Tonight's The Night!

Marat Safin takes on Robby Ginepri in the first round of the LA Tennis Open tonight at 7:30pm PST at UCLA.

Pretty vs. Pretty

An LHK dream match-up!

LA Tennis Open

I just got back from the LA Tennis Open at UCLA.

I had the pleasure of seeing Marat Safin take on Pete Sampras in a exhibition match called the Millennium Challenge. Marat won!

Then, I got to see Marat play again in doubles, pairing up with compatriot Igor Kunitsyn and beating the team of Dudi Sela & Marcos Baghdatis in a very exciting 1st round match. Marat won again! YAY!

LHK Heaven!!!

YOWZA!!! My head and heart are about to explode! Have you seen the draw for the LA Tennis Open?

Marat Safin and Robby Ginepri, my two favorite OG tennis players (Jeremy Chardy is a fairly recent fav), are meeting in the first round! I'm not sure of the exact day and time that they'll be playing, but I WILL be there!

Marat! Robby! UCLA (my alma mater)! Pretty vs. Pretty! Ahhhhhhhhh!

They've only met twice before (with Robby winning both meetings), but I've never seen them play against each other in the flesh. I can barely contain myself! Not to jinx it, but one of my biggest Lady Hooligan dreams is coming true (please see LH Webzine Archive More Important But: Eye-Candyland)!

I need to breathe.

BTW, congrats to Robby on just recently beating John Isner in the semis of the Indianapolis Tennis Championships. He plays Sam Querrey in the final tomorrow (7/26 on ESPN2 at 12pm PST).

Marat, I'm looking forward to seeing you on Monday night as well when you take on Pete Sampras in the Millennium Challenge (also a part of the LA Tennis Open).

Argh!

It's official. All three of my beloveds were knocked out of Wimbledon in the first round. What a pisser!

Oh well, I hope they're all coming to my hometown to play at the L.A. Tennis Open in July. I'll be there cheering for them if so!

LA Tennis Open

The crew and I just secured our tix to the opening night of the LA Tennis Open (formerly the Countrywide Classic). I know it's still a few months away, but I wanted to be sure to have tix for the awesome exhibition match taking place on the opening night of the tourney (Monday, July 27th).

Marat Safin is taking on Pete Sampras in a re-match of their 2000 US Open final, and I can't wait!

LHK Sporting News

1) Robby Ginepri lost to Novak Djokovic in the first round of the Olympics.

2) Juan Martin del Potro upset Andy Roddick yesterday in the final of the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles. Excellent playing, Juan Martin!

3) The U.S. Mens Olympic 4x100 relay team beat France in an AMAZING race that I could just watch over and over.

Oh, Marat!

Marat Safin lost in the quarters of the Countrywide Classic today in 3 sets against Denis Gremelmayr. Marat was doing really well in the first set but just lost his mojo in the second. He also had a pretty scary spill when Gremelmayr hit a shot behind him. Anyway, I took my 4 1/2 year old niece with me for her first ever live pro tennis match! I was pretty much in heaven watching Marat and also spending quality time with my niece (who kept calling Marat, "MaraFsafin"; with an "F" and one word). SO CUTE; the both of them!

P.S. It goes without saying that I'm available to be Marat's towel-lady.

LHK Sporting News; a lucky day 08/08/08!!

1) As you know, the 2008 Summer Olympic Games start today! The Opening Ceremony airs on NBC tonight starting at 7pm PST.

2) Chelsea have made a bid for Real Madrid's Robinho; fingers crossed!

3) Speaking of the Olympics AND Chelsea, a beautiful photograph of a Frank Lampard corner-kick (entitled "Sun Lamp") is being displayed at an exhibit in Beijing.

4) The crew and I went to the Countrywide Classic last night at UCLA. We had a lot of fun in the "hospitality tents" before settling in to watch the matches. We saw Andy Roddick take on Dusan Vemic, and then John McEnroe vs. Mikael Pernfors.

Oh, and we also met Justin Gimelstob and Donald Young at the College Alumni Reception. We were a little hesitant about meeting Justin Gimelstob because of his recent derogatory comments about Anna Kournikova, but Donald Young seemed like a lovely lad.

Speaking of the Countrywide, the quarterfinals take place today. I'm contemplating whether to go or not. I really haven't seen Marat Safin live this year, and I missed his matches on Tuesday and Wednesday; blah, blah, blah...

Yay! Marat won today!

Marat Safin won his second-round match today and has made it into the quarters of the Countrywide Classic. Unfortunately, his potential (and foxy) quarterfinal opponent, Feliciano Lopez, lost his match today. Oh, what a yummy eye-candy match that would have been!!

In any case, I hope to be there on Friday to cheer Marat on!

LHK Tennis Update

Yay! Marat Safin won his first-round match yesterday at the Countrywide Classic at UCLA, beating John Isner in 2 sets. BOOOOOO to my job however 'cause I couldn't get out early enough to catch the late afternoon match! Where are my priorities?

LHK Tennis Update

1) Andy Murray won his first Masters Series title today beating Novak Jokovic in Cincinnati.

2) Dinara Safina has won back-to-back tournaments! Today, she beat Dominika Cibulkova in the Rogers Cup in Montreal.


3) On tap this week in the U.S. Open Series, the fellas of the ATP are in my hometown, LOS ANGELES! The Countrywide Classic is taking place (at my alter mater) UCLA this week, and I really hope that I get to see Marat Safin play. He plays his first round match on Tuesday against John Isner, but it's during the day session; argh! Looks like I need to try and take a long lunch that day... OHHH... What I do for eye-candy!

LHK Tennis Update

So, Marat Safin and Robby Ginepri have been out of the Rogers Cup in Toronto for a couple of days now. They're both scheduled to play in the Cincinnati Masters next, and Marat is scheduled to play the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles (my hometown) afterwards at the beginning of August. I can't wait to see him here!

With that, I wanted to share this recent ATP spotlight on Marat that I found:

Soccer & Tennis this week

I'm going to try and muster up some energy to follow these sporting events this week:

Today, Sunday July 22nd (12pm PST on ESPNU)
FIFA UNDER-20 WORLD CUP FINAL
Czech Republic v. Argentina

Today, Sunday July 22nd (2pm PST on ESPN)
COUNTRYWIDE CLASSIC ATP FINAL
James Blake vs. Radek Stepanek

Starting Monday July 23rd (TV coverage starts Friday on TTC)
INDIANAPOLIS TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Robby Ginepri meets Michael Berrer in the first round.

Starting Monday July 23rd (TV coverage starts Saturday on ESPN2)
BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC
I think I'll root for Marion Bartoli again.

Tuesday, July 24nd (8pm PST on TELEFUTURA)
SUPERLIGA
Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Pachuca
(I'll be attending this one in person!)

The Becks Debut!

I just got back from the Chelsea v. Galaxy game, and I'm still on a high! The game was so much fun. Chelsea played so well, and my beloved John Terry scored (the only and) winning goal! And YES, Becks made his long-awaited debut. He didn't start, but he was substituted in towards the end of the second half. It felt like the Super Bowl with all of the flashes going off as he ran onto the field. It really was a game that I'll never forget!
Now, I'm off to watch the game again on tivo. Tomorrow, we have the finals of the Countrywide Classic (on ESPN2 at 2pm PST), and I got my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)in the mail today (can't wait to start reading it). Life ain't too shabby!

Until next year, Countrywide...

I just got back from UCLA, where I watched a couple of quarterfinal matches of the Countrywide Classic. The first match I saw was James Blake versus (his supposed nemesis) Vince Spadea. Thankfully, Blake beat Spadea in two sets 'cause the weather was quite hot, and I was getting hungry.

By the way, during the match, I noticed Amer Delic sitting a handful of rows ahead of me, looking like a hot frat boy (with the backwards cap). Oh yeah, basketball superstars Kevin Garnett and Tyron Lue were sitting near him too...

The second match of the afternoon was between my beloved Marat Safin and Hyung-Taik Lee. Safin looked sexy as always (sporting a bright orange and black outfit), but unfortunately, he lost in 3 sets. It was a harsh loss because he had an early break in the 3rd set, but I guess he just lost his focus. So, since Marat is out of the tourney, I'm done with it too; until next year that is... Hopefully, both Robby Ginepri and Marat will be fit and ready then for my cheers.

Missing Marat

Marat Safin's 2nd round match at the Countrywide Classic takes place tonight, and I (gulp!) won't be there. Every Wednesday night, I take a (cherished) tennis class (more of a practice really), and I rarely miss it (except for family emergencies or a Madonna concert). So, I'm trying not to get too ill over the fact that I'm missing a chance to see Marat in person while he's in my hometown. But, I'm optimistic that he'll make the quarters on Friday, and I'll try to get a ticket to see him then.

Tuesday Sports Schedule

I'll be skipping the Countrywide today and tonight. Tonight's main attractions are the first-round matches of top seeds Fernando Gonzalez and James Blake. I used to like Fernando but that stopped once he kept beating Gineps. And although James Blake is a doll (and I loved his book Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life), I have other plans tonight.

I'll be cheering on my favorite EPL team, Chelsea FC, tonight as they take on the Korean Suwon Bluewings at the Home Depot Center. Although I adore the whole squad, I can't wait to see my beloved John Terry! I often wonder if he ever got the fax I sent to his hotel last summer? Hmmm, doubt it!

In any case, there's a terrible rumor going around that David Beckham might not be able to play in his scheduled L.A. Galaxy debut this Saturday night vs. Chelsea due to an ankle issue. If that happens, all I would have to say is BOOOOOOO!!

Vamos Comrade!

I just got back from UCLA (my alma mater), where I went to go see a couple of first round matches of the Countrywide Classic. The first match was dubz between Americans Sam Querrey and Mardy Fish versus the British team of Ross Hutchins and Alex Bogdanovic. Querrey & Fishy won in the 3rd set tie-break (10-8). Although I was sitting at the very top of stadium, I still had a great view. Check out Mardy's black Adidas shoes (he's serving in the ad court); I wish they made black tennis court shoes for us Lady(s) 'cause I really dislike all of the nerdy white ones. But, I'll save that rant for another day...

The second match of the evening featured my beloved Marat Safin versus Aussie Chris Guccione. It was a tough 3-set match, but Marat thankfully prevailed. I snuck down to about the 10th row to take pics of Marat, but unfortunately I didn't get any great ones. This one's the best of the bunch (I took about 40). But, I'm just happy that I got to be fairly close to Marat and just soak him in. It was so sexy when he swore in Spanish (with a hint of his Russian accent)!

In other news, I kept having Tommy Haas sightings tonight. I guess he's hanging in L.A. even though he's not playing in the tourney. I saw him driving a tournament Mercedes SUV as I was arriving; I saw him hanging around the players' tunnel between the matches, and I saw him sitting in the 3rd row (making out with his girlfriend) during Marat's match. He's not my cup of tea, but I just thought I'd give you a full report.

Monday's Order of Play

Since Robby Ginepri is out of the Countrywide Classic at UCLA (sniff, sniff), my main man will OBVIOUSLY be Marat Safin. He's scheduled to play tonight, and I plan to be cheering him on court-side (well, stadium-side).

The other playaz that might get a bit of my attention at this particular tourney are James Blake, the Bryan Brothers, and Jamie Murray (along with his doubles pard Eric Butorac). Oh and, Amer Delic ain't bad either (you gotta appreciate his sleeveless shirts).

Get well, Robby!

OK, in the country diva words of Faith Hill, I need to JUST BREATHE. The Countrywide Classic recently posted the men's singles main draw on their site, and I don't see Robby Ginepri on it even though he's on the frickin' players list! He's ranked in the ATP top 50, so he can't be a qualifier. I did a little digging, and it looks like he'll missing the tournament due to a staph infection?!?!

Argh!!! I am BEYOND bummed. I was really looking forward to seeing him play (and exposing his abs). Don't even get me started again on how happy I would be to see a Robby vs. Marat match-up! But now, it doesn't look like it's meant to be.

So, get well, Robby!

Marat, good luck at your first round match against the young and talented Australian, Chris Guccione!

P.S. Andy Murray's out too apparently.