Description of Yahoo Tennis games:
A fast 3D tennis game that is funny and challenging. You control the most closest player in a back tail view tennis game. The game rules are like normal tennis.

Cute dress, but that thing on her arm is incredibly unattractive. I know Maria is all big into fashion, but to most normal humans that just looks weird. She attempted to rock this look at a party held by Canon to unveil their new line of diamond encrusted cameras in New York City. I'm glad to see that she's growing out the bangs, though.

On a side note: Is Mash replacing Dolce? I wouldn't mind because I'm supremely annoyed by those overplayed commercials. Just don't go replacing Camilla with Nastia. Mash and CB are the most interesting couple in tennis right now, whether they're actually a couple or not.

I played three matches this season, and won 1, lost 2. But both matches I lost were very close three setters. For a first season, I think I did pretty well.

Our team made it to the city finals and won first place! A nice finish!!!

whew!...

Rafael Nadal grabs the number one seeding at the 2008 US Open tournament that will begin on Monday.

What's realy interesting to me is how quickly the sports, tennis and general media have all so quickly forgotten that Swiss guy (who also won a gold medal at the Olympics this year by the way) who used to play pretty good tennis for just a few weeks prior to Nadal.

All jokes aside, this is Federer's last real opportunity to salvage this year. A year that started out with mononucleosis and a semifinal loss to Novak Djokovic at the Aussie Open.

Federer could win his fifth straight US Open title this year. More importantly he'll end off the grand slam year with one title, one away from tying Pete Sampras' record and most importantly the knowledge that he hasn't been shut out fully in 2008.

I still think that he needs more time to mourn the Wimbledon loss but because of the Olympics he really had no chance to catch himself to reassess how to handle the summer that's passed him by.

But with the gold medal win last week at the Olympics' doubles finals, I think it's something that Federer needed desperately to regain some confidence. It's also the best way to enter The Open next week with a win on the same hard court surface that will take up the next two weeks of his life.

On the other side there's Nadal. The new "Federer". This is without a doubt his best year on the tour. Has he hit his peak? I think that 2008 is his peak. Even if he was to have another year like 2008, I just don't see him and his super aggressive style of play having the longevity that a more graceful game may have.

Ironically enough, the last top player with a similar style of play was Lleyton Hewitt of Australia. And where will Lleyton be during The Open? Getting his hip operated on. If Rafael can learn anything from the past it's that Lleyton has played that super aggressive, over caffeinated, "COME ON!" yelling, super fist pumping, stomp rushing (the dude doesn't run on court, he stomps), "my bark is mad loud yo" style that was effective at 21... but not so much at 25.

Rafael is stronger than the thin Hewitt but the unforgiving hard courts could care less. They treat those knees and joints just as harsh as anyone.

The official draws will be made public tomorrow. This will be the beginning of quite an interesting two weeks in New York.

cap

Source

The men's seeds are:

1. Rafael Nadal
2. Roger Federer
3. Novak Đoković
4. David Ferrer
5. Nikolay Davydenko
6. Andy Murray
7. David Nalbandian
8. Andy Roddick
9. James Blake
10. Stanislas Wawrinka
11. Fernando González
12. Richard Gasquet
13. Fernando Verdasco
14. Ivo Karlović
15. Tommy Robredo
16. Gilles Simon
17. Juan Martin del Potro
18. Nicolás Almagro
19. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
20. Nicolas Kiefer
21. Mikhail Youzhny
22. Tomáš Berdych
23. Igor Andreev
24. Paul-Henri Mathieu
25. Philipp Kohlschreiber
26. Dmitry Tursunov
27. Feliciano López
28. Radek Štěpánek
29. Juan Mónaco
30. Marin Čilić
31. Andreas Seppi
32. Gaël Monfils

The women's seeds are:

1. Ana Ivanović
2. Jelena Janković
3. Svetlana Kuznetsova
4. Serena Williams
5. Elena Dementieva
6. Dinara Safina
7. Venus Williams
8. Vera Zvonareva
9. Agnieszka Radwańska
10. Anna Chakvetadze
11. Daniela Hantuchová
12. Marion Bartoli
13. Ágnes Szávay
14. Victoria Azarenka
15. Patty Schnyder
16. Flavia Pennetta
17. Alizé Cornet
18. Dominika Cibulková
19. Nadia Petrova
20. Nicole Vaidisšová
21. Caroline Wozniacki
22. Maria Kirilenko
23. Lindsay Davenport
24. Shahar Pe'er
25. Francesca Schiavone
26. Anabel Medina Garrigues
27. Alona Bondarenko
28. Katarina Srebotnik
29. Sybille Bammer
30. Ai Sugiyama
31. Virginie Razzano
32. Amélie Mauresmo

Being the good sport that he was, Dad never complained as a nest full of his little chickadees would gather around that big box, with one of them sitting cross-legged down in front to turn the dial whenever ordered. Yes, I was born during the days before the remote control was invented and, if someone didn't sit down in front then you had to bloody well get up out of your chair, walk over to the TV, turn the dial physically with your own little hand and then walk all the way back to your chair. You were really screwed if the show you turned on wasn't exactly what you wanted to watch, or turned out to be no good. You then had to repeat the whole process. So, you know where I'm going with this?! You had to have someone sit down in front to turn that knob in order to channel surf especially with so many kids watching the same television!! One or two of us got to be pretty good at this job and could spin that sucker right off its axis and then there were some of us that would turn the channel to where they wanted, leave the room remarking "I'll be right back" and for some unknown reason never return. (This was usually my little trick and it cracked me right up only because it took the rest of them so long to realize I really wasn't coming back, all the while watching some show they had no say or interest in watching!!!)

Where was I? Oh yes, back to the hockey! Living in a household of non-sports enthusiasts, my father learned to watch whatever his children were watching in order to at least be with his kids. As his daughters and only son started to date and the house was suddenly empty on a Saturday night, Dad watched as many games as he could sneak in and no longer had to listen to them on the radio. I have to admit that once in awhile I would sit down and join him. The game had that little something that would grab my eye now and again, and after watching a few intermittent pieces I began to learn one or two things about the game. Or it could have been that I was just dateless that Saturday night and really, really bored. But I'd like to think I was at least taking a little bit of interest in something Dad liked.

Having said all of this, when I married and discovered my hubby was a major Toronto Maple Leaf  fan I had to take it in stride only because I love him too much and feel strongly about supporting my man who has so few things in life he enjoys!

Every Saturday night during hockey season, including while we were dating, I'd keep my husband company in front of the telly to watch the game and he'd patiently answer so many dumb questions during the game - "So why did Sundin get a penalty there?  Why can't he cross the blue line? Who's that guy again? Oh, he's cute once you take the helmet off. What's that god awful thing in his mouth?  Isn't it nice they have to wear suits coming to the games. Does his mother know he fights like that?".  Well, you get the drift - but I learned to enjoy the game, and God bless my dear man for putting up with it over the years. I can only assume it's because I was the only other person in the room and being pretty sure he loves me too, he really didn't have much choice. Plus I believe in my own little naive way, he'd like to have a buddy to watch the game with???

So these past years I've become a big hockey fan. I love the speed, the action, the fights - oh, I really enjoy a good fight - and laugh out loud at the beer ads!! Being Canadian it goes without saying (whether you drink the stuff or not) you enjoy a good beer ad now and again. We Canadians can do beer ads real good, eh?? All this comes despite the fact that I abhor violence on television, can't stand anyone getting chopped up, cut up, knifed to death, bludgeoned, gored, spooked out of their skulls or even lose a limb (God, especially that!!!). I have to have hubby turn the station or I leave the room while that scene is working itself out! No rhyme, no reason - I hate violence, but love hockey. Actually I shouldn't even write those two words in the same sentence, as I don't consider hockey to be a violent sport, despite the fact that there are a few goons who have joined the game of late!

This past month with the 2008 Olympic Games  being played out, I've discovered I'm Canadian through and through - I prefer winter sports over summer games and I'm finding the Summer Olympics a bit boring. Yes, I support our Canadian athletes - it's the polite thing to do - but where's the fun in going back and forth, back and forth in a pool of water??  Oh yes, you also have the back and forth, back and forth of the volleyball, the tennis, the table tennis, the basketball and please, let's not forget the round and round and round of the runners. It's enough to make you dizzy.  But to get back on track you can watch the up and down, up and down of the divers!! I have to admit, however, that I enjoyed the Field Hockey game (the small portion I saw) and found that to be kind of intriguing. It must be crippling after playing that game for a long period of time, bent over like that and contorting your knees enough to make that small stick work for you!!

It also goes without saying that the kayaking and canoeing races are pretty neat. Again, the speed and the endurance, plus Canadians excel at these sports. Yes, I'm prejudiced! But maybe that's why I'm enjoying those particular sports, because Canada does excel at them. Who knows??!!

You could argue that hockey is a "back and forth" playing game, too. I would argue back that it's a group sport, a team effort, much faster paced, along with some jibs and jabs to the ribs. Throw in a little bloody nose now and again and you've got an action-packed game! See if you can push a little black puck around an arena wearing 50 pounds of gear, your eyeballs peering through some sort of cage with bars and skating on a steel blade about 1/4" in width!!! Yes, basketball is also a team sport, but I'm sorry, where's the challenge in running back and forth on a court wearing shorts, tshirt and running shoes and bouncing a ball up and down or even being allowed to hold it for a second or two?? Plus, the players now are so bloody tall why bother to even jump for the net, just hand it off to that 6' 9" player standing close by and he'll just dip the ball in the net and your good for 2 points. Plus it only takes a player 3 to 4 steps across the court to reach the net!!

I'm waiting anxiously for the 2010 Winter Olympics. That need for speed is there in spades. The downhill racers going 90 miles an hour, the mogul skiers bumping and grinding away, the ski jumpers gliding through the air with the greatest of ease and ah yes, that good ole hockey game!!! May Stompin' Tom Connors be immortalized for his love of Canada and his ever wondrous hockey song. You can't help but stomp your feet when you hear the beat of The Good Old Hockey Game and your heart starts to pump as the players skate onto the ice. Place your bets, boys - the Leafs are gonna take 'em tonight! Well, at least we can dream, can't we???

But that's my opinion and I'm entitled to it!! Canadian, eh!!!

At the end, he leaves with a gold medal...but in doubles, and Nadal leaves with the singles Olympics title with Djokovic with the bronze.

Much like a 17 year-old, newly crowned Wimbledon champion did, new Olympic All Around champion Nastia Liukin is going to get swamped with media and sponsors when she returns home. The gold medal also won Nastia a cover shoot with Maria Sharapova shot in New York City just after the U.S. Open. And Nastia is apparently a fan of the Mash,

“When she got an e-mail from Sharapova inviting her to do the shoot, it was about as big as winning the gold medal,” said her agent, Evan Morgenstein. “Nastia really looks up to her.”

Liukin is also Russian born, but came to the U.S. as a tender age of two. This is incredibly coincidental for me as I was using Nastia and her friendly rivalry with the world's most adorable human, Shawn Johnson, to fill the void created by the crappy state of women's tennis, mostly due to Maria's absence.

And here, she's doing it by helping me make better decisions in life, which is very good for me. Atleast, for a debutant who rarely made good choices in life :D How could I ever do the whole thing in like 3 months? Hmmm it might have been done, but with not so much perfection. She was right, infact she's always right. Its time I look up to her sometimes atleast :)

So, one year. I can make it my dream perfection. More perfect, more efficient and more useful. I can research for longer times and make plenty of dry runs. Its a very nice advantage. I still am in between a rock and a hard place as to why I was in much hurry...hmm anyway, its time for action..the final countdown.

Perfection and class. That's what I want for my projects and I would favor consistency as well. So then, over 3 seasons I would be working for this. I would be having my college too, so that's an added disadvantage. Anyway, no slipping this time. NO!

I guess, after tomorrow, which is my birthday, I would be joining Tennis...finally! Its strictly obligatory for me to perform well...common! I am the first Indian to have been able to win Wimbledon or any other SINGLES Grand Slam Title. So that kind of needs rock hard training and perfection.

My dad's coming this 23rd. Cool! Its really nice to have someone you love come back to you after so long. I am sure I would be having a great time here in India.

So that's it. One year delay - arguably the first wise decision in my life, aided by my sweetheart Snow :)

This is a very sad news. Lleyton Hewitt will be out for the rest of this season due to his hip injury. He decided to skip the US Open and the Davis Cup to undergo surgery. I hope for your speedy recovery Lleyton! See you in Melbourne next year.

Here's the link to the rest of the article:

http://www.lleytonandbechewitt.com/content/view/229/29/

Nike has released a two-minute film to tell the extraordinary story of how Rafa Nadal managed to change from being a right handed amateur tennis player into the most-feared, left-handed champion in the world.

The film meets Rafa and his Uncle Toni at home being interviewed in the kitchen. Uncle Toni tells us that although his nephew hits the ball harder with his left hand than anyone in the history of tennis, he is in fact right handed. Toni tells the story of how he convinced Rafa to make the switch from right-handed to left-handed when he was nine years old, believing it would give him an advantage over his competitors.

The irony is that, to this day, playing tennis is the only thing that Rafa does left handed. He uses his right hand to throw, write and even for the most mundane activities like brushing his teeth. Though the film explores this in a light hearted way, its objective is to demonstrate that the act of changing into a left handed player was a courageous one.

MaximOnline has a new spread with Anna Kournikova this months cover girl over here.

For starters, I have to write about Doordarshan, India's State-owned television channel that those of us old enough have had the misfortune of watching while growing up. Pre-liberalisation, India had no cable, which meant that entertainment -- especially in a small village like the one where I grew up -- came from the television set. Doordarshan was pathetic, and that's being unduly kind. When cable came, we were so happy, we watched everything: Neighbours, X-Files, The Bold and the Beautiful (surprisingly it's still on air) and Small Wonder and lots of crazy stuff. Whenever people talk about how much liberalisation has increased the divide between the rich and the poor in India, my reaction can be pretty much summed up in Doordarshan terms. Post-liberalisation, we had cable and much to choose from, and that can only be a good thing.  

The reason I'm writing about Doordarshan today is because of the Olympics, which is being aired only on that channel. And Jesus, do they screw up. At every opportunity, every second. Watching it made me realise how much I used to hate it as a child. They didn't show one match in full, choosing to break in the middle of the most exciting of games to go off somewhere else. I don't care so much for other sports, but tennis, tennis I love, and of course, DD -- as that bloody channel is non-affectionately called -- screwed it up really well. One, I had no idea what they were going to show, because they didn't seem to know either. So one switched on the television set and waited, waited, waited.. suddenly, there is the Djokovic-Rafa match and one gets all excited. Djokovic has won the second set and the third set is going to be very interesting. Just then, the bloody (I really need to think of another suitably offensive adjective) anchor appears on the screen and has the audacity to say something like: "We're really sorry to pull you away from that interesting match, but what to do, we have to show you 'India at Beijing'."  Er, but what extraordinary thing has my dear country done at Beijing anyway? Won one gold medal in all? But forget that. 'India at Beijing' came a full 10-15 minutes later, time which two dreadful anchors filled up by yapping. So, yes dear world, I did NOT get to watch the end of that match.

DD repeated this at the tennis men's single final. Just as Rafa was going to win, they cut to badminton. They came back for the last game, and cut again without showing the medal ceremony. It's been some fifteen years since I had to last to rely on DD, and god, they haven't changed one bit.

Rant over.

The good part? Rafa is No.1 -- yay! yay! yay! -- and he has won every single major tournament this year after Australian Open. After last year's drought in the hard court season, this is exactly what any fan could have hoped for.

In other news, I am going to be not editing for a while after today -- too many things to wrap up -- so I am unlikely to be harried about editing (definitely about other things though). And had a most nice night out with S yesterday. Ate half a roast chicken at TGIF (eeks, now that I think of it), potato skin loaded with cheese, and the biggest chocolate brownie on earth. And then watched Bachna ae Haseeno, which as we like to say, was a good "time-pass" film. Ranbir Kapoor is quite cute but, but.. before the movie started, promos of Dostana were shown and both S and I watched shirt-less John Abraham (who stars in the film) open-mouthed. Actually, I think I whistled (or hissed rather, since I don't whistle very well). He has an amazing body, and as S was saying while we were driving back home, "I mean, how? He has such a perfect V-shaped torso." So, yes, after semi-naked John, Ranbir shirt-less wasn't as exciting as it should have been. Perhaps they should concentrate on his bottom half like Bhansali did in Saawariya. That's some sexy butt this boy has got.

After tennis, Joseph and I had dinner at Momoyama Sushi restaurant. It's our second time there. I had a Phillidelphia roll, Joseph had a Momoyama roll. Both were good, and we were stuffed.

Last night I started reading Iris Johansen's "Quicksand". I know... FINALLY, right? I have no idea why I waited so long! It came out like 3 months ago. Usually I'm so quick to order the book. Anyway, it's really good. I always get sucked in. I'm already more than halfway through and I'll probably finish tonight. I can't wait to read what happens!

It's hard to be amazed by anything you see online, when you know any teenager with a computer and a pirated copy of Photoshop can cobble together a fake photograph in minutes.

Unfortunately this means there's a whole bunch of jaw-dropping pics that the internet declared "FAKE!" the moment they appeared. But as it turns out, some of the most baffling of them are, in fact, real.

What appears to be some normal-sized machine cropped and pasted onto a skyline is actually a gigantic machinized monstrosity designed for excavation by some Germans. Those things that look like saw teeth big enough to cut down the Empire State Building are actually buckets, each of which could pretty much scoop up your whole house.

If this thing's secretly a transformer, we're screwed.

Yes, this push-pop made of "Macaroni & Cheese in Chili Sauce With Beef" is very real, part of a "convenience meets nausea" movement to provide your favorite foods on the go in a microwaveable, cardboard tube. Scrambled eggs are also available.

Here's a tip for all you potential consumers: if you want macaroni and cheese so badly that you're willing to eat it in a push pop, you have an illness and need to reach out to a professional.

This giant, terrifying Eddie Murphy head that looks like a bad photoshop pic was actually part of an enormous bust they were building to promote the movie, Meet Dave.

This humongous table and chair is a sculpture in England. The artist wanted to build a monument to the privacy and loneliness of writing. And by that we assume he means the loneliness of being a writer who is also a giant that eats passing bicyclists.

#11.

      Floating Letters

 

                        

Yes, if you stand in this spot in the parking garage shown in the photo, the word "DOWN" is just floating there. The sign was desgined by an artist who won an award for it, because there are apparently awards for making innovative signage in parking garages.

He created the effect of continuous letters by adjusting the angles for appropriate perspective as they reached walls, just like in those incredible chalk sidewalk drawings that are all over the web.

These sorts of illusions are great when they appear on sidewalks, and probably much less entertaining when you ram straight into the wall of this Wile E. Coyote-inspired parking garage after swerving to avoid the giant DOWN sign that materialized in midair in front of your car.

This apparent disaster-waiting-to-happen is on the Island of St. Maarten. The airport has a particularly short runway that ends just 40 feet from beach, leaving large planes just barely enough room to land. So they have to come in low, directly over the beach, making it a prime destination for an afternoon of quiet, relaxing sunbathing.

Holy crap, look at that thing. We were hoping that was just a tiny trash can but, no, it's a coconut crab, which is the biggest arthropod that lives on land.

We like how they chose the innocuous name "coconut crab" to describe something that can only be killed with a flamethrower. If these things were called "Skull Crabs" or "Under Your Bed Crabs" mankind would have declared war on them long ago.

This blotch of color is the Grand Prismatic Spring, which supposedly gets its colors from bacteria that grow around the water.

Since this explanation seems far too simple for something so brilliant, we'll go ahead and assume it's really an alien spacecraft landing site being covered up by the government.

This cartoonish muscle-dog is Wendy, a whippet with a genetic disorder causing ridiculous muscular growth.

At first sight, this appears to be a home improvement project that accidentally tapped into Stephen Hawkings' most abstract theories on space and time. But then you notice that the kid who is right next to the portal to another dimension isn't disintegrating into millions of pieces, or even looking up from his cellphone.

So it must be a photoshop right? Wrong again. The Inversion House is an art project that answers the pressing question: what would your neighbor's place look like if it was sucked through a straw in the Looney Tunes universe?

Yes, the proportions are correct. The tiny man is Aditya "Romeo" Dev, the world's smallest bodybuilder. He stands a towering 2 feet 9 inches tall and weighing in at a whopping 20 pounds.

We'd love to see him and Vern Troyer go at it in a no holds barred cage match. Or, see two huge men get into a cage match using this guy and Vern Troyer as weapons.

As you can see from the package, these are supposed to be lighthouses but may in fact be the most unfortunately shaped product of all time.

It looks like a city about to get drained out of a giant's bath tub, but it's actually a picture of the world's largest diamond mine outside of Mirny, Russia.

This mine is actually so large that air currents prevent helicopters from flying over it.

This seems to be a Photoshop with some Japanese text thrown on, to mock a culture whose major export seems to be insanity. But the product is real and oh by the way, it's from Pizza Hut.

It's the Double Roll Pizza and comes with a pigs-in-blankets crust. The only thing it's missing is some pork rinds. Maybe sprinkle some tiny cans of beer on there.

This mile-high tennis match looks like some cheesy special effect from a Nike commercial. But no, it's just Dubai, whose entire economy seems to be based on building enormous things that exist only for the purpose of not making any sense. This tennis match between Andre Agassi and Roger Federer on a helipad located on top of the Burj Al Arab skyscraper.

Hopefully they brought more than just that one ball.

Save the date! The bad boys of tennis return to the desert March 11-29, 2009 for the Pacific Life Open. Get ready for the name calling, racket throwing, linesmen berating tennis we all love. Will Mardy Fish sink or swim? Will you catch a glimpse of Roddick's new fiance?

Insider's Tip: The players go to No-Da-Te (not 'no date'...that part's up to you) for sushi and sake with our favorite Japanese sushi chef on El Paseo in Palm Desert. By the end of the week his chef jacket is covered in player's autographs. Plus, if you ask him nicely, he will bring out his private collection of past players rackets.

Need a hotel? Call Pattie at Gentry Travel on El Paseo, 760-340-1111, she'll even give you a few pointers on your backhand.