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FRENCH OPEN 2009: Women's Final

FRENCH OPEN 2009: Women's Final

Svetlana Kuznetsova had waited nearly five years to win her second major tennis championship. She had slogged through three-set matches fraught with anxiety during this 2009 French Open tournament.

But on Saturday morning in Paris, Kuznetsova made short work of the women’s final against her fellow Russian opponent, Dinara Safina. She needed only 74 minutes to breeze through what was to be the hardest match yet, upending the top-seeded Safina with a 6-4, 6-2 victory.

“I have been waiting for this moment for a long time, losing to the winners,” Kuznetsova, a 23-year-old from St. Petersburg, said in her bubbly English on Philippe Chatrier court when accepting the trophy. “I had been playing many matches, and this time it happened. Really, I didn’t expect it to happen this year,”

At age 19, Kuznetsova had captured the 2004 U.S. Open championship, also over another fellow Russian player, Elena Dementieva. But she had twice finished as a runner-up in major tournaments, and had been known for squandering big leads.

This match had none of Kuznetsova’s trademark drama where she would seem to be in control only to fall behind, and then overcome her opponent again — as she did in the three-set marathon quarterfinal match against Serena Williams earlier this week.

Kuznetsova lost her serve on the first game of this match, but from there never lost her composure or control.

Instead, it was Safina, the younger sister of two-time major champion — and infamous emotional player — Marat Safin, who slammed her racquet to the clay court after she double-faulted — her seventh — to give the match to Kuznetsova.

Safina, 23, had shown little of the dominance she had exhibited in the spring season, when she had won 20 of her last 21 matches. That one previous defeat was also to Kuznetsova.

With an arsenal of tricky drop shots to go with her powerful groundstrokes that routinely wrong-footed Safina, Kuznetsova moved around the court with ease. Her leg strength might just be hereditary, since her mother is a six-time world champion cyclist and her father a five-time Olympic coach. Her brother, Nikolai, won a silver medal in the 1996 Olympics in cycling.

Kuznetsova seemed bouyed by meeting her idol, Steffi Graf, in the locker room before the match for the first time. Graf, a six-time French Open champion, was on hand to present Kuznetstova the trophy a little more than an hour later, and the two hugged on court.

After thanking the crowd and her family, Kuznetsova praised her fellow countrywoman, Safina, and said that one day she would get that first major championship. “I guess today I played a little better,” she said. “I am sorry for that.”

FRENCH OPEN 2009: Men's Final Preview

OPEN 2009: Men's Final Preview

Robin Soderling SWE (23) vs. Roger Federer SUI (2). For the fourth year in a row, Roger Federer is in the Roland Garros final, his 19th career final, matching Ivan Lendl's career record. However, for the first time, Federer will not have his arch-nemesis standing in the way of a major title in Paris. The new opponent is Robin Soderling, who executed one of the great tennis upsets of all time last Sunday when he dismissed World #1 Rafael Nadal (who had never lost a match at the French Open!) in four sets 6-2 6-7(2) 6-4 7-6(2).

When 4-time defending champion Nadal lost in the fourth round, most people thought that Federer became the prohibitive favorite to win the 2009 Roland Garros title. However, since then Federer needed 5 sets to get past a spirited challenge from Tommy Haas in the fourth round and another 5 sets to get past Juan Martin del Potro in the semifinals. Federer was 5-0 and had never lost a set to the Argentine kid but the del Potro who competed on Friday easily won the first set and put up stiff resistance for nearly 3 and a half hours, finally succumbing 3-6 7-6(2) 2-6 6-1 6-4. And this wasn't even the best match of the day, that honor was bestowed upon the barnburner Fernando Gonzalez and Soderling threw down.

Soderling started off very well, winning the first two sets by blasting winners and serving big and got himself to within 6 points of winning during the 3rd set. Then Gonzalez managed to hold, break and hold and suddenly Soderling went through a bad patch and found himself down 0--3 and 1-4 in the fifth and final set. Amazingly, Soderling was able to win 5 consecutive games to clinch his first ever Grand Slam final. He and Gonzo combined for a mind-boggling total of 143 winners, 75 by the eventual winner of the match.

Sunday's final will be huge for both players, but there's no question more of the pressure is on Federer. Everyone expects him to win, since he is no longer facing nadal. If Federer does win, he can silence (most of) the naysayers who would deny him title of the Greatest Of All Time by winning his 14th major title and completing his career Grand Slam. If Soderling wins, he will ensure his name will be enshrined in the history books, as one of the other men who denied (or delayed?) Federer achieving from achieving this status and who beat and replaced Nadal as the King of Clay.

Head-to-head Federer has played Soderling nine times on multiple surfaces and only ever lost one tiebreak set to him but very many of the sets have been close, showing that even before his Paris breakthrough the Swede was a dangerous opponent. The new Soderling is even more lethal, because he surely believes he is on a Mission with Destiny and he now also possesses a powerful, fit body to complement his powerful groundstrokes and nervy serving (120-plus mph second serves).

However, Federer is the most talented player of his generation and at the end of the day he should be able to use his versatility and variety to come up with a solution to win the match. It is also likely that since Soderling is playing in his first Grand Slam final, mentally he will be satisfied with the Finalist label, while Federer will settle for nothing less than his hands on the trophy at the end of the day, for the fourteenth time in a major.

David Carradine "Did Not Commit Suicide"

David Carradine "Did Not Commit Suicide"

Despite reports that David Carradine's death was likely self-inflicted, his manager tells Usmagazine.com that the actor did not commit suicide.

"The cause of death is still under investigation in Bangkok," she told Us Thursday. "All I can tell you is that David did not commit suicide. I can tell you that 100 percent. He would never commit suicide."

Sakeena Suki Shageer

Sakeena Suki Shageer


Yesterday, Bizarre Florida mentioned the strip club patron who sued a dancer over a kick to his face while he sat at the bar.

Now, we have the stripper’s side of the story, thanks to PalmBeachPost.com.

Sakeena “Suki” Shageer, 28, said she reacted instinctively when Michael Ireland smacked her “bum” (she is British) while she was up on the bar at the Cheetah Club in suburban West Palm Beach collecting tips.

Shageer said she is an old-fashioned kind of exotic dancer. “Back in the old day, guys couldn’t touch at all, especially smacking your bum that hard,” she said.

Ireland’s lawyers say he had a broken orbital bone, broken nose and has double-vision from the Sept. 26 incident.

white house

White house

"House" star Kal Penn's much-heralded road from the Fox series to the White House seems to have hit a pothole, or at least taken a turn into a cul-de-sac.
Despite announcing in mid-April that Penn's character had been killed off so he could accept a position as an Associate Director at the White House Office of Public Liaison, the actor, who was an early Obama supporter, has yet to actually start work for the administration.
"Though we look forward to him joining the team, Kal is not working for the administration at this time," Shin Inouye, White House director of Specialty Media told The Wrap.
In fact, Penn has no official start date with the Obama administration.

Linda Greenlaw

This is hotest news right coming now theLinda Greenlaw convicted in Canadian fishing case.read get more info

Maine fisherman and author Linda Greenlaw, who survived the nor'easter that was the basis for the book and movie "The Perfect Storm," has been convicted on charges of illegally fishing in Canadian waters.

Greenlaw was convicted May 30 in provincial court in St. John's. She'll be sentenced Tuesday.