Tennis Chatter: A New Dress Code

Professional tennis players are increasingly utilizing a new dress code on tour: the no-clothes dress code, that is. Yup, Wimbledon White may be in style for the next two weeks, but players are making headlines for their bare bodies almost as much as their blazing backhands over the last couple of months.

This month, ATP resident hottie Fernando Verdasco bared it all for UK Cosmopolitan to help raise money for a cancer cause, Everyman Male Cancer Campaign.



But (pun intended), Verdasco isn't the first ATP star to pose for the campaign. As the ATP site points out, Tommy Robredo did so a year ago. (Pictures | Story) Oh those Spaniards. I wonder who is next ... Rafa?

Keeping with the baring it all theme, who knew that American struggler Ashley Harkleroad could make such big Roland Garros headlines while winning just three games the entire tournament? Well, she did. After her first-round loss to Serena Williams, Harkleroad confirmed to reporters that she posed naked for Playboy Magazine.

Is Harkleroad going the way of Kournikova?

One player that's posed naked for the camera and still kept her tennis career aflame is Serena Williams herself. Last year, the two-time Wimbledon champion posed for Jane Magazine. And, to one-up Harkleroad, Robredo and Verdasco, she did the shoot in heels.

Classy.


Photo by thesmokingsection via flickr.

The Road of Harkle

Is this the springboard Ashley Harkleroad needed to get back inside the top 40?

Harkleroad become the poster girl for the U.S. Fed Cup win over Germany this past weekend, taking the spotlight away from Lindsay Davenport's comeback and perhaps announcing that she may be ready to lead the next generation of American tennis players.

I think it's too soon to say, and if history is any indication, Harkleroad is a streaky player at best. She was a terror of good tennis in the spring of 2003 with wins over players like Daniela Hantuchova, Emelie Loit and Meghann Shaughnessy.

The last four collective seasons have been a struggle for the Georgian, who went 106-77 over four years. But the no. 74 player in the world has opened the year 7-3 and now bolstered that performance with an impressive steely-nerve weekend in Fed Cup.

Can she continue her upswing? Only time will tell us for that question.

Feeling Damp

Lindsay Davenport and the U.S. women's Federation Cup team are feeling a little damp after two days of their tie against Germany in which just two matches have been complete due to persistent rain.

This was to be the new mom's triumphant return to the Fed Cup circuit, but she faltered on Saturday against unheralded German Sabine Lisicki in the tie's opening match before Ashley Harkleroad was able to even things up with a straight set win of her own.

Play is scheduled to resume today, but whether or not Lindsay can resume the form she opened her comeback tour with last fall is unknown. Many times when a player returns, they experience a sort of honeymoon period when the ball looks bigger, the angles look easier and opponents shots feel slower.

But perhaps Davenport has floated out of this period and has come back to earth in a sense. She won three of the first four tournaments she played in since September, but played alarmingly bad in her opening match at the Australian Open against Sara Errani, winning 7-5 in the third.

Following that win, D-mama went on to be crushed by tournament champ Maria Sharapova in the second round, providing little resistance in a match that was built up to be a blockbuster.

So as many of us had guessed last summer when Davenport first announced her comeback, perhaps the American's tennis ship really has sailed. She has a chance today to prove me wrong, when she takes the court for both a singles and doubles rubber.

P-Cubed: Players' Personal Pages

Professional athletes have player profile pages all over the internet. In tennis, too, the ATP and WTA put out official guides for media resources like TENNIS to use for information.

The players, however, many of them high school and college age, can't help but do a little profile creating of their own. While some have their own web sites, others aren't quite to that level (or just don't have the money).

The answer? Facebook. And MySpace. And seeing celebrity tennis players at their most vulnerable: online personal profiles.

Here you can find Ashley Harkleroad's facebook friends list. Notice Ashley has 79 friends (small for Facebook standards) which includes a wide array of tennis names. Ansley Cargill (once ranked in the top 250), Chelsey Gullickson and Kelly Liggan, the Irish player. Ashley doesn't stop at Facebook though, she's got a MySpace profile too.

(A view of Ashley's MySpace page. Interesting quote, right?)

This is Romina Oprandi's friend list, which is 207 people long. Oprandi is currently 162 in the world after breaking into the Top 50 last year.

Here is Shenay Perry's friend list. Notice her dark and kind-of-creepy picture at the top of the page. Shenay has 199 friends. 120 more than Ashley, but eight less than Romina.

Scoville Jenkins. Michael McClune. And Alexa Glatch. Want to be friends with the stars?!? Just ask them. Well, just ask Ashley...she could use a few more.

Dirt-y Questions (Part Three): The Back Story...Is it Always This Dramatic?

Ashley Harkleroad.

Who knew a girl could dig up so much drama?

After a successful 2003 campaign (at the age of 18), Harkleroad has teetered between top-50 greatness and mid-100s journeywoman. But the back story is what keeps this girl interesting.

I wonder, is there something about the game of tennis - the way youngsters (especially girls) are pushed so hard to be so competitive at a young age? We saw it with Patty Schnyder: after a tremendous 1998, Schnyder sort of fell off her rocker, dumping her coach and dating/training with a so-called guru.

Is there a pattern here?

Perhaps Harkleroad is just finding her way. But, for all intents and purposes, dating a coach probably isn't the best idea. Dating your coach certainly isn't, either.

Oh yeah, and Harkleroad plays Venus in round two. Any boyfriend advice there?

Win Some, Lose Some

Americans Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish booked a quarterfinal clash on Sunday at the Australian Open while Ashley Harkleroad fell in her third-round match.

Roddick pulled out all the stops in his fourth-round encounter with 9th seeded Mario Ancic of Croatia, winning the match 6-3 3-6 6-1 5-7 6-4 in just over three hours.

Meanwhile, Fish continued his impressive form in Melbourne. The unseeded American, currently ranked 42nd in the world, took out 16th seeded David Ferrer in four sets, 6-1 7-6(4) 2-6 7-5.

Harkleroad did not fare as well, losing to 15th seeded Daniela Hantuchova 6-7(6) 7-5 6-3. The 21-year-old started off the match well, taking the first set and jumping out to a 4-1 lead in the second. Hantuchova surged back, however, breaking Harkleroad's serve at love to even the match at 5-all and winning eight of the next 11 games to advance to the fourth round.

While Roddick and Fish now assure an American birth in the semifinals, James Blake, the 5th seed, takes on Chilean Fernando Gonzalez in the fourth round. Should Blake win over the hard-hitting South American, he will face either Andy Murray or Rafael Nadal.

Fish and Roddick are close friends, often hitting together at tournaments and practicing in Florida. The higher-seeded Roddick leads their head-to-head matchups 4-1, but shouldn't look to walk through the quarterfinal with ease. The last time the two met, in Memphis a year ago, Roddick needed a third-set tiebreak to get past Fish.

And while Serena Williams is currently leading Jelena Jankovic 3-0 in their third-round encounter (I love AO Radio), the American flag can fly a little higher today: four still alive and week two upon us.

American Pioneers

For the first time in the Open era, no American woman is seeded in the main draw of a major event. The names of the women who have carried the American flag for so many years - Capriati, Venus, Davenport, Seles - are all absent; one citing injury, another retirement and still others...well, we're not too sure. Yet the truth of the matter is, American women's tennis has become a minor-league contender at this year's opening slam: the girls have gone mediocre.

Through all the hoopla and hollering, two women have been somewhat of a saving grace for the stars and stripes this past week in Melbourne. Serena Williams - the perennial comeback kid - and Ashley Harkleroad, the little "Pebbles" from Rossville, Ga., that is looking to rekindle her teen success of 2003.

Williams played four tournaments in 2006, including a third-round exit at this very tournament to Daniela Hantuchova (who Harkleroad plays today). Before the week began, I predicted Serena would again be a third-round victim. Yesterday Nadia Petrova nearly gave truth to my oracle, taking a 6-1 5-4 lead and serving for the match. Yet Serena Williams, in truly Serena form, screeched out a stirring comeback, blasting Petrova with a 1-6 7-5 6-3 upset.

A win like this is what Williams needed. Her shaky second round win had many questioning her ability to compete with the top players again, and when the critics call, Serena usually answers. Now it will take back-to-back top-caliber wins for Serena to find herself in the quarterfinals: Jelena Jankovic awaits the younger Williams in round four.

And there might be a little revenge in Williams' blood, seeing that it was Jankovic herself that stunned then defending champion Venus at last year's Wimbledon. So if Serena can get her druthers together, clean up her 39 unforced-error mess from round three and use her deadly serve to give her the free points it can, I certainly see a solid future in week to for Williams.

As for Harkleroad, the married 21-year-old is looking to repeat a little history when she matches up with Hantuchova, the 15th seed, in the third round. Harkleroad leads their head-to-head matchups 2-0, both wins coming in the spring of 2003 on clay. The American dispatched the lengthy Czech 6-2 6-1 in the quarterfinals of Charleston before winning 9-7 in the third set of their second round bout at Roland Garros two months later.

Harkleroad brings not only history onto the court today, but quite a bit of confidence as well. After winning her opening-round match, Harkleroad had little trouble with 17th seeded Anna Lena Groenefeld, downing the German 6-2, 6-2.

For the American to get past Hantuchova, she'll have to take lessons from her opponent's recent troubles: the 15th seed needed a 6-4 in the third set performance to get past tricky Frenchwoman Emelie Loit in the second round. A little chop and block from Harkleroad? It just might get her a first-ever fourth round birth in a major.

Seeing American tennis in such a condition, Williams and Harkleroad would truly be American Pioneers - of 2007 - to advance into the second week in Melbourne.