Flexible Tennis Blog

Perhaps the most shocking upset of last week was Britain's defeat in the hand of Lithuania in Davis cup. Playing away from home the Brits lost 3-2 to Lithuania which is the biggest loss in the history of Davis Cup. Brits put up a spineless performance against a country which is ranked in the bottom tier of tennis. Although Andy Murray chose to fight for his personal glory than for his country, everyone felt that his presence would not have changed the outcome. By the way Murray lost to Janko Tipsarevic in the quarter finals of the Dubai Championship, so he didn't fare any better. England's fate was sealed by Laurynas Grigelis who defeated Dan Evans from the English team. Evans was ranked almost 200 places over Grigelis.

Everyone is the UK is calling for the coach John lloyd's head, who will probably resign. But everyone is perplexed by how low the game has hit for the Brits. Last year alone England pumped in 100 million pounds into British Tennis compared to a measly 90,000 by the Lithuanians. Where is all this money going and why they are not able to produce any match winning players is a great mystery. As for Andy Murray, I think his fans are getting tired of him not being able to win big matches. Time and time again we see flashes of brilliance which fade away before the matches that matter most.

Britain face a trip to Turkey in July to try to avoid relegation to group III of the Europe/Africa zone, the lowest tier of the competition. I am sure that Andy's services will be required to get the Britain past Turkey. But can they hold their nerves to do that or will we see another shocker? 

Unhappy days for British Tennis. Coach John Lloyd is devastated after the loss to Lithuania.

The player locator feature is now live. Now our members can see the location of other players on a map visually, which will offer more flexiblity in scheduling matches. The location of other players are represented by tennis balls, which on a mouse hover reveal details such as player name, email and phone number.

Player locator feature is now live!!

The Spring 2010 Leagues for the following cities are underway for the following cities:

Dallas Tennis League

Houston Tennis League

Atlanta Tennis League

Leagues run through the end of May. Join now for free and play competitive tennis on your schedule. 

(C) - Greg Campbell AP

After being in and out of the spotlight due to injury and first round loses Sam Querrey hit it big by winning the Morgan Keegan Championship in Memphis, TN. Querrey beat his buddy and Davis Cup teammate John Isner 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), 6-3. Querrey had to beat another American - Andy Roddick in the QF's to get to the final. Querrey collected $261,500 and 500 ATP Rankings points.

(C) - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Natacha Pisarenko

Juan Carlos Ferrero is having a wonderful month, after winning the tournament in Brazil just a week earlier he beat fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 5-7, 6-4, 6-3  to claim the Copa Telmex title in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ferrero collected $81,400 and 250 ATP tour points.

Venus Williams won the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championship by beating Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 7-5. Venus defeated Israeli Sharar Peer in the Semi finals who created quite a sensation by knocking out some top seeds and also by playing the tournament under tight security due to the Middle East's relations with Isreal.

After a long hiatus Maria Sharapova in back into the winners list. She steam rolled Sofia Arvidsson to claim the Cellular South title in Memphis, TN. Sharapova was seeded No. 1 for the tournament and she did not dissapoint. On the other hand Arvidsson caused a few upsets including the defeat to Melanie Oudin to reach the finals.

Mariana Duque Marino won her first WTA tour title in front of her home crowd in Bogota, Columbia. She won the XVIII Copa BBVA Colsanitas cup by beating Greta Arn 26 60 63.

Check out Rafa in Shakira's new video. With the rumours rife about their relationship, this video will just add more fuel to the fire.

Austria's postal service issued a a 65 centime stamp in honor of the living legend - Roger Federer. They will have a print run of 300,000, with 2,000 silver editions also for sale. Roger's home country of Switzerland already has a stamp with Roger on it.

Fed visited a school he funds in Ethiopia and spent a whole day interacting with the kids. Ethiopia is one of the most improverished countries in the world and its good to see a busy guy like Roger take on the cause. He played ping pong with the kids and had fun. Here are some pics and an excerpt from Roger's website:

 

"For Federer, this week's visit to Ethiopia was one that moved him to tears. "When I arrived at the school and all of the children were singing, it was very emotional," Federer told Reuters. "They sang, `Roger, our Father' to me. I didn't really understand it at the beginning but I still had tears in my eyes." Federer, limbering up for an attempt to win all four grand slams in a calendar year having already claimed the Australian Open title, was taking some time out to visit Ethiopia -- one of the countries his charitable organisation works in. The Roger Federer Foundation, founded in 2003, spends $1 million a year on education in Ethiopia, South Africa, Tanzania, Mali, Malawi and Zimbabwe." - From Roger's website.

(C) - Sky Sports.

Robin Soderling won the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, Netherlands after Russian Mikhail Youzhny retired in the second set due to a hamstring injury while Soderling was leading 6-4, 2-0. This must a huge releif for the Swede after losing in the first round in Chennai and Melbourne. Soderling had to get past Nikolay Davydenko in the semi's to make it to the finals. As champion, Soderling received 500 South African Airways 2010 ATP Ranking points and €277,000, while runner-up Youzhny earned 300 points and €125,000 in prize money.

 
(C) - Sky Sports

Juan Carlos Ferrero crushed Lukasz Kubot 6-1, 6-0 to win the Brasil Open played in Costa do Sauipe. The former World No. 1 Ferrero playing the final after he just turned 30, so a belated but a very welcome gift for him. This is his 13th tour level title of his career and his first in South America. World No. 22 Ferrero received 250 South African Airways 2010 ATP Ranking points and $75,700 while runner-up Kubot earned 150 points and $39,780 in prize money.

 
(C) - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/George Nikitin

Spaniard Fernando Verdasco fought back from a set down to win the SAP Open, San Jose title 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 from three time champ and favorite Andy Roddick. Verdasco, who claimed his fourth ATP World Tour title from 10 finals, earned $90,925 and 250 South African Airways 2010 ATP Ranking points as the winner of the ATP World Tour 250 indoor hard-court tournament. Meanwhile, World No. 7 Roddick collected $47,900 and 150 points.

Do you all remember Martina Hingis - she was a former No. 1 on the WTA circuit - ring any bells!! Well, after looking at the success both Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin had immediately after coming back from retirement forced the Swiss miss to rethink her Tennis career. She announced this week that although she does not have any immediate plans of playing on the WTA tour, she will compete in the World TeamTennis Pro league in July. Andy roddick and the Williams sisters are some of the stars in the league.

Hingis was banned from Tennis in 2007 after testing positive for Cocaine. Her ban ended last September and she has been comtemplating a return ever since. Well the WTA tour may be on the cards pretty soon, if she see's more major wins from either Kim or Justine.

After a successful career in Tennis, Hingis tried to get into Horse Show jumping, dancing among other things.

(C) - Getty Images.
Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci defeated Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-2 0-6 6-4 in the final of Movistar Open in Chile. Earlier Bellucci defeated favorite Chilean Fernando Gonzalez to the despair of the home crowd. Bellucci, 22, is a star on the rise in the ATP Tour and has every chance of cracking the top 20 this year after reaching a career high of world No.34 before the Australian Open last month.

 
(C) - AFP
Australian Open Semi-finalist Marin Cilic retained his Zagreb indoor title played in his native Croatia by defeating German Michael Berrer 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3. Cilic moved into the top 10 in the ATP rankings for the first time after the Aussie open.

 
(C) - Sky Sports.
Feliciano Lopez easily overcame Frenchman Stephane Robert 7-5, 6-1 to win the SA Open in Johannesburg. After missing a lot of opportunities to close the first set early, he picked up his game to win the second set without much resistance. Lopez took out Gael Monfils in the semi finals to reach the final.

ATP Rankings

The biggest mover here is Marin Cilic, who made it to the top 10 for the first time in his career after making it to the quarter finals of the Australian Open. Djokovic is sitting pretty at No.2 also for the first time, he has been pretty consistent in making it to the last rounds of the most tournaments he has played in, but failing to win them.

Marin Cilic makes it to the top 10.
(C) - Sky Sports

The biggest surprise is Li Na, the first Chinese woman to make to top 10. After her fabulous showing at the Aussie open she made it big for the first time in her career. I am sure this will be a big hit with the Chinese and we'll see the sport taking of in China.

Li Na - the torch bearer for Chinese tennis at the Beijing Olympics