Female tennis world number one Serena Williams will visit Kenya for three days next week to inaugurate a school built with her funds and several other partners, local media reported on Thursday.The school, which is located in Makueni district of eastern Kenya, was built through partnership between Hewlett Packard (HP), one of the world’s largest technology firms, and Build African Schools (BAS) initiative — an American non-profit making organization.
The school will give chance to hundreds of primary school pupils in the area to continue with their education and an opportunity to pursue secondary school education. Read more »
Serena needs a Twitter advisor
I follow Serena’s tweets. They are mostly non-informative, slightly amusing, with frequent sales pitches for her book or whatever she is selling at the given moment. However, her today’s tweet somewhat annoyed me. As someone who has experienced a major devastating earthquake, I can’t help but say something about what she tweeted today: “How is it an earthquake can happen in Haiti…This is a good time to draw close to God and learn more about his kingdom.” REALLY???? This is what people in Haiti and the world aids organizations need now? How about “this is a good time to be generous and donate money for the relief efforts, pay more attention to earthquake preparedness, research, education, awareness…etc, etc. Serena, please just do what you are doing best–play tennis and sell books!
Maria Sharapova signs $70 million Nike deal
Just do it… Make millions! World’s highest-paid female athlete is going to get even richer. Russian tennis superstar Maria Sharapova has extended her sponsorship deal with Nike in an eight-year $70 million agreement. The contract goes into effect this month and includes a line of dresses designed by Maria. She currently makes close to $22 million a year in prize money and from endorsing companies (Tiffany & Co, Sony Ericsson and Canon). She consistently ranks as the highest paid-female athlete of the world and the highest paid athlete in Russia for the last several years. Read more »
Anastasia Myskina’s OK interview and photos
Former Russian tennis star Anastasia Myskina did a photo shoot recently with the OK magazine and gave a quite candid interview about her life. Here are some of the notable quotes:
About relationship
“I have been with my current partner for three and half years (who is also the father of her son Zhenya). We met at a gathering. Everything was logical and not romantic. I think he has never watched tennis. My husband is a businessman and he is quite far from any sports. I am not planning to say his name, he is quite private and I don’t see any need to publicize our relationship.”
About TV anchor job
I have worked as a football TV commentator for about a half year and, to tell the truth, I never felt comfortable in that role. I have never been interested in football, even though the players are interesting personalities. I like more commenting about tennis. Also, I am a co-host of the TV program called “Tell me, what’s wrong.” Along with a therapist, we help couples solve relationship issues.
(Source)
Svetlana Kuznetsova: Don’t call me Kuzy
Did you know that Svetlana Kuznetsova has a blog? Sorry, but it is in Russian, and she doesn’t update it often. There are only a couple of entries. Here are a couple of tidbits from her blog posts.
She doesn’t like being called Kuzy
“The fans have been asking me if I like being called Kuzy. I used to like it, and had no problem with it before. I don’t get offended but I think I am a little bit older now, no longer Kuzy, and would prefer if people call me Sveta or Svetlana. That’s my request!
Clarifies who is who in her team:
“To clarify, Andrey Olkhovskiy is not my sparring partner. My sparring partner remains Alexander Krasnorutskiy. Andrey is my other coach. In the future, it is quite likely that I will be working with both Andrey and Larisa.”
The blog is available here (in Russian). (Photo: from Svetlana Kuznetsova’s blog)
Serena Williams on the Joy Behar Show tonight
Have you been watching the Joy Behar Show? I love her! You can double the pleasure and watch her program today since Serena Williams is going to be her guest. If you have a questions for Serena, you can submit to Joy on her Facebook page. It is also interesting to read the suggestions there.
Kim Clijsters and Web 2.0
Kim Clijsters is back, and my guess is that she has been missing the interaction with her fans around the world. She is quite successfully using many Web 2.0 tools to stay in touch with her fans. Here is how you can read, hear, and watch more about the Belgian star. And most importantly, the information is quite intimate since it’s coming directly from Kim:-) For Kim Clijster’ Web 2.0 presence, visit her redesigned website, become a fan on Facebook, follow her on Twitter, and watch her YouTube channel, where in her recent posting she explains the strange mark on her face that many of you have probably noticed at the US Open.
Melanie Oudin interview after beating Maria Sharapova at US
Q. Five weeks ago you were playing against a kid from Boston College. Now you just beat a former US Open winner on center court. How do you make the transition?
MELANIE OUDIN: It’s not that hard for me ’cause I love playing tennis no matter who I’m playing. Getting to play Maria today was an unbelievable experience for me. She’s such a great competitor, a great player. I just had a blast playing there today. Read more »
Serena Williams’ interview
Serena Williams’s interview after winning a dramatic Wimbledon semi-final match against Elena Demeniteva.
Q. Would that be one of your more dramatic victories?
SERENA WILLIAMS: It’s definitely one of my more dramatic victories, for sure, yeah.
Q. How did you feel at the end?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Felt good, because I felt like I was down pretty much the whole match. To come out on top was, you know, a great feeling. To finally win, it’s good.
Q. You’re not normally lucky to be in major finals, but do you feel lucky to be going into this one?
SERENA WILLIAMS: No, not at all. I felt like I worked hard. I don’t think there was too much luck involved today. I think it was a lot of skill more than anything.
Q. We’ve all had moments when the body makes appointments that the mind can’t keep. At stages during the match it looked as though your body or your mind wasn’t supporting you. Did you feel that?
SERENA WILLIAMS: No. I just felt like I was pretty much there the whole match mentally. I just wanted to, you know, keep going. I wanted to win really bad.
Read more »
Melanie Oudin Upsets Jelena Jankovic at Wimbledon
Jelena Jankovic is upset by an American player, and her last name is not Williams. Melanie Oudin, a 17-year-old qualifier from Marietta, Ga., has achieved the biggest upset of the first week at Wimbledon by beating former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic, 6-7 (8), 7-5, 6-2. She’s ranked 124th and will be in the top 100 for the first time after the tournament. I bet now all the U.S. commentators are weighing in if she could be the future of the U.S. women’s tennis. Let’s admit is, the U.S. tennis community has been looking for new women stars for quite a long time.
