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Look at those calves! French qualifier Augustin Gensse didn’t make it past the first round of this week’s French Open. He fell to 14th-seed Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 2-6. (Browse: See how the qualifiers made their way into the main draw)
TSF Vault: the TSF Tattoo Watch.
Reiko took us up on the request for a closer look at Simone Vagnozzi‘s inner arm tattoo. Here’s a pic shot later in that week of the 2011 Barcelona Open, won last month by Rafael Nadal. (Archives: TSF Tattoo Watch)
Step 2: Can anyone help with a translation?
(Taken in Barcelona by Reiko)
Potito Starace got tangled in Andy Murray‘s medusa at this week’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. Potito went down 2-6, 3-6 to the fourth seed, who next faces Florian Mayer. The other six quarterfinalists are Nadal/Cilic, Gasquet (who beat Federer in three with two tiebreaks going his way)/Berdych, and whomever wins these third-rounders: Soderling vs. Almagro and Djokovic vs. Wawrinka. (Draw: Rome Men’s Singles)
Tattoo watch: We hadn’t seen that one on his upper right arm before. Archives: Potito’s shoulder.
(image by Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images)
Hockey (player) for homos: As New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo amps up his serious push for a marriage equality bill in Albany, the Human Rights Campaign scored a big win in the fight for equal rights: a major sports league male. Sean Avery of the New York Rangers is known as fashion-conscious (check out the glasses) and the 31-year-old NHL veteran isn’t shying away from being the first New York professional athlete to campaign from the cause. And this shouldn’t surprise anyone: he’s Canadian. The former Chelsea resident now lives in SoHo.
Gilty of it: One of our fave online shopping outlets, Gilt, is getting rather giant, actually. The member-based site was valued at $1 billion recently, according to a New York Times article. A new investor in the fashion-savvy site? Goldman Sachs. Guess the big boys are finally getting serious about this online shopping thing, eh? More: Venus’ EleVen on Gilt
Tattoo watch hide your eyes: We think it better to close your eyes on this one. The Utah Jazz’s Andrei Kirilenko (he’s Russian, but not related to Maria as far as we know) reveals his latest body art. And… are there any words? Nope. None at all. Just… nothing. TSF Vault: The (classier) tattoos of the tennis tours
The clay version of Maria Sharapova‘s Statement Tank from Nike — the blue version of which was on Juia Goerges in her shot to prominence these last few weeks — makes it second appearance after Maria’s quick exit in Madrid. At this week’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, Masha got ‘er done by surrending only one game per set against Ekaterina Makarova. (Makarova ousted defending champ Martinez Sanchez in the opening round.) Maria will face the winner of Kleybs vs. Peer (Draw: Internazionali BNL d’Italia Draws)
Buy: You can pick up the Tank and Skirt in Gridiron (grey), both $60, at Tennis Express.
Bonus: Maria talks about her experiences going into Rome and the French — how she adapts her game, how she takes that into the grass season, and what she gets to do in Italy when it’s not about the tennis. (Video)
(interview photo by Robin Fenlon; product images via tennisexpress.com; match image via Getty Images)
TSF updates the “hottest tennis players” list to include some new faces. Do you agree with our Top 4?
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