“She arrived out here broken and penniless and Johnny was the one who took the punt on Jelena,” family friend Glen Schirmer, who worked as Dokic’s dietitian at Giannarelli’s request, told the newspaper. “At his own expense he housed, fed and trained both her and her boyfriend for months. He said he knew that one day he’d get the money back from her. He liked her and he thought she deserved a second shot at it. He felt really sorry for her and they became very, very close. She was trying to get a start again but nobody wanted to touch her, so Johnny took her on.” — One of life’s lessons Jelena, never stiff the mob…

A man naked from the waist down danced across the court during the Williams’ sisters doubles match — presumably coming straight from the Beer Garden. Good effort at the “Happy Slam”…

Sean Randall dissects the 2009 Australian Open draw, and picks Roger Federer and Venus Willams to walk away with the titles.

Roger Federer isn’t above some mind games going into the Australian Open, saying that defending champion Novak Djokovic may have made a mistake switching from Wilson to HEAD right before a Grand Slam: “I mean it’s tough because there’s always a factor with the weather, how do you play, day form, you know, other contenders, the pressure, now a new racquet,” Federer said on Djokovic defending the Aussie Open title. “I’m quite surprised he made a switch like this in the best phase of his career. He can for sure play good tennis, but I think when it comes down to the crunch you just have that bit of a doubt maybe, because you are not quite that comfortable with that racquet. But we’ll see what happens. It’s going to be a big test for him.”…

Venus Williams got her younger sister again today, beating Serena 5-7, 6-1, 6-0 to qualify for the semifinals in the season-ending WTA Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Does anybody actually care about the Doha WTA Championships? I’m sure are there some pockets of people that do, but overall there just doesn’t seem to be a lot of buzz about the event.

“Today I play an almost perfect match and it is very, very exciting,” Nadal said. “Today I played very well. I shocked myself with some of the winners I played, was near perfect tennis.” The U.S. had chances in the opening singles Friday when Sam Querrey led Nadal by a set and a break, and Roddick led David Ferrer two sets to one before falling in five.

“I think I was behaving like a really spoilt girl today,” Safina told reporters.

“After the warm-up I just started to cry,” Safina said. “I said, ‘I cannot push anymore myself.’ He said, ‘We know that you’re not a machine. Just go out there and don’t thinking.’ He told me again, ‘Just please don’t show me any emotions, like these negative emotions. If you want, don’t show even positive. Just go on the court and do whatever you can this day.’…I could not stop from crying, yeah. So I guess he knows how to handle my emotions.”

There’s an age-old saying in the financial markets that the “trend is your friend.”

Indeed, Rafael Nadal fans, go ahead and pop that champagne, can things get any better?

I have been touting Gael Monfils for a long, long time. And in terms of upside among the new young blood on the tour (Nadal aside) I put him among the Top 3 alongside Richard Gasquet and Novak Djokovic, and like the other two I peg him as a realistic No. 1 candidate and a […]