Small comparison

Can you see the similraity?

~shaw

Ana Rolexovic

Ana Ivanovic is now a Rolex-girl, but you really couldn't tell after seeing her new promo photo shoot. The only thing, that reminds us, that this is not yet another FHM session, are the big watches in front of her. I doubt that after having a look at her pics you would know, what she's advertising for.


Oh, Ana, who does really give a damn' about your losses, when you look at us that way (with your new Rolex ;P)...

~jachal

Feli's haircut fascinations

It seems like Spain is setting a haircut trend at this year's Australian Open or is Feliciano Lopez only paying tribute to Carla Suarez Navarro's quarterfinal run by getting her haircut?


Well this is even worse than most of Bethanie Mattek's outfits!
Feli, we're waiting for an explanation...

~jachal

The Verdasco, Reyes, Agassi, Graf connection

Fernando Verdasco is having his best start to a season ever. After reaching the final in Brisbane, the Spaniard achieved his biggest success to date - the Australian Open semifinals.

After the Aussie Open Verdasco will reach a new career high, for the first time entering the top ten. His wave of success the 25 year old put down to two things - his heroic five set win over Jose Acasuso in the Davis Cup final, that brought Spain the last point (Verdasco sees the Davis Cup win as a career defining moment and his greatest achievement) and to his work with Gil Reyes and Andre Agassi.

The work with Agassi and Reyes wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for the help from his sponsor - Adidas. The company offered Verdasco a trip to Las Vegas in order to work with Agassi's former fitness trainer as well as with the 8 time Grand Slam champion himself.

"I need to say thanks because I didn't say before to adidas. Is because of my brand, no, that I had this chance to be with Gil in Las Vegas. You know, there is a development program for the players of adidas, you know, with Gil Reyes. They help us so much."

"Some players, they don't like maybe or they don't want to do it. But me, because I don't have coach, you know, I decide to go there. Also because Agassi was my idol when I was young, I decide that it was, for sure, a good experience, that I will learn so much. So I took that decision."
"The 24th of December, everybody was leaving Las Vegas because it was Christmas time. Agassi came to say hi to me, and I was speaking with him. I don't want to say what he told me, because that's secret, but really helped me so much.

"I was speaking with him two hours before he left for the mountains. He was leaving with Steffi [Graf, Agassi's wife] to enjoy Christmas. He was going to ski. I love to ski. I was there in the gym working hard, so I was a little bit jealous. But I was just thinking to be ready for the season and start good the year."

"Right now I'm feeling much better than before. They help me so much. They treat me unbelievable there. You know, I can't wait to go again there to start practicing again."

"[We spoke] about a lot of things. It was about the tournaments, how I should organize my year of tournaments. You know, I was asking him, you know, "This tournament, you think I need to play, I don't need to play, I need to practice these weeks, this week no. He was just giving me advices about, you know, what he thinks about all this, about what tournaments I need to play or which weeks I need to practice and be ready for the big tournaments. Also, after, about tactics, no, and about my game, how he thinks that I should play more and take more advantage of my game."

"You know, we were speaking for two hours, so we spoke a lot. But he really helped me so much. I'm so happy to had that conversation with him."

Will we now see Nando more often in the ladder stages of Grand Slam tournaments challenging the Great Four or is it just a fluke? Time will tell if Fernando Tabasco is really that hot...

~jachal

Pool instead of practice

"Nothing I did in practice, I've been able to do on the court so far. It's been really kind of frustrating. I'm thinking I could have been at a pool instead of training."
- Serena Williams on her run to the Australian Open 2009 semifinals. Expect her soon at the pool.

~jachal

Melbourne rocks!!!

Gilles Simon and Elena Dementieva decided that they needed a little time-off from tennis.

Elena Dementieva has visited the zoo in Melbourne and played with some kangaroos...
(Soooo cute!!!)
... while Gilles Simon visited Melbourne's Southern Star.

~jachal

The hype goes on...

Nobody will ever be able to take it away from her now. Jelena Dokic has reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and there she will meet one of the hot favourites to win the title and take the No.1 ranking position - Dinara Safina.

The outcome of this match is not that important, 'coz Jelena is already a winner. What she managed to achieve during the last week is simply not possible to put in words.
Just watch these two films and listen to the crowd, how they live every point with her. You may not get such intesity over the next few years, 'coz it happens very seldom that someone comes back from hell to win it all.

Here's the one after her win over Caroline Wozniacki in the 3rd round...



... and here's the one after her 4th round win over Alisa Kleybanova:

~jachal

Vera Dementieva is sick

Olympic champion Elena Dementieva is the hottest player on WTA Tour right now. She's on a 14 match winning streak and looking in contention to grab her maiden Grand Slam title, but the Russian superstar isn't entirely happy, because she can't share this wave of success with her beloved mother. Dementieva revealed that her mother Vera's sickness has kept her from making the trip to Australia with her.

There are at least three things you can name when you're thinking of Elena Dementieva:
a weak serve, impeccable groundstrokes and her mother Vera sitting in the crowd with a worried face like she'd just seen an innocent deer being massacred. Elena very often underlines, that her mother is her best friend. That's why it must be a very strange feeling having to play tennis knowing her mum's not that well.

"I feel good, the only thing I miss is my mum because she always travels with me. She couldn't come this time because of medical reasons, she doesn't feel good and it feels strange without her and even when I come to the locker room, people are asking where's my mum." said Dementieva

"People have been asking why I've been playing so good, I'm just trying to please my mum. I just want her to feel just a little better. She has done such a good job helping me for all these years and she is always with me - she's my mum," she said.

Dementieva didn't want to reaveal what excatly was the case and if it was serious or whather she will soon join Elena on tour.

Let's keep our fingers crossed we can see Vera's anxious looks soon on the Tour again! Maybe Lena can win the Aussie Open crown for her mother. We know she's extra motivated...

~jachal

Zheng took a ferry ride

China's best - Zheng Jie took a ride on a ferry along the Yarra River for Channel 7's promotion of the 2009 Australian Open.


The Chinese will be breaking new ground as she is already confirmed to break into the worlds top 20 for the first time in her career. Zheng will be playing Svetlana Kuznetsova for a place in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open.

~jachal

shoulda, woulda, coulda

"I can't believe... it wasn't 6/0"
- Marion Bartoli on a reporter's question, if she could believe, she just took the first set 6/1 from world No.1 Jelena Jankovic.

~jachal

Serena cheering for Dokic

"I've just been so happy for her. I've been really rooting for her to do so well. I just think her attitude is great. Her game is just amazing now. She looks just the way she looked a while ago when she was able to reach number four in the world"
- Serena Williams on Jelena Dokic and her amazing comeback.

~jachal

Berdych aiming high

We now know the answer and we really didn't have to wait long. Tomas Berdych is the next, who's been involved in an off court activities, that are there to promote as well the Australian Open, as well as the player himself. Image baby...

The Czech has visited the Melbourne's Eureka Towers today



Berdych is still alive in the tournament, but will face a very difficult task, as he has to take on the 13 time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer.

~jachal

Dokic swimming in debts

Jelena Dokic has been filling the headlines over the last week for her amazing comeback to professional tennis. After reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open by beating two top 20 players (world No.18 Anna Chakvetadze and No.12 Caroline Wozniacki) the Aussie made headlines once again, but this time for very different reasons. She has been accused by the family of a dead drug trafficker to be owing them $60,000.

"shit, I've kinda forgotten"

John Anthony Giannarelli pleaded guilty in the Victorian County Court in 2007 to importing 34,310 pseudoephedrine tablets from Malaysia. He was sentenced, but because he had cancer, Judge Davey imposed a three-year suspended sentence and a $55,000 fine.

Giannarelli, who died late last year, took on her management duties and allegedly paid for Dokic and her Croatian boyfriend to live for months in a high-rise Melbourne apartment. He also allegedly footed the bill for meals, massages, transport and the services of dietitians and an acupuncturist.

Giannarelli's uncle, Max Novelli, yesterday claimed Dokic had an agreement with Giannarelli to repay him $60,000 once her career was back on track.

"She arrived out here broken and penniless and Johnny was the one who took the punt on Jelena," said friend Glen Schirmer, who worked as Dokic's dietitian at Giannarelli's request. "At his own expense he housed, fed and trained both her and her boyfriend for months.

"He said he knew that one day he'd get the money back from her. He liked her and he thought she deserved a second shot at it. He felt really sorry for her and they became very, very close."

"He attempted at his expense to get management ... John believed in her. And remember, he was dying at this time."

Well, now Miss Dokic, is this the truth? Will you have to pay the money back to the dead man's family?
Whatcha gonna do, huh?

~jachal

Conspiracy theory?

Marcos Baghdatis told the reporters it's a "pain in the arse" Australian Open organisers keep making him play midnight matches.

"Night session? No, not again..."

The former finalist at this event had to start his Friday's match against Mardy Fish at 11.30pm. Baghdatis won this encounter 6/2 6/4 6/4 and finished it at 1.14 after midnight, but one has to wonder, what if he was taken all the way. How would he have to stay awake?

This brings back memories of last year as the Cypriot lost an epic five-setter against Lleyton Hewitt that finished at 4.34 in the morning. The funny thing is that as well last year as this year they played for the right to meet Novak Djokovic in the next round.

"I can not say it's not a problem. It's a bit of a pain in the arse for me because the last two years I'm here I'm finishing matches after midnight and after one o'clock, we can say. So it's a bit of the pain in the arse, but I have nothing to do about it. It's just the way it is. I've got to accept it and find a way to get through it and that's where the challenge starts." he commented on that.

"I'm not complaining or stuff. I'm just saying it's tough for the players. It happens that it's me second time in a row."

Well, I really wonder who Baggy will have to meet next year after midnight to play Nole...

~jachal

Comebacks are in

Former world No.4 Greg Rusedski must have gotten inspired by the sensational comeback of 37 year old Kimiko Date Krumm, as he announced he would come out of retirement himslef.


Although he didn't play for two years, the Brit already asked for some wildcards into ATP events and hopes to be able to play Davis Cup for Great Britain again. Rusedski may not have it all his way, as the British Davis Cup captain John Lloyd has turned down his offer.

Lloyd told the BBC: "We talked about it and I thought about it and I called him up the next day and told him this was not the right time."

Rusedski told Eurosport: "I've always been passionate about the Davis Cup. I always feel that I can give something back, whether it's in doubles or it's in singles, and it's another option for John Lloyd if he wants it. If he doesn't and I don't have any form, well fair enough."

"Obviously anyone would be disappointed," he said. "To at least have a shot there, to play a few events, would have been nice. So I'm going to go into the [ATP] events and see what happens and take it from there. I've asked for some wild cards into some events, so I'm going to be like everybody else and see what happens."


"The body's feeling good. Two years off and now being back in training for two and a half months, the body feels great." he said.

Well, it will be for sure interesting to see how the Brit manages the pace set by the world's elite.
We really doubt this will be a succesful comeback, but who knows? Maybe Rusedski at least manages to finally win the crowd over, as all the comeback players seem to be liked that little bit more then before...

~jachal

The amazing comeback of Jelena Dokic

She's back! Back for good!
World No.187 Jelena Dokic has done it. She made the impossible - possible. After being out of the limelights for five years, the feisty Aussie has found her way. She has been on everyone's mouth as she defeated two top 20 players in a row to reach the fourth round at this year's Australian Open. We all can imagine what it must mean to Jelena, but the truth is - only she knows how it feels to have regained hapiness on and off the court.


Over the last few years Jelena Dokic suffered an incredible ammount of painful expiriences.
She broke up the contact to her family - a result of her (let's say) insane father's crossing the line on too many occasions. Damir Dokic scarffed her for life. He forced her into switching nationality, cause he thought that the Australian Open draw has been fixed in order to throw Jelena out of the tourney (she was drawn to face Lindsay Davenport in her 1st round). He often has been seen drunk at tournaments and involved into fights. He was never shy of talking bullshit to the media as he once famously said he would put an atom bomb on Sydney. Damir was furious when his daughter found a boyfriend - a Formula One driver Enrico Bernoldi.

Damir Dokic

After finally breaking free from her father, Jelena completly lost her stride on the tennis court She struggled several first round losses to the point where she would play tennis only occasionally once in a while. She tried to come back on many occasions, but couldn't find the magic, that saw her reach a highest ranking of No.4 in 2001.

Dokic suffered severe depression and struggled with her weight. It was her boyfriend Tin Bikic and his brother Borna (Jelena's coach), who would keep constantly edging her on and believing she could make it happen once again.

"When you have emotional breakdowns and everything I had to deal with, you really get weak mentally," she said. "It's not easy to come back and be strong and able to compete and play. It's really tough. So I really had to work on and build that. You go crazy basically, and you react the way you shouldn't. He's dealt with all that and stuck by my side."

Dokic made a difficult decision to come back to Australia in order to change her citizenship once again. She got support from Tennis Australia, but couldn't capitalize on that.

It was this year, that Dokic decided she would give it her last shot. She wanted to give her all and hell - she did it in fashion. After losing in two tiebreak sets to former world No.1 Amelie Mauresmo in two tight tiebreaks (where in both sets she had set points), Jelena skipped Sydney and went straight to Melbourne to play the Australian Open, where she earned herself a wildcard to the main draw wining a wildcard play-off.


Her expectations were very low, but somehow she managed to squeeze a win over world No.80 Tamira Paszek, a player ranked 107 spots higher in rankings than the 25 year old. Next on for Dokic was world No.18 Anna Chakvetadze. The win over the Russian was a total shock and would go down as a carrer defining moment in Dokic's career.

She opened the night session. When the speaker welcomed her to the court, the Australian crowd went totally crazy. A sigh of relief for the Aussie. After so many years she got the support of the crowd on the sold out Rod Laver Arena. Dokic wnt out all guns blazing opening a 6/4 5/3 lead. She couldn't elp feeling the pressure and eventually lost the second on a tiebreak. There were not many people, who would give a chance in the third, but Jelena somehow opened a 5/3 lead once again. The only difference - this time she wouldn't faulter. She closed out the match to the joy of the hometown crowd. This was probably the most important win o her career, which includes many many more wins over higher ranked player (like that when as a 15 year old qualifier she stunned the world No.1 Martina Hingis at Wimbledon destroying the Swiss 6/2 6/0 in the first round). This was such an important win, as was her win over last year's breakthrough star world No.12 Caroline Wozniacki in the next round. Dokic came from behind to post a three set win and secure a place in the fourth round.



The on court wins were very impressive, but what maybe is even more important for Dokic - she made peace with the Australian crowd as she excused herself for the mistakes she made in the past.



And although we may see the same blonde girl on court, who's fearsome groundstrokes, service and improved movement scary the crap out of most of the WTA Tour's top players, we see a completely new person at the same time. A Jelena Dokic, who made peace with herself and with the world. A girl, who had to come to terms with all the storms she faced in her 25 years. A young woman, who's finally ready to begin a new chapter in her life - happiness.

~jachal

Image ist alles

What are tennis stars doing in their off-time, when they don't play matches and don't practice?
Right - they work on their image.

During the Australian Open we already saw Lu Yen-Hsun being portatrayed (HERE), Evgeny Korolev go surfing (HERE) and Caroline Wozniacki ride a Harley Davidson (HERE).

Now it was time for two others to do some fun image-work.

Fernando Verdasco tried to melt down all the people's hearts playing with a penguin at Melbourne Aquarium. You sense he didn't want to get trashed by the public opinion and take all the fault for his break-up with Ana Ivanovic, so he decided to play the nice guy
Well, you have to give him some credit - he may have achieved his goal (thanks to the cute penguin)


Our Little Miss Sunshine Nadia Petrova also has to do some image-restoring. Thankfully she too had some tricks in the store. Wanting to get rid off the image of being a cold woman without any emotions, the Russian went to the Brighton Beach and played with some kids.
An honest smile on her face really suits Nadia. We definitely would like to see more of it - especially on the tennis court!


Well, quoting Rafa - "Who's next?"

~jachal

Dellacqua strikes back

After a fantastic run to the fourth round at last year's Australian Open, Casey Dellacqua couldn't keep up this sort of success this year in Melbourne. The world No.57 lost to last year's semifinalist Daniela Hantuchova in two tight sets 7/6(11) 6/4. It didn't take long for critisizing voices to be raised about the Aussie's performance. Llyeton Hewitt's former coach, Roger Rasheed thought he knew the reason for the loss...

"She may have had some injuries - she's had a shoulder (problem) - but that doesn't actually stop you from getting into real tip-top shape," Rasheed said.

"If I'm a girl and I've broken into the world of tennis and I've made $500,000 for the year, wouldn't I just try and get into the most perfect nick I could to actually excel?"

Rasheed went even further explaining to the Melbourne radio station 3AW he was surprised female players can play with "excess baggage".

It didn't take long for Casey to respond to Gael Monfils' new mentor.

"I have never met Roger Rasheed. He does not know me or my tennis. He does not know my training techniques, my background or my personality. He has no idea about my training program, my fitness level or my injury history. He has never bothered to even introduce himself, let alone offer advice on any aspects of my tennis. If his comments have been reported accurately and in context, I find it both amazing and totally self-serving that he now chooses to share his ill-informed analysis with the Australian public. He is in the media and knows that what he says during the Australian Open will get very widely reported." said Dellacqua.

Yeah Roger - this is what you get if you tell a woman she's carrying a little bit too many pounds... :P

~jachal

Thanksgiving?

Ok, we -The Argwus Team - admit it - we are Poles (riiiight, like U wouldn't already have recognized that for all the grammar mistakes we make :P). Hooowever...

We are real patriots and that's why we fully support our Polish players (riiiight, like U wouldn't have sensed it either :P) . Hooowever...


We decided to dedicate this post to our best polish doubles team (not that someone's dead or something) - Mariusz Fyrstenberg & Marcin Matkowski. We wanted to show some gratitude towards them for the way they represnt our country and thought there are several things we wanted them to know.

Here is a list of things we wanna thank the guys for:

* Thanks for mentioning the existance of ARGWUS on your BLOG. It was a really nice gesture and we really appreciate it!

* Thanks for the great autumns. After a whole year of slumping (with the exception of three tournaments: Barcelona, Warsaw/Sopot, New Haven) you always seem to come back from behind and finish the season with a flurish.

* Thanks for all the heartattacks you're giving us during your matches. We just "love" to look at the live-score and see you getting broken after a 40/0 lead. We really get gray hair quicker than our peers.

* Special thanks to Marcin, who probably is the only player on earth who had the hardihood to say "No!" to John McEnroe, after Big Mac asked him to practice with him.
Yeah John, who's the real star right here, huh?

* Special thanks to Mariusz, who according to Dmitry Tursunov is the nicest guy on Tour. Well, if Dima says so, it must be true or at least a pretty good joke ;p

* Thanks for all the funny stories we get to read on your blog. Reading all of this makes us really feel like we are taking part in your lives and brings us closer not only to you, but to the world of professional tennis.

* Thanks for the win at the Masters Series event in Madrid. You really proved you can take on the greatest doubles teams, kick some ass and be big-time players yourself.

* Special thanks from polish umpires, who are always proud to explain in Doha how to pronounce your names. Like "Fyshafbaiusbfiauberg''

Here you can watch a short film with the guys talking about how they met. If you don't understand Polish language, you get the full story translated in HERE.

~jachal