Come on, Chelsea!

CHELSEA vs. EVERTON in the FA CUP FINAL (on FSC at 7AM PST)!!!

COME ON, CHELSEA!!!

P.S. Eye-Candy Alert: Third-round French Open match between Jeremy Chardy and Tommy Haas today too! Allez, Jeremy!

i-Dub Eye-Candy

As I walked into the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Friday, March 13th, the first thing I noticed was that some of the smaller match courts that were by the South entrance last year were now being used as practice courts. And the first person I noticed was (Russian player) Teimuraz Gabashvili practicing shirtless in the hot desert sun. Next to his court, two other ATP players were practicing shirtless, (Frenchmen) Julien Benneteau and Paul-Henri Mathieu!

What a beautiful way to start my weekend tennis adventure; shirtless tennis pro eye-candy greeting me at the entrance!

Unfortunately, I was too gun-shy to start snapping pics. But, not to worry, I soon warmed up my trigger-finger and start scoring pics of pros practicing (sans shirts). Aside from the obvious beauty of the desert landscape, Indian Wells is such an amazing tournament for the access you have to the pros. Please TO (sic) enjoy the following pics (as always, click on any pic to enlarge):

David Ferrer (Spain)






Tommy Haas (Germany)

And the PIECE DE RESISTANCE: Marat Safin (Russia)
(Please also see The Legendary Marat post)

And, at the risk of being cliche, I have to throw in some scenic pics:

What's this? What's this?

The official 2009 ATP calendar features top tennis pros showing a little skin!?! Hey now!

Unfortunately, Marat Safin and Robby Ginepri are missing from its pages, but I might buy a copy anyway.

Random Thursday News

1) Chelsea FC has launched their official American website; RED, WHITE and TRUE BLUE! You know it!

2) Tennis has gone cray-gee, and Tommy Haas really just has terrible luck! His newest misfortune: he might have been poisoned during a Davis Cup semi-final against Russia. To quote my friend's Grandma, "Oh, Brother!"

3) Have you heard of the search engine GoodSearch? Well, it's actually the Yahoo! search engine, but every time you do a search through GoodSearch, you can help a charity. Please check it out.

4) My condolences to the Kuerten family on the passing of Guga's younger brother, Guilherme.

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.

Tommy Haas is OUT!

Of Wimbledon, that is... He pulled out of his upcoming 4th round match against Roger Federer due to a stomach muscle tear. So, Federer gets a free pass into the quarters (like he needs any help), and Haas' grass court bad luck continues. Remember when he rolled his ankle over a stray ball? Ouch! Anyway, I'm not a Haas fan by any means because (as you may recall) he prevented a delicious Marat Safin/Robby Ginepri match-up at the 2006 US Open. But, I still feel a little bad for that crazy German.

More Important But: Eye-Candyland

Danke, Davydenko, danke! It’s Sept. 7th, 2006, and Nikolay Davydenko has just beaten Tommy Haas in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open of tennis, and I’m thrilled! I’m not a Davydenko fan per se, but I rooted for him because in the previous rounds of the tournament, his opponent, Haas, personally upset me by advancing over two players I covet: Robby Ginepri and Marat Safin.

Haas first defeated my beloved Robby Ginepri in the 3rd round of the Open in a close 5th set tie-break. I know there are more important things in the world, but if Haas had lost to Ginepri, I could have witnessed a SUPREME eye-candy tennis match between Ginepri and Marat Safin in the 4th round. Now, I can only dream of the Ginepri vs. Safin match-up. In my despair, all I was able to do was root against Haas simply because he prevented a Pretty vs. Pretty match.

I probably should talk to Lady Doc about my irrational and immature feelings towards Haas, but most sports fans need therapy for their absurd notions towards players and teams. So, I don’t think I’m that bad off (yet). I understand that Haas has no clue who I am and has no ill-will towards me. But, in my vision of eye-candyland, Hass is a colossal villain. I mean, check out the match that could have been. Here’s Robby, a 23-year-old All-American piece of candy who resides in Georgia (and has my unwavering devotion):

Then, there’s the 26-year-old Russian hot-head and all-around hottie, Marat Safin:
Why Haas, why? I just wanted to see Robby play (and ultimately beat) Marat in five sets of SWEATY, SHIRT-LIFTING, GRUNT-FILLED, PRETTY (and maybe a little dirty) TENNIS. Sugar! Is that too much to ask?

According to atptennis.com, Robby and Marat have only played twice before in the past, but I missed both matches. This summer’s U.S. Open draw gave me hope and another chance. I just wanted to see some candy battle candy, but Haas ruined it for me (and other discerning tennis hooligans, I mean fans).

To add insult to injury, Haas beat Safin in the 4th round, in another unconvincing 5th set tie-break win. So, when Haas advanced over another one of my sweet lads and met Davydenko in the quarters, all I cared about was Haas losing, which is probably bad karma. But, I’m hoping that sports fans (especially tennis and soccer fans, which I count myself among) get a karmic free-pass when it comes to wishing losses upon others.

Nonetheless, in eye-candyland, the stakes are high, and I play for keeps, Playaz! What??? Paging Lady Doc.....

Robby pic © Atlanta Peach
For more info on Robby, visit www.robbyginepri.com

Marat pic Copyright Control
For more info on Marat, visit safinator.com