Aussie Open contributor Benjamin Snyder is back for more. Taking on the longest of tasks: short balls.
Back in the habit: Vera – circa USO 2009 – got the meltdown bug again last week in Thailand. (Getty Images)
Well, it looks like we’re back to some shaky form for the top women — and, man, you girls were all looking so sharp in Australia, according to Tennis.com’s Tom Perrotta. Check out how world no. 3 Vera Zvonareva allowed a line call and a swearing violation get the best of her big game. She lost it versus Daniela Hantuchova in the Pattaya Open semis, prompting this charged statement: “There is a big difference between being mentally tough and being emotional. It’s a huge difference. I will always be emotional. As long as I use those emotions to my advantage, that’s only a plus to me. If I need to break the racquet to pump myself up, then I will break the racquet. I don’t care.” | Watch the drama
At least Vera stayed on her feet. This week in Dubai, Anna Chakvetadze collapsed due to a stomach bug against Caroline Wozniacki. Déja vu? Good thing she chopped her pony or she really could have hurt herself.
Before you call Petra Kvitova the next big thing, waiting for her to win everything, Federer-style, get this: she choked in her first-round match in Dubai.
Speaking out. Former world no. 1 Amelie Mauresmo isn’t scared to voice her opinion, especially when it relates to her home Slam at Roland Garros. She recently lowered the boom on French officials who bid to keep the clay-court major in Paris. “We are the smallest of the four grand slams and I think it is important to have the chance to grow, and for the public to have more room,” she said.
Ana Ivanovic split with coach Antonio van Grichen (just what we were thinking… who?!) last week, saying she plans to keep the solo mojo going for longer. Maybe that’s not working too well, Ana. The ’08 FO champ lost to veteran Patty Schnyder in the first round of Dubai, just three short months after snacking on her in the final of Linz.
amelie, the holy and glowing one
Yes, we know Amelie Mauresmo is glowing in this picture. And no, it’s not the lighting. Or make up. Or video editing. It’s her natural glow. Her new, natural glow.
I caught a glimpse – well, a thousand glimpses – of Amelie at the US Open this week, and the gal hasn’t looked this good since she exorcized her demons at the 2006 Wimbledon and bowed to the tennis gods in thanks.
Here’s what we think Amelie’s secret is, now that she’s working for Eurosport and living the life of the rich and famous, with no pressure on her goddess-like shoulders:
Amelie doesn’t sleep at night, instead, she does yoga for two hour periods, only taking breaks to smell sunflowers that she grows on her windowsill, that – oddly enough, don’t get any sun – and she waters with red wine, exclusively. Each morning she wakes up and reads Eat, Pray, Love and then goes out and has gelato for lunch – usually pineapple berry with chocolate sorbetto – before returning to her lodge (yes, she lives in a lodge) and watches Eat, Pray, Love the movie, which she got boot-legged by Julia Roberts herself. As a favor for Amelie. In the afternoons she usually does gymnastic routines in a leotard onesie, something that Reebok would never let her wear. She has 17 such leotards. She’s sworn off coffee so she only drinks grapefruit juice, straining the pulp first and drinking it from a hollowed out coconut. Before bed… er, we mean her 8 hours of yoga… Amelie high-fives the poster she has hung over her loft bed. It looks like this:
That, folks, has produced such glowing. It’s a simple recipe. Try it.
(screengrab via facebook.com; getty images photo)