Miscellany

Maria Sharapova is considering accepting a wild card to play in the Medibank International in Sydney. She is already scheduled to play in the Auckland Classic, which begins on January 3. Sharapova has never played in Sydney, and the tournament's organizers say that they are willing to give her a wild card at the last minute. The Medibank International begins on January 9.

Alex Williams says that Serena Williams is the Player of the Year for 2010, and that Francesca Schiavone gave us the Performance of the Year.

Mary Carillo, who does sports reporting for NBC, Tennis Channel, CBS, and HBO, has--at her request--ended her ESPN contract a year early.

Yaroslava Shvedova has hired Dimitri Zavialoff as her coach. Zavialoff coached ATP star Stanislas Wawrinka for fifteen years.

Zheng Jie, who reached the semifinals of the 2010 Australian Open, has withdrawn from the 2011 tournament because of her wrist injury.

Finally--though this has nothing at all to do with the WTA--for those needing a holiday pick-me-up, here is a compilation of all the Roger Federer on-camera break-up moments captured on video.

Miscellany

Americans Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Alexa Glatch will play each other in the first round of the AEGON Classic in Birmingham.

Yesterday, I wrote about Marat Safin's intervention in Svetlana Kuznetsova's career. Today, we learn that they are actually close friends.

And speaking of Kuznetsova, TennisInfoBlog provides us with the text of the telegram she received from Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.

Maria Sharapova says she believes she can win Wimbledon again, but probably not this year.

Women Who Serve congratulates the great Roger Federer on achieving his career slam, a wonderful accomplishment!

Miscellany

Former tour player Mirka Vavrinec was married Saturday in Basel, Switzerland to long-time partner, Roger Federer.

Sarah Gronert has passed her gender test and has been declared eligible to play on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. Big surprise--Gronert has been a female since she was a baby. The tour may have had a right to test Gronert, but it did not have a reason. Given the bigotry to which she has been exposed, it is a wonder she has chosen to go on at all. The 22-year-old German has jumped 200 places in the rankings since the end of the 2008 season.

Sloan Stephens won both the singles and doubles titles of the International Spring Championships, and she won them both on the same court.

Anabel Medina Garrigues has withdrawn from the Barcelona Ladies Open because of an abdominal strain. I was pretty upset that she didn't come to Charleston this year, but it turns out she couldn't have played, anyway. Those tennis gods are working overtime in Spain.

And speaking of withdrawals, I didn't figure out until today that Sybille Bammer had withdrawn from the Family Circle Cup. I don't know the reason.

Finally, something that has bothered me for a long time...Why do the scoreboard stats omit winners and unforced errors, two of the stats we most want to see?

I'm off to my first Davis Cup tie

I'm leaving for Birmingham tomorrow to attend the Davis Cup tie. Much of the thrill is gone, of course, because Roger Federer withdrew. But I will still get to see Davis Cup action, and I'm looking forward to seeing Andy Roddick and Stan Wawrinka.

All the fools who jeered at the choice of Birmingham as a Davis Cup site have obviously never been there. Birmingham is a very nice city with some wonderful museums, but we won't get too do too much other than visit some of its lovely restaurants.

Blogging will slow down, of course, but it will not stop, and I'll keep everyone posted on some men's tennis, for a change.

Quote of the day

"I think he recovered better than me because I was down for three days afterward."

Marion Bartoli on Federer's Wimbledon title loss

This has nothing to do with women's tennis

But it does have to do with gender. Leave it to Chris Fowler (or any of the male commentators, for that matter) to refer to Roger Federer's cardigan as a "Mr. Rogers sweater." You would think, after all these years, that Fowler would at least have a clue about what a traditional tennis/croquet sweater looks like, but apparently not. But then, why would a commentator want to miss an opportunity to "feminize" Fed? The white blazer, the white tennis bag (we heard about that on ESPN today, too), the cardigan--everything about Roger somehow gets turned into something "not masculine."

And while I'm at it, Fowler--No Doubt is not even close to being a "hard rock" band. You either need to get out more or keep your mouth closed. I vote for the latter.

A Wimbledon fashion note

Roger Federer has abandoned his blazer this year for a retro look--a beautiful cream tennis sweater with an "F" crest on the front. Serena Williams, in the meantime, has returned to her trenchcoat look. According to ESPN, she and Federer met in the hall of the media building, and he offered her one of the sweaters, which she accepted. Between the coat and the sweater, Williams will have some fine Wimbledon clothing and memorabilia. Perhaps Fed could try a trenchcoat?

Federer comes to Hingis's defense

Long-time friend Roger Federer has come to the defense of Martina Hingis, saying that "I can't ever imagine in any way that she took drugs," and "I hope that she can prove her innocence. I support her."

Hingis's attorney says that the chain of command was significantly flawed when she was urine-tested, and Hingis has asked the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour to help her clear her name.

No one admires Federer more than I do...

But until last night, he didn't know who Althea Gibson was.