sydney 2010 qualifying and practice

Svetlana Kuznetsova grimaces during practice

Daniela Hantuchova waits at practice

Jelena Jankovic gets lots of sunscreen

who's striking a pose

new doubles partners Llodra and Ram

tennis gossips

Andreas Seppi hits at practice

Nick Lindahl at practice

new bejing 2009 gallery featuring nadal, blake, bartoli and zhang... and other end of year news

yup the bejing tennis photos are slowly being added to the new gallery: beijing 2009

also while you're browsing around the photos, don't forget to take a look at the calendar cards and the calendar poster. Clearing 2009 stock now, at not to be repeated prices! i have no plan to make any 2010 calendars this year, so they may truly be 'never repeated'...

so far, things are all looking good at the end of this year. hopefully all the year's pics will be up before 2010, when as usual we'll be busy with the january tennis season. i will be in sydney, as usual, and also plan to attend melbourne *before* the main draw starts. my other photog friends hope to be around the main game, and together we hope to be making the most out of the open :)

thanks for your lovely patronage this year (and before) and come back soon for more news!

ps. i do take requests for players photo prior to a tournament... usually do that at men's tennis forums - frenchie forum but if you like, leave me a message here too. i'll see what i can do...

freelance photographers available for australian tennis 2010

if you're a media organisation that needs photographic coverage of the tennis season down under in 2010... have a good size circulation, with a sports/tennis interest... you should contact me quick! i know a few freelancers who have the skills and experience to do the job at a very good price. but hurry, application has to go in before end of october. please email me (viatennis at smakdesign.com.au) for more details. (email link is at the bottom of this page)

sydney tennis 2009, part I

this was monday, 12 jan 2009....

mr 'balcony guy' richard gasquet, seen here with his coach (?) at a men's singles match.







it wasn't the hottest day yet, but spectators were already taking shade and rest outside the centre court.


these motor carts (how else to call them?) seen in european tournaments last year, have made their way to australia. yay.


has mario ancic turned into a mean muscle machine, after taking time off tennis? we are definitely seeing results



i mistook djokovic as jurgen melzer from a distance away from his practice court. really time to check my glasses. at least the camera managed to 'see' him with david nalbandian here, taking a bit of rest and doing a bit of discussion.


another fan had mistaken this guy for fernando verdasco. at least *i* wouldn't make the same mistake. he's dark but he's no spaniard ;)






this guy coaches a few chinese female players. i have a feeling he's french (????) but i call him andrew denton anyway. denton is an aussie tv personality :)

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/about/about_andrew.htm

sydney tennis 2009, part II

(yup part II... last things first!)

tuesday was a more interesting day than monday, since this year the men's draw is cut back to a field of 28, so there are fewer first round matches. i don't know if that helps with attracting top players (with byes on offer), as i think those who play will play anyway, and those (rafa?) who won't come, won't come anyway.

miss long legs stretching out in a 'quiet spot', after a centre court loss to agnieszka radwanska


jeremy chardy also stretched, before playing his first round match later in the afternoon








one of men's fashion icons ... janko tipsarevic with his colourful sunglasses, and tattoos in japanese(?)


sydney launches more 'fan-friendly' features. lots of creatures hopping and swirling around the grounds this year...


and this ... in coordination with the atp's new space theme perhaps?


while i was away in brisbane, alize cornet has somehow become a new fashion icon herself. not that we could see anything irregular this day at a tight outside match...



agnieszka radwanska and maria kirilenko in a doubles match


fabrice active around the grounds, although not having signed up for competition







leaving the best till last, right? another sweaty shirtless frenchman ...


joyous in serving ...


... and enjoying another light moment

frenchies special, sydney 2009

jeremy chardy at qualies... another puffing frenchman! lol




unfortunately this was how arnaud clement played... arriving a split second after the ball went in (and out of reach). his big serving opponent was... ahem, peter luczak. granted, peter was better than many other aussies on the day, so this had to be a 'tough draw'.


to be fair, this was how it looked when arnaud got to the ball




spectators for arnaud clement. bruno and an unnamed companion (dark hair guy with glasses).






nicolas devilder also lost in first round qualification




gilles simon, meanwhile, enjoyed a main draw entry, and a cosy centre-court environment, training with local lleyton hewitt.



camille pin lost in a second round qualie

it's that time of the year again....

... to get ready for the new year, and the new tennis season down under!

i'm planning to go to the new combined tournament in brisbane, and then back home to the old favourite sydney.

but i'll give melbourne a miss in 2009. crowd conditions, for me, have been getting intolerable the last two years. it just seems to me that the grand slam down under is only keen about growing attendance numbers, without any consideration for improved services and facilities.

normally fans don't have a choice. we are 'lucky' enough to host a grand slam tournament and get to see it, so no one should be complaining, right? well, my aging bones simply can't put up with that, unfortunately. so no more than two weeks in a row for me - i'll simply watch the telly after that. and send someone else to do the photos! :p

btw if anyone wants tips on travelling to sydney for the tennis, here's a link to mens tennis forums for more info.

adding more photos to sydney 2008 gallery

yes you can find more photos and more players from the sydney tournament at my sydney 2008 gallery. i'm still adding, haven't got to the rest of tuesday yet, which was my last day.

i'm doing only one or two for each player at this time... but if a player gets more hits or higher rating, then (as i always have done) i will add a few more of his/her pics. you are always the boss ;)

sydney tennis 2008, day 3 tuesday

i was more into catching people than watching matches today!

enjoying a hit ... seb grosjean

so many girls asking for a picture ... dmitry tursunov

looking pretty in sydney ... ana ivanovic

the blind team? lol ... fernando verdasco and gilles simon

retiring ... paul-henri mathieu

i also got autographs from carlos moya while he's waiting for a practice court, he's shy as usual... and catching verdasco again when i was leaving... fernando was signing sponsor's balls in a tent right next to the exit! like, say goodbye to a star before you go! (one of the many new inventions at this tournament this year) it's kind of funny, people queuing up for their ball before they left, most of whom did not know who he was. but fernando looked very cool about it and was particular sweet with kids with other demands :)

sydney tennis 2008, day 2 monday

another quickie ;)

sebastien grosjean... hard fought match on centre court against 'aussie aussie aussie oi oi oi', but as one aussie lady yelled out, 'sebastien we love you too!'

nicolas devilder... lost final qualie match to alberto martin

feliciano lopez... disappointment in first round to fernando verdasco

daniela hantuchova... long long match with dinara safina

tatiana golovin... too strong for tzipora obziler

james blake... tamed by fabrice santoro

sydney tennis 2008, qualifying saturday

i'm still so tired and soaked in rain and sweat that i really don't want to write much, apart from posting a few photos and captions in a timely manner and hope they are enough to please some of you!

nicolas devilder... a lucky winner playing a no-name substitute!

camille pin... at practice

fabrice ... still having fun

richard gasquet ... training with fabrice

john isner ... yes i do mean to show him diagonally

arnaud ... bad match-up with isner?

sebastien grosjean and bruno ... spectators who didn't really want to know (LOL)

this has to be ... mathieu montcourt!









more photos coming soon. check out the usual photo galleries as well.

new year plans

it's that time of the year again for aussie tennis fans...

like last year, i'm heading to the sydney tournament, and then for a few days to melbourne for the australian open.

the players i'll be seeing are probably the same old same old... but this year no more rebound ace, instead there will be a new bluey surface called plexicushion (heaven help me that i've got this right lol) so at least the pics will look slightly different.

stay tuned..... :)

sydney 2007, day 2

well... it's really really hard to write about a day long after things have cooled off, but i will do some.

i went with an uncle to the tournament this day... happy to share my tickets with someone who has been kind to me lately, but it was a little weird cos our tennis watching interests and experience were very different LOL. he's happily entrenched in his centre court seat most of the day, and why not, the schedule was such that the not-so-interesting first rounds were being played and the only bigger names were concentrated in centre court. players like berdych, hingis, baghdatis... people he had heard of and had watched on tv. he did ventured out to watch a bit of patty schnyder for a while, and wondered why she's still playing at her age? hmm...

whereas i would rather pick out the grosjean v verdasco match on court 2 as my feature match of the day, as i was wearing my french supporter hat, and spent rest of my time around practice courts. there were other interests on the players' balcony at court 2 too, as seen in this picture... guess they were not verdasco's supporters!

but it turned out that fernando did not need extra support as he was in hot form and sebastien looked so slow playing him :( the score was 6-4 6-4 to fernando, and sebastien was trailing most of the time.

meanwhile hingis was losing to jelena jankovic on centre court, kicking off the soon-to-become exodus of big names from the tournament in early rounds... but i saw the last bit of that match and in the swiss miss's case, it wasn't for lack of trying.

i stayed on centre court for a little longer to see marcos baghdatis... again... after beijing not that long ago, so i have to admit that i was not that keen, but good to see him, always so amusing and fun to watch on court. and he must be the only player that sold tickets in the 'international section', as advertised by the tournament (did they actually ever sell those tickets? i have no idea) i never saw him again this week; he must like practising early in the mornings... ??

then the rest of the day... not that much left, we arrived after noon... i went off and caught some shirtless frenchmen (yes paulo you were right) hitting on practice courts. won't post those photos now, but if you're interested, watch out for them in the photo gallery ;)

for now, i'll just post this pic that i have promised to someone :)

thanks for reading, signing off.........

sydney 2007, qualifying saturday

"so you like the frenchmen?" - paulo

hey, tennis is back here at home! i decided to spend just a short morning at the tennis today to avoid the heat. a little star-gazing and practice with the camera and conditions, would be good enough for me...

so i saw a bit of my old favourite (whom the camera loves), feli lopez, losing to kevin kim in the first round of qualies, and behaving rather badly too at times.

more happily, i saw a few of the french gang supporting their countrymen, nicolas devilder and olivier patience, who played their matches on adjacent courts. first there was paulo (mathieu) and his coach(?), then sebastien grosjean, then emilie loit (i think?) came to join the party. surely they couldn't be practising all day, and good team spirit was essential! good to see seb back in sydney. i don't remember having met paulo before here though.

sadly both devilder and patience lost their matches. time for the guys to get back indoors to wait for the main draw...

many other lesser known guys battled on in the heat, but it's time for me to call it a day as well.

as usual, more pics will be available in a new gallery at vtp some time later... ;)

EXTRA: here's a pic of nicolas devilder, especially for you-know-who-you-are ;)