I am back for a bit so i thought i would do something easy so here are this weeks pictures.  For me, just looking at them gets me so excited for AO! WOO!

This week marks the last opportunity for players to practice and earn some points before the Australian Open, in the form of the Heineken Open in Auckland, the Moorilla Hobart International in Hobart, and the Medibank International in Sydney.

In Auckland, an ATP only event, we find the seeds dominated by Spanish players, with Tommy Robredo leading the pack as the top seed, and David Ferrer as 2nd. With no real upsets yet in the singles draw, and, to be perfectly honest with you, me not exactly paying much attention to the tournament in general, thus far all seems to be pretty straightforward for the seeds, and there’s not really much else to comment on. You can blame Jeremy Chardy for me totally not caring about any of it, bar the Spaniards. But just for the record: TEAM FERRERO FTW <3.

vamos juanqui~ ;D!

In Hobart, the WTA-exclusive event, Anabel Medina leads the way as top seed. So far, all of the seeds are safely through, with, again, no major upsets to speak of. And, again, Frankie being a massive failure and not paying any attention to the tournament… yeah I know, whatever, shut up.

In Sydney, the only combined event of the week, and the only one I’ve really been paying much attention to at all, we see a rather intriguing draw for both the ATP and WTA players… or maybe it’s just me being blinded by Richard Gasquet. Tomas Berdych is the top seed of the tournament, with Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, on-form and runner up at Chennai last week, at number two, and looking like a real contender for the title. Also in the fray we see Australia’s own Lleyton Hewitt, and more importantly Richard Gasquet, fresh for the 2010 season and looking near-perfect, with only mere moments of headcasery in his first round match again Spain’s Feliciano Lopez. Let’s just take a moment to appreciate the wonder that is Mr Gasquet, shall we?

He’s even pretty when he’s making silly faces, amirite? <3

I’m sorry but I’m just so insanely fangirlish glad that he’s back and fighting this year. We won’t discuss the INSANELY UNFAIR goings involving Richard last year, as I’m sure it’s been done to death by now, but I, and I hope many of you, agree that’s it’s lovely to see him putting it all behind him and not letting it affect him this year. Did I mention I love him? You go Richie Coco~

As far as upsets go, 7th seed Igor Andreev was ousted in the first round by qualifier Leonardo Mayer in three sets on Monday, and 5th seed Sam Querrey, fresh from falling through a glass table (only Sam, only Sam…) lost to Evgeny Korolev of Russia, also in straight sets, on Tuesday.

In the woman’s draw, our top seed is Serena Williams, with Dinara Safina as 2nd, and other seeds include Elena Dementieva and Victoria Azarenka. The tournament thus far has been disastrous for the top players, with nearly half of the top eight being ousted in the first and second rounds, with 8th seed Vera Zvonareva retiring from her match against Elena Vesnina in the first set, Caroline Wozniacki falling to Na Li in three sets, and Jelena Jankovic losing to qualifier Agnes Szavay, again, in straight sets on Monday. Also on Monday we see Italy’s Flavia Pennetta defeating Australia’s Sam Stosur in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1, much to the disappointment of the home crowd, but pleasing Frankie considerably. On Tuesday, while Serena and Dinara advanced comfortably in straight sets, along with 5th seed Dementieva and 6th seed Azarenka, another seed fell, when Dominika Cibulkova defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets.

Away from these tournaments, the exhibition in Kooyong, the AAMI Classic, gets underway today, where eight ATP players battle it out to become champion. Each player plays three matches over four days for their chance to be crowned winner at the end, and this year, the players competing are Ivan Ljubicic, Fernando Gonzalez, Novak Djokovic, Fednando Verdasco, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Robin Soderling, Tommy Haas and Juan Martin del Potro. Aside from getting in some practice before the Australian Open, this exhibition will be interesting to see how contenders Djokovic and del Potro play, as this will be their first matches of the season, and, with competition for the AO title looking fierce, they will want to make sure they are nothing less than perfect. The event kicks off with del Potro vs. Ljubicic today, and is sure to be an interesting tournament to watch.

lookin’ good, boys, lookin’ good <3.

In other, rather important, news, this week sees a change in the top 5 players on the ATP tour, with Argentine Juan Martin del Potro taking over from British Andy Murray as world #4, a career high, and, an extremely important change, seeing as next week is the Australian Open. While del Potro only leads Murray by a mere 5 points, this change means that the draw for the Australian Open will be extremely interesting. It means, depending on how you want to look at it, that Andy Murray may have to beat at least 3 of the world’s best to win the title, or, that one of the other top five will have to beat him in order to advance past the quarter finals. But whatever way you look at it, whether you’re Team Mandy or not, it certainly means that the Australian Open just got that bit more interesting.

Juan Martin del Adorable is as his name suggests <3.

Aside from all of this proper tournament stuff, have you ever wondered who the best looking man and woman in tennis are?

I agree.

Well, this has been fun! I’d like to thank Estelle for asking me to do this for her while she’s away, and I hope I’ve done well with your blog. I leave you with a little reminder of why I like tennis so much. Ciao guys~ :3.

The Showdown of Champions in Kuala Lumpur or Glam Slam as they are calling it was held today and yesterday.  The featured players were; Sania Mirza, Maria Kirilenko, Elena Dementieva and Zheng Jie.

Here’s a quick video made by HCFOO from the “Meet the fans” session:

The only score line I have heard of is MaKiri and LenaD beat Zheng and Sania (6-4, 5-7, 10-8)

Maria looks so much different in the Adidas range other than Stella.  I hope next year will really be a good one for her and LenaD

I want every reader to contribute to what you think is the years most memorable awards instead of some silly blogger You can put two players as your answer too!

WTA & ATP COMBINED

1. Player of the year

2. Newcomer of the Year

3. Biggest Dissapointment

4. Match of the year

5. Quote of the year

6. Best Shot of the Year

HOW TO VOTE:

Simply post it in a comment with the number. Voting closes 30th of December so get your votes in!

Ana Ivanovic has recently brought an apartment which is currently being built in the heart of New Belgrade.  The one-hundred square metre apartment boasts views of the New and Old Belgrade, including the picturesque rivers.  The sumptuous apartment cost 400, 00 euros, which is about 645, 000 australian. The building has reception, 24-hour supervision and security.

The final phase of the construction of the building is underway. Ana’s parents have started interior decorating.

Dellacqua underwent shoulder surgery and has been recovering all year

As you may be aware i am pretty passionate about tennis and in particulary, Australian tennis.  So in the lead up to AO the Aussies hit the courts this week for the ultimate wildcard showdown!

Some of the main players in the field were; Aussie favorite Casey Dellacqua, Former World no. 8 Alicia Molik, Up and coming teen; Olivia Rogowska (nearly took out Safina at the USO) and newly crowned boys’ US Open Singles champ Bernard Tomic.

Nothing too exciting this week other than all of those players making it to the Quarters.  There Alicia Molik lost to up and coming teen, Jess Moore – 62 46 64.  Casey Dellacqua was looking for a tough workout today in the aussie sun taking 3 sets to down Queenslander Shannon Golds.  Olivia Rogowska also got through, she now faces Moore who defeated Molik.

In the mens’ field Tomic won. And thats all you need to know.  A few other guys got through as well…

The semis will be played on Saturday.  I really hope Dellacqua gets through because i think she really deserves it, in saying that Rogowska would probably make more of it through the draw?

These matches can be watched on the offical AO website

Clickey – http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/index.html

This Monday Stan married his heavily pregnant girlfriend, Illham Vuilloud.  They are expecting their first child in February just after the Australian Open.  He will join Federer as the only fathers on tour. They both look awesome, i really love her dress!

I never knew Christmas was on the 6th of January for the Russians. Well done to the WTA, this whole year they have given fans videos of the players being asked weird and wonderful questions!  ATP really needs to learn something next year.

Yep, another one to add to the list of tennis tweeters!  She updates is pretty often and lets you in on what she has been up to; including awesome pictures (No idea who the guy in the white is)

So many jokes can be made about this photo.  She is pretty friendly with Caro who too got twitter (CaroWozniaki) recently.  Her and Vika are talking pretty often about what they are doing on their holidays and practicing for the Australian Summer.

Enjoy your holidays, you earnt it!

Here’s the sneak peak of the Australian Open Magazine.  Looks pretty exciting, except i don’t like the boring white background.  Australia is pretty excited about the comeback of Kim I hope she does well, i am a bit surprised Justine Henin doesn’t even have a cover statement.