Month of February , 2008

Roger Federer is hardly dismayed by his Australian Open showing. Indeed, he scoffs at those who talk about his loss there as if it came in an early round rather than the semifinals.

Sure, when asked Thursday about what happened in Melbourne, the No. 1-ranked Federer made a passing reference to "small regrets," such as wishing he'd managed to successfully serve out the first set of his defeat to eventual tournament champion Novak Djokovic.

 Pete Sampras will face former world No. 1 player Marat Safin in an exhibition during the SAP Open on Feb. 18.

Safin was granted a wild-card entry into the tournament Thursday. He will start his week by playing the exhibition against Sampras in a rematch of the 2000 U.S. Open final won by Safin in straight sets. Safin has won four of his seven career matches against Sampras.

Top seed Fernando Gonzalez remains on track for a third victory at the Movistar Open after reaching the quarter-finals with a straight-sets win against Diego Hartfield on Thursday.

The Chilean, who won at Vina del Mar in 2002 and 2004 and reached the final in 2005, took only 67 minutes to dispatch the Argentine 6-3 6-4.

Following a first set in which he won all three of his break points, Gonzalez converted 15-of-18 first-serve points in the second to set up a last-eight clash with Carlos Berlocq of Argentina.

Davis Cup captain John Lloyd said he believed that Andy Murray was still fully committed to his side even though the British number one is skipping the nation's first World Group tie in four years.

 Argentina's Carlos Berlocq beat defending champion Luis Horna of Peru 7-6 (3), 3-6, 7-6 (3) on Thursday to advance to the Movistar Open quarterfinals.

 John McEnroe's brief tenure as U.S. Davis Cup captain was marked by frequent laments about how tough it was to get Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi to play for his team.

McEnroe's successor as captain, his younger brother Patrick, has no such trouble getting the current crop of top Americans to participate - which probably is why he finally won a championship. And when the United States opens defense of its first Davis Cup title since 1995 next month, he'll once more be able to rely on Andy Roddick, James Blake and twins Bob and Mike Bryan.

Maria Sharapova will sprinkle some desperately-needed stardust on the Fed Cup World Cup this weekend as the 45-year-old tournament reels from a succession of big-name absentees.
 
Sharapova, fresh from her first Australian Open victory, makes her long-awaited debut for defending champions Russia against Israel in an appearance which should also guarantee her a place at the Beijing Olympics.
 

An Australian tennis coach turned commentator has risked the wrath of tennis champion Venus Williams by describing her bottom as ‘a pretty good sight.’
 
Having fought for years to be appreciated for her on court endeavours as well as her off court business skills, Williams is said to be less than impressed with the comments
 
 

Four months of anticipation and almost 12 years of waiting will come to an end on Saturday morning when Shahar Pe'er faces Dinara Safina in the first match of Israel's Fed Cup tie against Russia at Ramat Hasharon.
 

Serena Williams and Pam Shriver are among a host of movie, TV, sports, politics and pop culture stars participating in the 19th Annual Scripps Celebrity Super Bowl Poll.
 
Dozens of the most rich and famous people in the United States have attempted to pick the winner of Sunday’s Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and New York Giants.
 
The celebrity who picks the winning team and comes closest to predicting the score will win the Scripps Howard Super Sage Award trophy.
 

Maria Sharapova will face Tzipi Obziler in her Fed Cup debut when defending champion Russia plays Israel in the first round on Saturday.
 
The Australian Open champion was drawn on Thursday to face Obziler in the second singles match of the best-of-five tie.
 
"I just hope I can figure out her game as soon as possible and come out with a win," said Sharapova, who has never met Obziler.
 
Sharapova arrived in Israel on Monday after beating Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 6-3 in Melbourne for her third Grand Slam title.

When Tatiana Golovin burst on to the scene in 2004 with last-16 appearances at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, it seemed only a matter of time before she would be pushing for the sport's biggest titles.
 

But having made it to the top 30, her progress was slowed by a series of injuries and it looked like she might never fulfil her potential.
 

A breakthrough year in 2007 changed all that.
 

She put together the richest season in Sony Ericsson WTA Tour history last year, and so it should come as no surprise that Justine Henin be nominated for one of the most prestigious awards in the entire sports world.
 

Alize Cornet will make her Fed Cup debut for France in the opening rubber of the 2008 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group tie against China in Beijing.

The 18-year-old was nominated to play at No. 2 for France this weekend and was drawn to face Li Na in the first of Saturday's two singles rubbers with Virginie Razzano taking on Peng Shuai in the second.

A Young Entrepreneur May Just Turn Out To Be A Hero

Accomplishments that we make are usually goals that we set in our minds in some point and time in our lives. For the most part as children we are learning who we are and why in the world we are here in the first place. As teens we begin to figure out our likes and dislikes, what we're good at, and what just won't work for us. As young adults we begin to create goals that we will strive to achieve during our lifetime, and hopefully by twenty-five we are on our way to realizing our dreams. 

Swedish former top 10 player Joachim Johansson announced his retirement from international competition on Friday at the age of just 25, citing his recurrent shoulder injuries as the reason.
"There is no other option than to quit," Johansson told the Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet's Web site (www.svd.se).

"The doctors have said that nothing except a very long period of rest will work and long rest will not work for what I have intended to do and the goals I set up to achieve."

Lindsay Davenport is relishing being a part of the United States Fed Cup team again ahead of the World Group first-round clash with Germany.
 
The 31-year-old last played for the US team in 2005 and only returned to the WTA Tour in September following the birth of her first child in June.
 
Returning from an 11-month absence from the sport, Davenport has since won 19 games, lost two and clinched three titles.
 

Israeli number one Shahar Peer and her teammates were looking forward to fulfilling a life-long dream when they face Fed Cup holders Russia in a World Group first round tie at the weekend.
 
"I have played in a lot of exciting matches in bigger stadiums but never at home, I'm really looking forward to experiencing the occasion," Peer told reporters on Thursday after she was drawn to face Dinara Safina in Saturday's opening rubber.
 

After the phenomenal success of the "Aces for Homes" initiative last year, 2008 has started with a bang, with 1,052 aces being fired down in the opening five tournaments of the season. A staggering €104,220 was raised through the scheme for the international housing charity, Habitat for Humanity in 2007 and judging by the impressive serving performances on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour this January the sum could well be bettered this time around.
 

Kelley Coco was 16 when cancer invaded her body. Frightened, and searching for something, or someone, to hold on to, she journeyed from Boston to the Silver Lining Ranch in Aspen in the summer of 2000.
 
That's when she met Andrea Jaeger.