Navratilova Will Dance

This should prove interesting. And by "this" I mean Martina Navratilova, who turned 55 just four months ago, joining the cast of this year's Dancing with the Stars. I guess the early exits other tennis pros like Monica Seles (four years ago in DWTS) and Martina Hingis (three years ago in Strictly Come Dancing) experienced in these types of shows didn't scare her off. But then again this is a woman who defected from Czechoslovakia in her teens, publicly came out as gay at the peak of her sports career, and beat breast cancer just a couple years ago. Getting judged at some silly dance competition should be a piece of cake. Now, I can't say I'll be watching since I'm just not interested in the show, but I'm rooting for her regardless.

Other notable famous people in this year's line-up include Gladys Knight, Jaleel White, Gavin DeGraw, and Sherri Shepard.

Birthday Girl: Martina Navratilova

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova turned 55 today, just four shy of the total number of Grand Slam titles she has amassed throughout her storied career. Her last Slam win, also her last match ever, came at the 2006 US Open when she won the Mixed Doubles title. She continues to play a very active role in tennis by playing exhibitions and commentating during Grand Slams.

Navratilova defected from her birth country of Czechoslovakia in 1974 and became a US citizen in 1981. It was then too when she came out publicly as a gay woman and to this day she remains just one of the handful of out professional tennis players. Speaking just last year at a fundraising event at Stonewall in London, here's what she had to say:

When I first came out in 1981, it was pretty lonely out there. Coming out was not considered a wise business decision. I think the phrase I heard was 'career suicide.' I’m told I lost millions in sponsorship, but in my heart I know I gained things of much greater value—the opportunity to live my life with integrity and the knowledge that others might have come out because of my example.

With all of that on her resume, one of my favorite things about her is when she played herself in an episode of Will & Grace as one of Karen Walker's paramours. Good times.

Wimbledon: The Finale

For a tournament so steep in tradition, this year's Wimbledon Championships, which notably celebrated its 125th year, was marked by breakthroughs and a general feeling of change and transition. Most of this can be attributed to the crowning of first-time Wimbledon champions, Novak Djokovic and Petra Kvitova, who fought to claim the most coveted prize in tennis.


For so long, the tennis world has been dominated by two men, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, especially in Wimbledon where they have won the last 8 times. This year, however, Djokovic has defeated everyone, including notching a 9-1 record against Federer and Nadal. With this mindset, Djokovic went into his first Wimbledon final with the belief that not only could he win against Nadal, but that he would. Fortunately for Djokovic, Nadal blinked first in that all-important first set, playing a loose game, giving Djokovic the first set. With that in his pocket, Djokovic played lights out in the 2nd set not giving Nadal an inch in any game and eventually winning it 6-1. To his credit, Nadal upped his own game as well as took advantage of Djokovic's slight dip in concentration in the 3rd to get his own breadstick set. The 4th set was similar to the 1st with both players playing more within themselves and yet again it was Nadal to blink first in the 8th game giving Djokovic a chance to serve for the championships which he promptly did. Win or loss, he would've been ranked #1 tomorrow, but with this win, his 8th title of the year, he has quite literally shaken up the dominance of Nadal and Federer. It's scary to think what else he has in store this year.


The women's final didn't cause a monumental shake up in the women's tour and yet in smaller and indirect ways, it kind of did. First of all, the match really was in the hands of 2004 Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova who has had an amazing comeback year, reaching the finals here and the semifinals at the French Open. With her power and experience she was the favorite going to the match. And yet it was Kvitova who outhit and outplayed the former champion. What's more impressive though is how contained and relaxed she seemed playing in the biggest match of her life. After winning the first set, a dip of play might be expected, and there was a slight dip with both players trading breaks a couple of times each. Kvitova though was the more steady of the two and under the watch of her idol Martina Navratilova, she took down Sharapova in straight sets. Similarly to the men, Kvitova was able to breakthrough a tournament that in the past decade had been dominated by two players. For the women it was the Serena and Venus Williams, who both exited in the 4th round this year.

So is there a changing of guards in tennis? Are the era of Nadal, Federer, Serena, and/or Venus over? For the latter three, age is a big factor and they are all getting up there. And yet, I wouldn't be surprised to see them winning 1-2 more major titles. For Nadal, who is still at the top of his game, it's mostly adjusting to this new challenge that Djokovic has given him this year (5 straight losses in 3 different surfaces). Basically, their era of domination is probably over, but underestimate them at your peril.


Elsewhere, top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan claimed their 2nd Wimbledon title, 11th overall, beating 8th seeds Robert Lindstedt/Horia Tecau in Men's Doubles. Second seeds Kveta Peschke/Katarina Srebotnik defeated Sabine Lisicki /Samantha Stosur for the Women's Doubles title. Finally, 9th seed Jurgen Melzer /Iveta Benesova took out 4th seeds Mahesh Bhupathi/Elena Vesnina in straight sets for the Mixed Doubles. And just for old time's sake Martina Hingis/Lindsay Davenport defeated Martina Navratilova/Jana Novotna in the Ladies' Invitation Doubles. Sigh, come back to us.

Clijsters Wins Doha, Player of the Year?

Kim Clijsters continued reshaping her legacy during her second tennis career after her comeback to the game last year as she defeated world no. 1 Caroline Wozniacki at the WTA Championships in Doha. She becomes only the fifth player in WTA history to win the year-end event three or more times tying Monica Seles with three wins. Only Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, and Chris Evert have won more. With her win in Doha, Clijsters has compiled an amazing 6-0 record in finals since her comeback. Her other five titles include two Grand Slam wins at the US Open as well as titles from Brisbane, Miami, and Cincinnati.

Wozniacki ended her year bitter-sweetly, clearly happy for clinching that year-end #1 ranking and winning the most titles on the tour and yet obviously disappointed for not winning any of the major titles, hearkening back to the slam-less #1 reigns of Dinara Safina and Jelena Jankovic.

The match itself was worthy of a final between two top-tier players. Clijsters cruised to a 6-3 4-1 lead with Wozniacki digging deep to even the second set at 5-5. Clijsters' concentration and level of play dipped and suddenly it was the third set with Wozniacki up an early break. Clijsters finally came alive again, breaking the Dane right back and rushing to a 5-2 lead. Two games later, Clijsters was able to serve it out winning 6-3 5-7 6-3.

The question to ask now is who is the Player of the Year?

As I wrote above, Wozniacki ends the year as the top ranked player in the world amassing more titles than anyone, but her lack of success in majors is suspect. Serena Williams won the most majors out of anyone, 2, one at the Australian Open and another in Wimbledon. Those would be her only titles of the year, however, and she was largely absent during the second half of the year. Francesca Schiavone and Clijsters grabbed the other two majors with Clijsters also winning Doha and three other titles. Plus there are those who have made career breakthroughs this year such as Samantha Stosur and Vera Zvonareva who both reached their first Grand Slam finals as well as their highest rankings. If I had to pick someone, it would be Clijsters. She won a Grand Slam as well as multiple titles both in the first and second halves of the year. Coincidentally, she does top the tour on one thing, prize money won.

Hit for Haiti, Part 2

A couple of hours ago, the tennis stars came out in Indian Wells, California, where the BNP Paribas Open is being currently held, to hold a charity exhibition to raise money for Haiti relief. This is the second time the tennis world has come together this year for Haiti. The first time was during the Australian Open in January as Roger Federer organized a Hit For Haiti exhibition with his fellow players including fellow Grand Slam champions Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Andy Roddick, Kim Clijsters, and Novak Djokovic.

Federer and Nadal took part in tonight's festivities as well this time being joined by fellow tennis legends Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Lindsay Davenport, and Justine Henin. They all share 94 single Grand Slam championships among themselves. Insane.

Both the men and the women played doubles with the first team to reach 8 in one set winning. The night started off with Henin/Navratilova v. Davenport/Graf with the former team leading for most of the match and finally winning it 8-6. Navratilova was the MVP here as she did most of the talking and played brilliantly. Clearly, she's still a world-class doubles player even now.

The women's match towards the end turned a bit quiet (i.e. boring) and so it was up to the men to bring back the fun and excitement with Federer/Sampras v. Nadal/Agassi. All four men held their serve during the first four games and for the most part it was Agassi and Federer doing most of the talking and ribbing. It was towards the middle when things got just a tiny bit interesting and uncomfortable with Agassi and Sampras exchanging some choice words between one another.

It sort of sucked the fun out of the event even though Nadal and Federer did the best they could to add some levity. In the end, things seemed to have settled down as Sampras/Federer won it 8-6. Sampras and Agassi followed the younger players' example as they hugged at the net showing no hard feelings between them.

$1 million was donated to the charity and many more will be collected from both the fans who showed up live and the fans who watched the exhibition online. Click here to donate now.

Both Federer and Nadal have yet to play their first matches at the BNP Paribas Open. Federer is looking to improve his semifinal results last year as he tries to get his first title since winning the Australian Open back in January while Rafael Nadal is hoping to defend his title after being title-less since May.