Nicole Vaidisova news

Martina Hingis has found love…again. Yes, the Jessica Simpson of tennis has a new leading man in her rom-com of a love life. His name is Thibault Hutin, and he’s a 24-year-old Frenchman and fellow show jumper. The 30-year-old Swiss went public with the romance earlier this month in an interview with La Voix du Nord. And, just in case anyone missed it, she told the Sunday edition of Blick (Sonntags Blick) that she was “not single anymore.”
 

The round of 16 line-up at the BNP Paribas Masters on Thursday features 12 of the top 13 seeds. The outstanding remaining field includes 14 winners on the ATP World Tour this season. There are five players left battling for the three remaining spots for the year-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Three Grand Slam champions – Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick – all of whom rank amongst the world's current Top 10 - take the court for the quarter-finals of the Swiss Indoors Basel on Friday.

Three Top 10 players are in action at the Swiss Indoors Basel on Wednesday, led by a certain Swiss sports legend.

First up on Centre Court is an all-unseeded battle between World No. 38 Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic and World No. 45 Thiemo de Bakker of the Netherlands. They are playing for the first time. Stepanek did  well in his only previous appearance in Basel, reaching the semi-finals last year and losing in three sets to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.The 22-year-old de Bakker is playing here for the first time.

The highest-ranked teenager in the world and Russia's brightest young star will have to wait another year to get her first victory at her home tournament, as Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova fell first round on Monday. Pavlyuchenkova had fallen first round in both of her previous appearances at the Premier-level event, in 2006 (to Nicole Vaidisova) and 2009 (to Tsvetana Pironkova), and that trend continued in 2010 with a see-saw 76(5) 26 60 loss to Dominika Cibulkova.

There are eight first round matches on Tuesday’s schedule at the Kremlin Cup, highlighted by a pair of former champions meeting for the third time, with qualifier Igor Kunitsyn and wild card Igor Andreev. Kunitsyn captured his lone ATP World Tour title here two years ago while Andreev won his last ATP title five years ago. Kunitsyn won both previous meetings in three sets last year.

"Is she for real?"

A week after squandering a match point chance in a semi-final defeat to Sam Querrey in Los Angeles, Janko Tipsarevic defeated the No. 6 seed 7-6(3), 6-3 Wednesday to reach the third round of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, an ATP World Tour 500 hard-court tennis tournament in Washington D.C.

The Serbian, who narrowly missed out on a place in his third career ATP World Tour final with defeat to Querrey last week, recorded his first win in three attempts over the American in just 78 minutes.

For a time it seemed Anna Chakvetadze was destined to become just another in the seemingly never-ending line of young female players who rose to sniff Grand Slam glory before fading quickly back towards oblivion.

When Chakvetadze reached the semi-finals of the US Open in 2007, it seemed the world was at her feet. Soon after she peaked at world number five and appeared set to lead the latest generation to challenge the dominance of the Williams sisters.

Nicole Vaidisova has married ATP World Tour star Radek Stepanek, the ceremony taking place Saturday, July 17, 2010 at the St. Vitus Cathedral, the Czech Republic's biggest church.

After her first round loss to Lucie Safarova at Madrid, Maria Sharapova will be hoping to hit the red clay running as top seed at the Internationaux de Strasbourg this week.

She'll have to: The three-time Grand Slam champion's opener is against fellow Russian Regina Kulikova, who has been working her way up the rankings this year and has the big game to threaten the former world No.1.

Palm Beach Gardens ace may be an author and Dolphins owner, but at 29 her competitive desire hasn’t waned

Perhaps father really does know best.

For years, Richard Williams, eccentric father/coach of tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams, was criticized for not allowing his daughters to play junior tournaments. He encouraged them to pursue other interests, such as fashion school, interior design or owning a piece of the Miami Dolphins.

Jelena Jankovic has been where Caroline Wozniacki is now: a young, happy-go-lucky player with massive potential who easily puts losses behind her, convinced her next big win is just around the corner.

That's not today's J.J., who has struggled mightily to remain relevant on a WTA Tour that two-time U.S. Open champion and Tennis Channel analyst Tracy Austin calls soft on top, but with tremendous depth. But that is today's Wozniacki, who almost never shows a dark side, puts on a happy face and focuses each day on incremental improvement.

Two-time major semifinalist is content in watching fiance Radek Stepanek earn confidence-boosting win at BMW Tennis Championship Challenger in Sunrise

Instead of preparing for the upcoming Sony Ericsson Open, former tennis phenom Nicole Vaidisova was wrapped in a blanket sitting in the stands at the Sunrise Tennis Club cheering on her fiance, Radek Stepanek, the top seed at the BMW Tennis Championship Challenger Wednesday evening.

After her 6-2, 6-4 loss to the emerging Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia in her opening match at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Saturday night, Ana Ivanovic was escorted away from Court 3 by a lone security person.

Exiting right behind her as she climbed the steps from the sunken court, I noticed something seemingly insignificant – a little “Ana” embossed on the side of the heel of her adidas tennis shoe.