Kamis, 19 Juni 2008

Tennis Masters Series

The ATP Masters Series logo
The ATP Masters Series logo

The Tennis Masters Series is a group of nine tournaments that form the second-highest echelon in men's tennis. Each event is held annually, and a win at one of these events is worth 500 ranking points. When the Association of Tennis Professionals, led by Hamilton Jordan, began running the men's tour in 1990, the directors designated the top nine tournaments, outside of the Grand Slam events, as "Super Nine" events.[31] These eventually became the Tennis Masters Series. In November at the end of the tennis year, the world's top eight players compete in the Tennis Masters Cup, a tournament with a rotating locale. It is currently held in Shanghai, China, and will move to London in 2009.[32]

In 2009, the Tennis Masters Series will undergo several changes. The series will be renamed again, this time as the "1,000 Series," a reference to the number of points the champion of each event will garner. (All other tournaments will have their ranking points adjusted proportionately.)[33] The Tennis Masters Cup, in addition to its relocation, will be renamed the ATP World Tour Final. However, Shanghai will host a new 1,000 Series event. The Monte Carlo and Hamburg events were originally downgraded; however, the Monte Carlo tournament was eventually granted 1,000 Series status, with the exception being that the event would not be mandatory.[33] The ATP also plans to be more stringent in its examination of players who withdraw from 1,000 Series events. Each player who withdraws will be examined by a medical panel. The ATP plans to fine, and even suspend, players who disregard these rules.[34]

[edit] Current Tennis Masters Series tournaments

Period Tournament Location Surface
March Pacific Life Open Indian Wells, California, U.S. Hard
March-April Sony Ericsson Open Key Biscayne, Florida, U.S. Hard
April Masters Series Monte Carlo Monte Carlo, Monaco Clay
May Internazionali d'Italia Rome, Italy Clay
May Masters Series Hamburg Hamburg, Germany Clay
August Rogers Cup Montreal/Toronto, Canada Hard
August Western & Southern Financial Group Masters Cincinnati, U.S. Hard
October Mutua MadrileƱa Masters Madrid, Spain Hard (indoor)
October-November BNP Paribas Masters Paris, France Carpet (indoor)


Grand Slam tournaments

The four Grand Slam tournaments are considered to be the most prestigious tennis tournaments in the world. They are held annually and include, in chronological order, the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Apart from Davis Cup, Fed Cup, and Hopman Cup, they are the only tournaments regulated by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).[27] The ITF's national associations, Tennis Australia (Australian Open), the French Tennis Federation (French Open), the United States Tennis Association (US Open), and the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and Lawn Tennis Association (Wimbledon), are delegated the responsibility to organize these events.[27]

Aside from the historical significance of these events, they also carry larger prize funds than any other tour event and are worth double the number of ranking points to the champion than in the next echelon of tournaments, the Tennis Masters Series (men) and Tier I events (women).[28][29] Another distinguishing feature is the number of players in the singles draw, 128, more than any other professional tennis tournament. This draw is composed of 32 seeded players, other players ranked in the world's top 100, qualifiers, and players who receive invitations through wild cards. Grand Slam men's tournaments have best-of-five set matches throughout. Grand Slam tournaments are among the small number of events that last two weeks, the others being the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California and the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida. Currently, the Grand Slam tournaments are the only tour events that have mixed doubles contests. Grand Slam tournaments are held in conjunction with wheelchair tennis tournaments (with the exception being Wimbledon, where the grass surface prevents this) and junior tennis competitions. Grand Slam tournaments are often seen as the culmination of a particular season, such as the US Open Series. These tournaments also contain their own idiosyncrasies. For example, players at Wimbledon are required to wear predominantly white, a rule that has made certain players, such as Andre Agassi, skip the tournament.[30]

Period Tournament Location Surface
January Australian Open Melbourne Hard (Plexicushion)
May-June French Open Paris Clay
June-July Wimbledon London Grass
August-September US Open New York Hard (DecoTurf)


Tennis is a game

Tennis is a game played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players (doubles). Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt (most of the time yellow,[1] but can be any color or even two-tone) over a net into the opponent's court.

The modern game of tennis originated in the United Kingdom in the late 19th century as "lawn tennis" and had heavy connections to the ancient game of real tennis. After its creation, tennis spread throughout the upper-class English-speaking population before spreading around the world. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all ages. The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including people in wheelchairs. In the United States, there is a collegiate circuit organized by the National Collegiate Athletics Association.

Except for the adoption of the tie-breaker in the 1970s, the rules of tennis have changed very little since the 1890s. A recent addition to professional tennis has been the adoption of "instant replay" technology coupled with a point challenge system, which allows a player to challenge the official call of a point.

Along with its millions of players, millions of people worldwide follow tennis as a spectator sport, especially the four Grand Slam tournaments (sometimes referred to as the "majors"): Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. The growth of tennis in Eastern Europe and the Far East has been especially notable in recent years

Tennis Shops UK


Tennis Shops for tennis equipment tennis clothing online listed in the Tennis Shop online category of the British Shopping directory




Holdall Sports Equipment Shop
Sporting goods retailer selling equipment and clothing for many sports including Badminton, Basketball, Cricket, Croquet, Football, Hockey, Netball, Rugby , Tennis and others. In addition they sell a range of trampolines.
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Maximuscle
Maximuscle is the leading online UK sports nutrition company totally committed to helping dedicated sports people and gym users exceed their personal performance goals. A one stop store for not just supplements, but equipment and clothing for working out and a wealth of information too. Whether you ...
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Newitts Sports Superstore
Large long established UK mail order specialising in sports equipment and sports clothing for all types of sports. Stocking top brand products from Mitre, Adidas, Reebok and many others. They also offer first aid and safety equipment as well as a growing range of childrens toys.
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Sport-Thieme Sports Shop
Sport-Thieme.co.uk provides an extensive product range of around 15,000 sports products from footballs, Table Tennis tables to top brand gym equipment.
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Sportsshoes.com
Specialising in sports footwear, clothing, accessories and equipment. Established in 1982, Sportsshoes Unlimited offer one of the widest ranges of sports gear on the web with over 3,000 products currently online. Whether it's running, football, gym, walking, golf or leisure. Whether it's played on a ..

Tennis Shops Online

Tennis racquets and equipment at the best online tennis shops. These tennis shops from the UK and USA also feature tennis books, videos, tennis raquets, balls, posts & more.
Web's best tennis shops online
Newitts (UK) Wide range of tennis accessories, balls, clothing, tennis racquets, nets and posts
Sweatband (UK) Selection of tennis racquets, shoes for different surfaces, clothing, bags, balls, grips & ball machines
Argos (UK) Tennis racquets
FogDog Tennis (USA) Massive US online tennis shop with tennis racquets, balls, footwear, apparel, bags, grips, equipment & more
- The following links in association with Amazon.co.uk's online tennis shops-
Tennis Books Huge range of books on tennis
Tennis Videos Tennis videos
Tennis Video Games Stock all the latest tennis computer games
Tennis Music & Audio Tennis audio

The Tennis Shop.com

The Tennis Shop.com.au Ph 1300 66 40 39
Tennis Racquets, Apparel, String, Grips And More!
The Tennis Shop is located at Shop 6 no 4 Princes Highway Beaconsfield Vic. The Tennis Shop has everything you need to improve your tennis game, we stock all the major brands at low prices.
Trading Hours: Monday - Friday 9.30 am - 5.30 pm Saturday 9.00 am- 1.00 pm Sunday Closed
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3. Security: Safe and secure online shopping with securepay and St George Bank.
4. Expert advice: The Tennis Shop's staff have over 10 years experience in the tenns industry. (coaching, Playing and Retail.)
5.Low prices: The Tennis Shop offers low prices all year round.
6. Delivery: We deliver Australia wide and all country areas.
Price Match Guarantee!

Beware of Online Tennis Sites who are not authorised dealers. There is an enormous number of counterfeit racquets being sold through the internet. Counterfeit racquets look identical to the real version, however they are simply a cheap fibreglass copy that play nothing like the real thing.
The Tennis Shops Advice: Only buy from reputable Authorised Dealers.

Ebay is not an Authorised Dealer.
If you have any doubt about the seller being an authorised dealer or if you believe they are not selling genuine products, or if you simply want to check, please contact us info@thetennisshop.com.au . If you require a racquet supplier phone number, please phone us Toll Free on 1300 66 40 39

Great Deals on Tennis Ball for Clubs and Associations. Email us at balloffer@thetennisshop.com.au for more details.
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Novak Djokovic And Maria Sharapova In Doubles Offcourt


The biggest news after first 3 months of the season seemed to be that Roger Federer has not won anything yet. At the beginning of April, even bigger news, or news of the year, could be... well I'm not the one who is spreading gossip around but since everyone started talking about... rumors say Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova may be a couple.

Swedish site dedicated to tennis (tennistalk.com) published the above picture of Novak and Maria at a party in Miami. Here can be seen video of Maria and Novak leaving the club together on the back seat of Maria's cars while her agent was driving: http://x17video.com/celebrity_video/while_you_were_sleeping/maria_sharipova_at_night.php

This all is just a rumor, since this Novak's fan blog covers everything related to Novak, I covered the story or rumor whatever it is at the moment. Tennistalk.com said more that Novak enjoyed himself at the Opium Garden in Miami on March 28th with Maria and him not leaving the club until very late (later than midnight).

Tennistalk.com goes a step further presuming that Novak's late night partying is the cause of Novak's most shocking defeat ever since he entered Top 10, loss at Miami Open where he was defending champion in the first match against World #122 Kevin Anderson. Tennistalk.com could surely be right about that, no one saw that loss coming especially after Novak won Indian Wells a week earlier.

Tennistalk.com states more: 'It also appeared that he had been drinking alcohol even though we do not have any pictures of it, just our eye-witnesses'. Since there were no pictures or video, we will discard this fact being too much of a speculation.

Being on the subject, let us look back at how Novak - Maria connection started. Novak's impersonations of other players, one of the funniest things inside and outside of the world of sports last year, brought to Novak great popularity with the fans and media, ATP official website calls him 'the entertaining Serb'.

Novak's most successful impersonation was of Maria Sharapova. Maria commentated Novak's impersonation of her with a smile saying if she is to do Novak impersonation it would be a very boring one since all she would do is tap the ball before the serve for infinite period of time (referring to the fact that Novak taps the ball against the ground too many times before serving).

Novak's impersonation of other player, especially of Maria, became so popular that wherever Novak played fans and hosts at the tournament asked him to do the impersonations for everyone's enjoyment.

Maria than said that Novak is offering nothing new and that his constant impersonations of her are becoming boring. Novak also felt he done the impersonations too many times but, like it could have been seen in the video we posted in February, fans and hosts of the tournaments started insisting on Novak to do impersonations to make everyone smile.

Novak had and still has a girlfriend he is with for some time now. Maria, to my knowledge, is single and I don't recall her having a boyfriend in recent year(s). Did Maria started having sympathies towards Novak after his first impersonations of her stays unclear.

Just, remarkable thing happen during US Open in August/September 2007. Maria lost early in Round 3 but did not go home to Florida and stayed in NYC to follow US Open later matches that 'concidently' Novak played and went all the way to the Final.

Not just attending Novak's game, Maria was sitting in the Novak's stuff box seats, along with Novak's family and coaches. Some may say that many celebrities were in the Novak's stuff box seats including one of the most famous American actors Robert De Niro, so no wonder Maria was there too consider Maria is Russian and Novak is Serb, 2 nations closely related.

Amazing was Maria's behavior while sharing the box seats along with Novak's family. Maria, a donghty tennis winning machine on court, seemed like the nicest girl around every mother could wish for her son, her make up and clothing was measurable, she was smiling and shining as if she was enjoying being almost a part of the family.

In the following months nothing happened on Novak - Maria subject, Novak was the same with his girlfriend and Maria single. At Hopman Cup in early January some talks started about Serena Williams having a small crush on Novak (I mean how good impersonator Novak really is, they say you won a half of women's heart by knowing how to make her smile:).

In the Hopman Cup final match USA-Serbia, Serena was all in smiles and at some extent it made me wish to check if Serena has a boyfriend so I could cover that rumor in full. Hopman Cup passed with no breaking stories or rumors to follow.

The sea was still all until March 28 and a party at Opium Club in Miami and today, April 10th, that tennistalk.com published the newest rumor public. At the time of being, Novak is resting and will skip Estoril starting next week while Maria is playing at Amelia Island where she has won today against A. Medina Garrigues and tomorrow will play in the Quarterfinals.

By the way, Novak and Maria are the same age, born in 1987, Maria in April (19th, next Saturday), Novak in May