Monthly Archives: March 2009

Famous female tennis player: Serena Williams

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One of two Williams’ sisters, famous female tennis player Serena Williams, was born in America in 1981. She is the former world no.1 in tennis rankings for women and currently is No. 17 in singles. She has a total career tally of 27 Grand Slam titles including 13 singles titles, 12 double titles and 2 mixed doubles.USA tennis player Serena Williams has been the world no.1 on five different occasions and is the current reigning champion at the Wimbledon. She also has a couple of Olympic Gold medals to her tally which makes her one of the most accomplished tennis players in world tennis today. She is the greatest tennis player in the world, male or female, to have won the four Grand Slams and the 5th player in tennis history to do so. She is the highest earner in terms of career prize money in any sport among females. Tennis Magazine has ranked her as the 17th best tennis player ever to have played in the last 40 years from 1965-2005. She has a strong ongoing rivalry with her sister, Venus Williams, with Venus leading their face-offs 10-9.

Master’s Series in Tennis

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french-open2The tennis tournament played at the end of each year to determine the best of the lot from the top ranked 8 players is called the Masters Tennis Series. In this series, the top 8 players in the calendar year are divided into 2 groups of 4 players each. There takes place 3 round robin matches in which each player from both the groups plays against all the other 3 players. The top two players from each of the group go onto the semi-finals and then the finals.

The Masters Tennis tournament is a third generation evolution of the original format which was initiated in 1970. In the beginning, it was simply called the Masters tournament. Though the same format of matches between the top ranked tennis players was followed in the initial stages, it did not have any effect on the world rankings. But as time progressed, the format changed and the rankings of the players got a boost or a downfall depending on their performance in this tournament too. There are further changes going to be made in the 2009 edition of the Masters Tennis tournament with the name being changed to ATP World Tour Finals. From 2009-12 it will be played at the O2 in London.

French Open Tennis at the Roland Garros

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roland-garros-french-openThe French Open is the second tennis Grand Slam played in a year after the Australian Open. It is also known as the Roland Garros tennis tournament because of its official name in French which is Les Internationaux de France de Roland Garros. Roland Garros is also the name of the stadium where the French Open is played. It is held over a period of roughly two weeks during the second part of May/into the beginning of June. Roland Garros tennis is totally different from the rest of the Grand Slams because of the stark contrast in the nature of the tennis courts or the surface on which the game is played. Most players find the nature of the court to be slow and difficult as compared to the hard, grass courts in which the ball travels a lot faster. There are many tennis champions who have excelled at all the other Grand Slams but have failed to show the same finesse at the Roland Garros tennis tournament. Pete Sampras and Roger Federer would be the two names which spring up the fastest in recent times. The reigning champion over here for the past four years is the current no.1, Rafael Nadal.

Famous male tennis player: Pete Sampras

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The record for the most number of Men’s singles titles in the history of professional tennis (before Roger Federer) was held by one of the greatest tennis players of our times, Pete Sampras. Sampras was born in the capital of the United States of America, Washington D.C., in 1971. He had an amazing run over the period of his 15-year career when he won a record number of Grand Slam titles. He won 2 Australian Opens, 7 Wimbledon’s, and 5 U.S. Opens. He was at his fluent best on hard courts where the ball would be travelling around at a good pace. He was referred to as the “King of Swing” due to the amount of air-turn which his serves would exhibit. Sampras retired from professional tennis in 2002 when he played his last top-level game. He was crowned no. 1 at the year-end rankings for a record six years which was the greatest at that point in time and came a close third of all time. Sampras was named as the greatest tennis player to have played from 1965 to 2005 by Tennis Magazine. He got his due recognition when inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2007.

Famous male tennis player: Andy Roddick

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Famous male tennis player, Andrew Stephen Roddick or Andy Roddick as he is known is a former World No. 1 tennis player who hails from America. He is currently ranked 11th in the world tennis circuit as per the latest ATP rankings. He reached the top of his game in 2003 when he won the US Open. Since then he has managed to reach three tennis Grand Slam finals, only to lose to Roger Federer each time. He has the distinction of being the only tennis player apart from Roger Federer to finish in the top 10 for a consecutive period of 7 years. USA tennis player, Andry Roddick holds the record of winning the most number of games in Wimbledon 2009 (39).

Andy Roddick is best known in the tennis world for his powerful serve and equally potent tennis volley. He has recorded the fastest serve in men’s tennis to date at a speed of 155 mph or 249.5 kmph. He has also the done USA proud by winning the Davis Cup in the 2007 season by defeating Dimitry Tursonov of Russia in the finals. A string of injuries have forced him to take regular breaks from professional tennis which have been instrumental in his slide in the rankings.

The history of ATP Tour

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The Association of Tennis Professionals or ATP as it is more commonly known was formed in 1972 to act as a custodian of the rights and interests of male professional tennis players from all over the world. The women players have their own association which goes by the acronym WTP. The ATP is responsible for conducting all the tournaments in a particular year and also ranks the tennis players according to their performance in a calendar year. The ATP tour is basically a compilation of all the tournaments which are going to be played in a year. The various tournaments included in this are the Grand Slams, ATP World Tour Masters 1000, ATP World Tour 500 series and the like. Apart from the mainstream opens, the ATP Tour also organizes the World Team Cup which is played in Dusseldorf every year in the month of May. It also holds the Blackrock Tour of Champions for seniors. The players who have garnered points through the year due to their performance in the various tennis tournaments held in the year are allotted rankings in the year-end Master’s Cup. They are seeded as per their performance.

ATP Tour

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atpThe Association of Tennis Players or the ATP, as it is commonly known, is a international body which was formed in 1972 to protect the interests and rights of the male professional tennis players from all around the globe. This body is responsible for the rankings of the tennis players as well as for organising all the tournaments in a calendar year. ATP tour tennis is considered to be the bench-mark for becoming a professional player. Each and every player is expected to perform up to a certain level which will allow him to keep a constant rank on the ranking board. Each player is allotted points for his performance over a week. These points determine his ranking which will further decide his seed in a particular tournament. The ATP tour tennis circuit has a number of levels of tournaments played in a calendar year. For instance, there are many minor tennis tournaments which are played from time to time in between the Grand Slams of which there are four. All the points are compiled which will indicate the ranking of a player for the year-end Masters Cup. The female tennis players have their own tennis circuit called the WTA.

ATP Rankings

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atp-tour-tennisThe ATP is a body which was formed in 1972 to protect the interests of male professional tennis players on the circuit. ATP tennis is a very important body which looks after the players interests and decides the fixtures of the tournaments to be held throughout the year in every season. The rankings of the players are published every week based on their performance in that particular week. There is a point system which determines the relative ranking of the tennis players. The ATP is only for the male players while the female players have got their own WTP. There is an ATP tennis ranking which determines how a player is going to be seeded for a particular tournament. All the tournaments are taken into account for the rankings except for the tennis Master’s Cup which is dropped at the end of the year. The player with the greatest number of points by the end of the year is declared No. 1.

Apart from this, there is also the ATP race which determines which players and teams are going to participate in the Master’s Cup. The top eight players from singles, according to their points, and the top four from the tennis doubles, are selected for the Master’s Cup.

The Association of Tennis Professionals

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The Association of Tennis Professionals, or the ATP as it is more commonly known, came into existence in the 1972. It was basically formed to protect the rights of male professional tennis players’. This association was responsible for the inspiration which helped in the organization of the principal worldwide tour for male players since 1990. This is called the ATP Tour and was renamed in January of 2009 as the ATP World Tour. This is an improvement on the previous championships known as the World Championship Tennis.

The executive office of the ATP are based in London and has got its offices in every continent such as ATP Americas, ATP Europe and the ATP International which is responsible for overlooking the tennis in Asia, Africa and Australia. The ATP Tour is inclusive of a lot of tournaments which span the entire year. Some of them can be enlisted as the Grand Slams, ATP World Tour 500 Series, ATP World Tour 250 Series and the like.

There have been a few changes which took place in 2009 such as the Master’s Cup which has been renamed as the 1000 Cup while the gold events have been renamed as the 500 and 250 Cups.

Life and Tennis of Arthur Ashe

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life-and-tennis-of-arthur-asheOne of the greatest tennis players of all time, Arthur Robert Ashe, was born on July 10, 1943 and was only 49 years of age when he passed away due to cancer. He died on February 6th, 1993, bringing to a sad end, the life of one of the greatest and most charismatic players which the sport of tennis would ever see. He was one of the players to win 3 or more Grand Slams which put him in the league of the best players from USA. Arthur Ashe was also greatly remembered for efforts in furthering social and humanitarian causes.

Arthur Ashe was active in his life, even after retirement. He took on the job of commentating for ABC sports. He also started writing for Time Magazine. Apart from this, Arthur was instrumental in founding the National Junior Tennis League. He was also the captain of the US Davis Cup team. For all his achievements, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in the year 1985. One of the greatest achievements was that he founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for Defeating Aids.