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Sunday, January 30, 2011
Novak Djokovic claimed his second Grand Slam title at the Australian Open on Sunday with a dominant display which thwarted Andy Murray's bid to become Britain's first male major-winner in 75 years.
The Serbian world number three controlled the final on a warm Melbourne evening, winning 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 for his second Australian title, after also triumphing in 2008.
It was the first major final without Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer for three years, as Djokovic proved superior to the listless fifth seed and afterwards stripped down to his shorts in celebration.
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But the disappointing Murray suffered further heartbreak and is now yet to win a set in three Grand Slam finals.
Murray was bidding to become the first British man to win a Grand Slam since Fred Perry in 1936, and the first from the country to win the Australian Open since 1934.
But he was never in the hunt as his game fell away in the second set and Djokovic ramped up the pressure to take the final in straight sets in 2hr 39 min.
It was Djokovic's second successive Grand Slam final after losing to Nadal in last year's US Open decider.
Symbolically, the last time Djokovic finished runner-up at the 2007 US Open, he went on to win the title at the Australian Open the following year against Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Djokovic and Murray are close friends from their junior playing days and it was their first meeting at a Grand Slam with the Serb now leading 5-3 in their matches.
Despite the triumph Djokovic will remain the world number three behind Nadal and Federer when the new ATP rankings are published on Monday.
It was another bitter experience for Murray in the majors after going down in straight sets to Federer in last year's Australian final and at the 2007 US Open.
In 2010, Murray choked back tears as he apologised to British fans after he was unable to serve out the third set while leading Federer 5-3, and then squandered five set points in an agonising tie-break to bomb out in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (13/11).
Murray's opening service game Sunday went for 14 minutes and four deuces before holding as both players held their serve until the 10th game.
The Scot coughed up a double-fault on his opening serve and a netted forehand gave Djokovic two set points to take the opening set in just under an hour.
But Djokovic went on a seven-game run to have the second set in his pocket at 5-0.
Murray fought off a set point in the sixth game before holding and broke back to 5-2, before Djokovic went two sets up in 40 minutes when he forced a Murray backhand into the net.
Murray began the final set well, breaking Djokovic in the opening game, but dropped his next two service games before the Serb relinquished his lead with a tame sliced backhand into the net.
But Murray looked out of energy and inspiration and continued to make errors to keep the heat off Djokovic.
The lethargic Scot was broken a third time in the set to leave Djokovic to serve out the match and taking it when Murray netted a forehand.
Beatriz and Branca Feres are identical twins who were born on February 22, 1988 in Brazil.
They are 22-years-old. (2010)
That makes them legal, boys.
Beatriz is called Bia for short.
They are synchronized swimmers and synchronized spooners.
The Feres sisters represented Brazil in the 2007 Pan American games in synchronized swimming.
They have been featured on the cover of VIP magazine, and Paparazzo did a hot photo shoot that you must see!
When they aren’t swimming, they are working as models.
As you can see from their sexy, near nude photos, they probably have a great future ahead in modeling.
Bia Feres earned fame in the Summer of 2008 when she and her sister Branca failed to make the Olympics, but attracted the attention of numerous bloggers in the process.
Bia & Branca Feres Athletes
Bia & Branca Feres Brazilian Twins
Saturday, January 29, 2011
kim clijsters defend Chines Li Na in Australian open 2011 final
0 comments Posted by wedos at 10:37 AM
The middle kingdom may eventually rule the women's tennis world - but not just yet.
An emotional Kim Clijsters, who held back tears of joy after converting match point, took her fourth grand slam and her first outside the United States.
The Belgian had dropped the first set in a nervous start but went on to win 3-6 6-3 6-3 in just over two hours last night.
Li Na, who was bidding to become the first Asian, male or female, to take a grand slam singles title, got into her rhythm early before her game gradually unravelled. She lost all accuracy on her forehand but, more importantly, lost focus.
It was strange stuff from a player with more than 500 matches at WTA level; while all her opponent could see was the finish line. Indeed the third set was barely contested, over in just 34 minutes; if the first half of the match was all about hope, the latter half was about truth.
It was strangely friendly as both players chatted amiably before the match; a contrast to the rivalry last year between Serena Williams and Justine Henin, who barely spoke.
Li was broken to love in her opening service game, and lost the first eight points of the match to the Belgian appearing in her eighth major final.
Cheered on by a packed players box with supporters in Nike-branded sweatshirts emblazoned with Major Breakthrough, Li settled and grabbed a break back immediately.
The 29-year-old Chinese player, the oldest Melbourne finalist since Chris Evert in 1988, had charmed the crowd all week, mostly at the expense of her husband and coach Jiang Shan.
Despite career earnings of over NZ$4 million she would constantly talk about shopping with his credit card, and blamed a slow start in her semifinal on an interrupted sleep due to his constant snoring.
She failed to convert two break chances in the 6th game, then was promptly broken as errors were capitalised on by the energetic Li.
Clijsters lost her range completely midway through the first set, and Li won six of the last seven games to take the first set 6-3 in 38 minutes. An estimated 260 million viewers in China would have been in raptures, especially with the sizzling passing shot that converted her second set point.
The second set was a beauty. If the first set was about emotion and composure, the second was about shot-making as the quality lifted noticeably.
Neither player held serve until Li in the fifth game. Clijsters seemed bogged down in frustration in the early stages of the set, but the crucial moment came in the seventh game. She forced two break points on the wobbly Li serve, and took the second with a precise cross court pass.
But Cljisters was starting to have the final say. The Belgian relished the contest as the battle moved into the trenches. She broke Li again to take the set 6-3 in 57 minutes.
The Chinese player, who had looked agitated during the set, made an official complaint to the umpire about phantom calls in the crowd.
There had been some noises but it was all about inexperience in a big match; her mental state was such she would've heard the clinking of chopsticks over from Chinatown.
The final set was an oddity in the context of the match. Li never stopped going for her shots but the unforced errors mounted. She was broken in the fourth game, then made four consecutive forehand errors as Clijsters eased away.
Li, the only one of the 2010 quarter-finalists to reach the last eight again this year, could feel the match slipping away.
She had come back from 0-5 down in the Sydney tournament preceding the Open but it was never going to happen last night.
Yet another forehand sailed wide and Aussie Kim had the victoryto give her has a staggering 26-3 record in grand slam matches since she made her comeback in 2009.
A small consolation for Li will come on Tuesday, when she returns to the top 10 and a career high ranking of seven. Cljisters will also rise, to second in the world, her highest position since August 2006.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Australian Open 2011 Li Na to face Kim Clijsters in women's final
0 comments Posted by wedos at 12:40 AM
Li Na, to the overwhelming relief of maybe a billion people in China and the tearful bewilderment of her devastated opponent Caroline Wozniacki, is in the final of the Australian Open against Kim Clijsters.
It is an historic event, the first slam singles final, men's or women's, featuring a Chinese player. Yet she is not sure the achievement will inspire the tennis bonanza in China that most commentators imagine.
"Good for me," she agreed, "good for my team … maybe good for China tennis. I'm not sure. Maybe."
Pressed on her reticence, Li said it would depend on how the media in China present what she has done and is about to do. A media student herself, she is well aware that China's press is unpredictable; there may well be a residue of resentment in the Chinese establishment about Li's flight from the state-run system.
"I mean, you have to see what they are write down for me," she said. "Everything decide for the media."
Even in her halting English, the message was clear.
After saving match point in the second set to beat the world No1 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, Li carries not only the good wishes of many neutrals but surely the hopes of even those among her compatriots who might regard tennis as giant ping-pong.
For Wozniacki, who made us laugh, just a little, this week with her quirky press conferences and a smiling demeanour that charmed even the cynics, tears were the immediate response to blowing a match that was hers for the taking.
As Wozniacki hurried from the court, head down, the sun-bathed arena rose to acclaim the winner, a sturdy campaigner who has got stronger as she worked her way through the draw.
When Wozniacki failed to convert match point at the end of the second set, she compounded her misery by double-faulting to hand the set to Li. The Dane, still without a slam to her name, was clearly so stunned that she surrendered the initiative and momentum to Li in a third set that went by in a blur.
"I'm so happy to be the first Chinese player to a final," Li told Britain's Sam Smith, working courtside for the local broadcaster, Channel 7. "I was a little bit nervous. And last night my husband, he sleep like this [making snoring noises]. I was waking up every hour."
Her husband, Jiang Shan, is also her coach, and he beamed down from the stands as if suddenly pitched into I'm A Celebrity's Husband … Get Me Out Of Here.
Smith, in the fine tradition of TV gaffes at this tournament, wrongly announced to everyone that this was their fifth wedding anniversary.
"Is it?" said a gobsmacked Li. "Today? Not two days later? I thought it was the 29th!" It is.
"The ground opened up on me a little," Smith said later.
Li's answer as to what pulled her through when so close to losing was more straightforward: "Prize money."
Li's mother famously has never seen her play – and that is not about to change apparently. "I think she prefer to stay home," she said. "I ask her many times. [She says] No, no I have my life, I didn't want come with you."
Li, who turns 29 next month, is in many ways the classic modern women's tennis player: experienced, full of perseverance and playing her best tennis after many years on the circuit.
A childhood badminton star, she was persuaded to take up tennis at nine and turned professional 12 years ago. But the sport has not consumed her – which might explain her pragmatic approach. Li dropped out of tennis in 2002 for two years to study. She has had other spells away from the sport through injury but looks immensely fit and committed at the business end of this championship.
Not everyone is as gloomy as Li about the future of tennis in China.
Brad Drewett, a national junior champion in Australia who went on to reach 34th in the world in the 80s, is the ATP's tennis development officer in Asia. At the Shanghai Masters last year, he told me: "The programmes here have developed significantly over the last five years and there are many very good junior players.
"Roger Federer held a clinic in Shanghai … with the best 11- and 12-year-olds. The feedback I got was there were a number of very exciting young prospects.
"I would hope in five, six to seven years we will have some significant players who are not just playing, but competing, and competing well, on the world tour. If that were to happen, the potential is unimaginable. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when."
Whether Li starts the revolution is the most intriguing part of the narrative.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
In making the announcement, ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti paid tribute to the 20-year-old Dane’s “strong determination and continuous commitment to the game to earn the women’s No.1 ranking at such a young age.” She is the fourth youngest woman after Martina Hingis, Monica Seles and Steffi Graf to earn the year-end No.1 ranking.
Wozniacki finished 2010 with a 62-17 match record, having also reached finals at Indian Wells and the WTA Championships in Doha. She also reached at least the fourth round of all four majors – a feat only matched by Venus Williams – and went as far as the semis at Flushing Meadows.
“What an honour it is to be named ITF World Champion,” said Wozniacki, the first World Champion from Denmark since Kristian Pless was named Boys World Champion in 1999 – and the first Dane ever to take one of the governing body’s senior awards.
“To be listed with all the former ITF World Champions is something I am really proud of,” she added. “I had a great year in 2010 and I’m training hard to have an even better year in 2011.”
watch out video below easy to decide why she is no.1
Caroline Wozniacki cramping and full body twitch (Doha 2009)
This is painful to watch. But her will pulled her through the line at the end.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Homebodies or party animals - What do the players do on their Saturday nights at home? Find out now
Australian open 2011 Saturday night Tennis players plan to celebrating their night
Interview of Tennis players how they will spend time in Saturday night.
Birthdate June 27, 1985 (25 years old)
Birthplace St. Petersburg, Russia
Residence Monte Carlo, Monaco
Height 5'9'' (174 cm)
Weight 161 lbs (73 kg)
Plays Right-handed
Turned Pro 2000 (12 yrs on tour)
