.S. Open for the seventh successive time.
Federer, showing the all-round brilliance that has won him a record 16 grand slam titles, refused to let gusty winds at Arthur Ashe center court slow down his charge as he routed Soderling, who had eliminated him in the quarter-finals at this year's French Open.
The 29-year-old Swiss, whose string of five consecutive U.S. Open titles was snapped last year in the final, commanded his serve with precision through the adverse conditions to quash Soderling in just under two hours.
Next up for the second-seeded Federer will be third seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia, who beat France's Gael Monfils to advance. Federer beat Djokovic in the Flushing Meadows final in 2007 and in the semi-finals the last two years.
(Reporting by Larry Fine, Editing by Frank Pingue)
Revenge, how sweet it is!. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning :), and yes I realize how ridiculous it sounds (to feel that way about a tennis match).
But I can't help it. I will even admit to jumping up and down when Roger hit an ace at triple match point (his 18th dude was on fire tonight!).
Roger has been playing so well all tournament, but tonight he stepped up to the level of excellence, and pure brilliance that has made him the owner of 16 grand slams. It's the Roger of old as many would say.
I would go as far as saying it's both. It's Roger of the old, and of the new.
After all we have seen improvement in his game (being more aggressive and attacking at the net instead of bashing the ball from the baseline).
The style of play that has got him to these quarters. Not in tonight's match, but throughout the past week and a half.
In the past the wind was a major factor for Roger, and could irritate him enough to lose a match.
That was not the case tonight he came prepared and turned on that Swiss precision. What he was able to do in the horrendously windy conditions was mind boggling at times.
I think he even surprised Robin by how well he played. Converting all the break chances that were given to him, breaking right back when broken on his own serve. Simply Roger at his best.
Djokovic is gonna be another test, but if Roger plays like tonight he won't be an issue.
I know I should take it one match at a time, but just the prospect of a first ever U.S. Open Fedal (Roger vs. Rafael Nadal) final is just too hard to resist thinking about.
When I started this post I wanted to be all humble, and neutral as Roger himself, but the magnitude of this win threw that right out the window.
So screw it, congrats Roger on an awesome win!, and a summer of successful revenge (beating Berdych, Baghdatis, Djoko in Canada and Soderling).
Order has finally been almost fully restored to the tennis world, long may it continue!.
*thinking to self* Why the hell didn't I tape this match!.
Defending champion Kim Clijsters came through a desperately scrappy US Open quarter-final to set up a tantalising last-four clash with Venus Williams.
Williams, the third seed, battled past Francesca Schiavone 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 in a late-running daytime match on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
And Clijsters then opened the night session with a 6-4 5-7 6-3 victory over Australian fifth seed Sam Stosur.
Both Williams and Clijsters are chasing their third titles at Flushing Meadows.
Clijsters went into her match on an 18-match unbeaten run in New York that included title wins either side of her retirement in 2005 and 2009.
The 27-year-old Belgian also had a 3-0 record over the much-improved Stosur, who had lost to Schiavone in the French Open final earlier this year.
It was the Australian who made the better start but after winning the first set, unforced errors and fragile serving began to plague both players.
Stosur needed two chances before serving out the second set and Clijsters was in trouble in the decider as she was broken three times in a row, but Stosur could not capitalise and the reigning champion edged through in one hour and 14 minutes.
Clijsters and Williams share a 6-6 career record but the Belgian has won the last four, including a fourth-round win at Flushing Meadows 12 months ago.
Scrappy just about sums it up. Boy, when I said Kim would have a tough one if she didn't serve well I didn't think it would be as difficult, or as up and down for that matter.
Six breaks of serve for each?. Ouch.
Kim herself was joking good naturally in the post-match interview in regards to her serve saying that at least she got an ace to finish off the match.
A pretty match it wasn't, but thankfully she got through it.
Now both women have an extra day of rest (not that either of them really need it). I'm not gonna say anything in regards to Kim's next match.
Just that she wipe the slate clean and start fresh. Venus herself despite playing well can still get streaky.
Remembering last year's result 6-0 0-6 6-4 in the third, Friday will be interesting for sure.
Now I'm off to frazzle about tomorrow night's blockbuster Federer vs. Soderling.
Roger Federer continued his smooth progress through the US Open draw with a straight-sets win over 13th seed Jurgen Melzer in round four.
The five-time champion was in good form as he eased to a 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 victory in the night session.
Federer had some luck in the second set tie-break with two net-cords and had to recover from a break down in the third, but was always in control of the match.
The Swiss will play fifth seed Robin Soderling in the quarter-finals.
Soderling had to recover from losing the first set before finally seeing off Spain's 21st seed Albert Montanes 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-3 on the Louis Armstrong Stadium.
FLUSHING MEADOWS, NY - Defending champion Kim Clijsters needed just 59 minutes to post a straight set victory over former World No. 1 Ana Ivanovic in fourth round action at the 2010 U.S. Open.
Clijsters, the second seed, recorded a 6-2, 6-1 victory to advance into her fourth straight quarterfinal here, albeit in sporadic years starting in 2003. The Belgian took advantage of Ivanovic's poor second serve, winning 76 percent of the points on her opponents lesser serve.
The two-time U.S. Open champ won seven straight games to move to 4-0 in the second set before cruising to the finish line. She won 70 of the 115 points played in the match.
Next up for Clijsters will be either fifth-seeded Samantha Stosur or 12th- seeded Russian Elena Dementieva, who face off later Sunday. Clijsters figures to have a good chance to advance to the semis, as she has a 3-0 lifetime record against Stosur while winning 11 of 14 matches in her career against Dementieva.(Reuters) - Kim Clijsters took an easy step on the path to defending her U.S. Open crown by dismissing Australian teenager Sally Peers 6-2 6-1 on Wednesday on center court at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Second-seeded Clijsters, 27, crushed 22 winners against just eight for the overmatched Peers as she raced through a 56-minute match against a 19-year-old qualifier ranked 201 and playing her first grand slam tournament.
The victory extended the Belgian's U.S. Open match-winning streak to 16. She won the 2005 title but missed making a defense due to injury, and then took two years off after that to start a family.
Clijsters said it took a little while to get comfortable against an unfamiliar rival, whose only previous tour-level competition came in Hobart in 2009.
"I felt as the match got going, I started playing a little better. But I still have a little way to go to play my best tennis," Clijsters told the crowd.
The Belgian said she wanted to work on moving forward and getting on the attack.
"It takes time," she said. "I'm just trying every match to grow so I'm ready when the opponents get tougher."
Clijsters, who has made it to the third round of the last 16 grand slams she has played in, will face 27th seed Czech Petra Kvitova in her next match.
(Reporting by Larry Fine, Editing by Frank Pingue)
Nice little warm-up for Kim, her serve was a bit off again today, but I think that was mostly due to the wind.
Kvitova will be the first real test. Although if memory serves they did play in Cincinnati just before the U.S. Open and Kim won.
If she serves well she should have no problem dispatching her opponent in quick fashion.
If not she may have to tough it out a bit. Kvitova can be very tricky with her flat ground strokes.
