[BigSister]

Yeah that rings a bell actually

[Marc]

The preliminary results of the autopsy showed that Montcourt had suffered a heart attack.

A statement from the player's PR agency Carre Final added that toxicology tests were negative.


Heart attack at just 24! its crazy!

[Marc]

Australian Brydan Klein banned for six months after making racial slur



Brydan Klein, the former Australian Open junior tennis champion, has been banned for six months for making a racial slur during a qualifying match at Eastbourne last month against South Africa’s Raven Klaasen.

The ATP, tennis’s governing body, say 19-year-old Klein has been fined an additional £6,200 on top of the £8,600 fine which he received at the time.

An ATP statement said: 'Under the ATP Code of Conduct, Klein was found to have committed the Player Major Offense, Aggravated Behavior.

The incident was deemed to have been 'behavior that is flagrant and particularly injurious to the success of a tournament or is singularly egregious.'

The ATP said Klein had the option of appealing the decision, and if he enrolled onto a racial sensitivity training course within the first four months of the suspension, the remaining two months' suspension and additional fine would be waived.

Mathieu Montcourt, the 24-year-old French tennis player who died suddenly on Monday, had a heart attack according to the player’s PRagency

Raven Klaasen

[Marc]

The winners of this year's US Open men's and women's singles titles will each receive a record £992,000 ($1.6m) - nearly 6% up on 2008.

Total prize money will be a record £13m ($21.6m), the third straight year the purse has seen a million-dollar rise.

The top three men and women in the US Open Series can also earn up to an extra £1.6m in bonus payments.

The series of 10 tournaments culminates with the US Open at Flushing Meadows in New York from 31 August-13 September.

The bonus money, which encourages players to enter the designated events, has resulted in the largest paydays in tennis history.

Roger Federer won a combined £1.4m in 2007 and Kim Clijsters won £1.3m in 2005.

[Marc]

SWEDISH OPEN WOMEN - Bastad

Final:
C. Wozniacki [1] vs. M. Martinez Sanchez

Wozniacki is doing very well this year. Currently at a career high ranking of 9, she won at Eastbourne just before Wimbledon and has won at Ponte Vedra Beach (Florida) in April. As well as being in 3 other finals (Memphis, Charleston and Madrid). M. Sanchez has won a title in Bogota in February and hasn't managed to get past the quarter final stage at any tournament since, falling at the first round at Wimbledon and 3rd round at Roland Garros. However I rate her on the clay courts, she has had a lot of success on the red stuff!

Head-to-Head: First meeting between the two. (0-0)


GDF SUEZ GRAND PRIX - Budapest

Semi-Finals:
A. Szavay [4] vs. A. Bonderenko [6] (Head-to-Head: 1-1)
E. Gallovits vs. (unconfirmed)

[BigSister]

I liked her at wimbledon as well one to watchme thinks

[Marc]

Originally posted by BigSister
I liked her at wimbledon as well one to watchme thinks

Indeed, but Lisicki was so much better on the day. She's also one to watch! She beat Wozniacki at Charleston earlier this year too. loving tennis at this moment in time so exciting!

[BigSister]

Yeah I couldnt think who she lost to now I remember. Yeah she pushed Safina hard in the quarters as well
And yeah it is exciting I agree esp the womens side

[Marc]

Originally posted by BigSister
Yeah I couldnt think who she lost to now I remember. Yeah she pushed Safina hard in the quarters as well
And yeah it is exciting I agree esp the womens side

People would say thats because they are weaker. I prefer the women's side my knowledge is so much stronger on that side! However I still know my stuff on the men's side!

[Marc]

ATP Last Week :

Davis Cup
Czech Republic df. Argentina - 3:2
Croatia df. United States - 3:2
Israel df. Russia - 4:1 (Wow!)
Spain df. Germany - 3:2

Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships
R.Ram [LL] df. S. Querrey [3] - 6-7 7-5 6-3


WTA Last Week :

Collector Swedish Open Women
M. Martinez Sanchez df. C. Wozniacki [1] - 7-5 6-4

GDF SUEZ Grand Prix
A. Szavay [4] df. P. Schynder [1] - 2-6 6-4 6-2

[BigSister]

awwww she lost
Surprised isreal beat russia though

[Marc]

Originally posted by BigSister
awwww she lost
Surprised isreal beat russia though

Wozniacki? Yehhh shame, it was her 19th birthday as well how mean

[BigSister]

that is mean but maybe she didnt play well. Oh well

[Marc]

Originally posted by BigSister
that is mean but maybe she didnt play well. Oh well

haha bless her! Oh well she'll be a big top5 player in no time

[Marc]

NEWPORT, RI, USA - During her career she charmed fans with her rambling, giggly speeches and on Saturday, July 10 Monica Seles showed she had lost none of her capacity to entertain. The occasion might have been the nine-time Grand Slam champion's induction into the august International Tennis Hall of Fame, but that didn't stop the 35-year-old from treating the assembled audience to a cheeky blast from the past.

"For old time's sake, here it is," the former world No.1 grinned as she prepared to unleash one of her trademark grunts. "Eeeunnh!

"I just had to do it," she smiled, having reminded all present that, as still-controversial grunts go, hers' was the original and best.

Admission to the Hall of Fame is, nonetheless, a serious business and Seles, with her withering double-fisted-off-both-sides groundstrokes, is certainly a worthy addition. The winner of 53 Tour titles sat atop the rankings for a total of 178 non-consecutive weeks (fifth all-time) and won the 1991 and 1992 US Opens, the 1990-92 French Opens and the 1991-93 and 1996 Australian Opens. She also captured the Tour Championships three years running, from 1990-92.

"Growing up as a little girl, I could never dream I would be inducted into the Hall of Fame," said the winner of nearly $15 million in prize money. "I have a hard time believing it now.

"I grew up on the WTA Tour. That was my home," added the Yugoslav-born American, who famously copied Madonna's platinum-blonde look in the early 1990s. "I grew up in the media spotlight. It can be challenging at times."

Indeed, Seles knows perhaps better than any other player in history the downsides that come with fame and fortune.

Her career was interrupted in the most terrible of circumstances when she was stabbed in the back by a fanatical supporter of Steffi Graf during a match at Hamburg in 1993. It took 27 months, but eventually Seles returned to competitive tennis, winning her comeback event at the Canadian Open, reaching the US Open final and then capturing what would prove to be her last major at the 1996 Australian Open.

And yet, things were never really the same. Since her retirement, Seles has spoken and written movingly of her struggle to come to terms with the stabbing, the loss of her beloved father Karolj in 1998, depression and body image issues. But through it all she carried herself with tremendous dignity, only adding to the regard with which she is held in tennis circles. Rather than dwell on what might have been, she has burnished her reputation by giving her time to a range of charities, including the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation and the UN's program for sports as a way to counter malnutrition.

Seles was one of four Hall of Fame inductees this year. Joining her were 1960s Spanish player Andres Gimeno, pioneering sports marketer Donald Dell and the late Robert Johnson, a junior player developer who helped launch the careers of Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe.

Whereas Seles became the youngest French Open winner when she won at Roland Garros aged 16-and-a-half, Gimeno became the oldest French Open men's winner by taking the 1972 title at age 34.

"What an amazing group," observed Seles. "It's such a great honor. Standing here, I'm just a bundle of nerves."

Seles, who played her last Tour match at Roland Garros in 2003 but officially retired only in February 2008, has donated many of her trophies to the Hall of Fame's 'honor shine'.

"I hope it will inspire young children to pick up a racket, hit a few balls and fall in love with the sport the way I did," she said. "I look forward to watching the sport and seeing how much faster it can get."


YAY!

[BigSister]

We have her book at work. Glad she got in the hall of fame
And I didnt see the match I was just speculating

[Marc]

Aww I love Seles

[BigSister]

I remember when she got stabbed (I think it was her anyway I was a bit freaked out by that)

[Marc]

Originally posted by BigSister
I remember when she got stabbed (I think it was her anyway I was a bit freaked out by that)

yeah in hamburg 1993.. that man was a freak! crazy graff fan who wanted graff to be no.1 in the world

[BigSister]

Aha i was right
I was only about 7 or 8 so it must have been on the news

[Marc]

Originally posted by BigSister
Aha i was right
I was only about 7 or 8 so it must have been on the news

I was only 4 I wouldn't have seen it but it was a big deal!

[Marc]

World number two Rafael Nadal will resume training on Monday before returning to action at the Montreal Masters in August.

The Spaniard, whose last match was a defeat by Robin Soderling at the French Open, was forced to miss Wimbledon because of tendinitis in his knees.

"I am really looking forward to practice again," the 23-year-old told his official website.
"The event in Montreal is important and I expect to be there fit to play."

Nadal was given the go-ahead to resume training after undergoing tests in Barcelona on Tuesday.

"I am happy with the way the tests went and of the positive evolution of the injury as the doctors are saying," added Nadal.

He will train at his home in Mallorca before his planned return to action in Montral on 10 August.

In Nadal's absence, Roger Federer won the Wimbledon title and returned to number one in the rankings at the expense of the Spaniard.

[BigSister]

Yay^_^*slinks away for Roger fans*

[Marc]

Originally posted by BigSister
Yay^_^*slinks away for Roger fans*

hehe they will get you! I would like to see the competition come back

[Marc]

France's Richard Gasquet has been cleared to return to competitive tennis after testing positive for cocaine.

The 23-year-old, ranked 32nd in the world, was provisionally suspended in May after failing a doping test at the Miami Masters in March.

But the International Federation (ITF) accepted his defence that "the cocaine entered his system through inadvertent contamination in a nightclub".

He was given a suspension of two months and 15 days, which ended on Wednesday.

"I am really happy, to put it simply, to return to the courts. It's a great joy," said `Gasquet.

"Justice has been done. It has been terrible in the last two months, an extraordinary pain. I couldn't go to either the French Open or Wimbledon."

The ITF's independent anti-doping tribunal found that "while he was at fault in exposing himself to the risk of such contamination, that fault was not significant.

"It further ruled that, in the exceptional and 'probably unique' circumstances of the case, it would be unjust and disproportionate to impose a 12-month sanction on Mr Gasquet."

At a hearing in London on 29 and 30 June, the tribunal found that he had tested positive for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, and rejected his suggestion that, because he withdrew from the tournament, it should be treated as an out-of-competition test.

After deciding to withdraw from the tournament, Gasquet went to a nightclub with friends to see a French DJ perform at a dance music festival in Miami, which the tribunal noted was "notoriously associated with use of illegal recreational drugs including cocaine".

Gasquet told the tribunal that he kissed a woman, identified in the ruling only as "Pamela", and suggested that was how the cocaine entered his system.

The tribunal stated, "this explanation is more likely than not to be the correct one", and said that it "found the player to be a truthful and honest witness, and a man of integrity".

It added that the quantity of cocaine detected in Gasquet's sample was "very small, about the size of a grain of salt".

Gasquet turned professional in 2002 and has won five singles titles and more than US$4m (£2.7m) in prize money during his career.

"It's a happy end to a painful ordeal," the Frenchman told French radio. "I'm delighted to be able to start competing again. Now, it's back to tennis."