Caption this tennis fans:

With all the hoopla surrounding the publication of Andre Agassi’s autobiography, I nearly forgot that the tennis season isn’t over just yet. The World Tour Championships, featuring the world’s best 8 tennis players (Andy Roddick had to pull out due to injury, which made French Open finalist Robin Soderling eligible) started today, November 22 London time.  Someday I’m gonna have to go to London, find cheap apartments for rent, and watch Wimbledon live. Or maybe in time for the next Olympics (2012). A girl can always dream.

I haven’t been updating about the last Grand Slam of the year in this blog and now that it’s almost over, I don’t know where to start. What any tennis fan must know, if he hasn’t already heard or seen, is that this year’s U.S. Open is filled with too much drama and unpredictability that I might need dental discounts for having grit my teeth while watching all these crazy matches. Every bit of juicy information, you can find here. Here are a few remarkable events on the ladies draw:

1. Melanie Oudin, a 17-year old from Georgia, “slayed” four big-hitting and bigger-named Russians, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, tournament favorite Elena Dementieva, former no. 1 Maria Sharapova, and Nadia Petrova, before finally succumbing to the occasion and to the eventual finalist Caroline Wozniacki during the quarterfinals.

2. Up-and-comer and new tennis IT girl Caroline Wozniacki reached her first Grand Slam final.

3. Serena Williams had a major meltdown during her semifinal match against Kim Clijsters. She cussed at the line judge while pointing her racquet head threateningly. Profanity ensued, plus a fine of a total of $10,500 for Unsportsmalike Conduct and racquet abuse.

4. Most remarkable is Kim Clijster’s fairy tale run, which ends with her holding the trophy. She was an unseeded wildcard, having no ranking points because of her previously retired status. She became the first mother to win a Grand Slam title since Evonne Goolagong Cawley won at Wimbledon in 1980 and the only second wildcard champion after Goran Ivanisevic at Wimbledon 2001.

I’m not really very much interested in fashion,  most especially high fashion, but I can definitely appreciate eye-pleasing outfits whether it be on the runway or in the world of sports or in my day-to-day existence. Tennis is arguably one of the most, if not the most, glamorous sports out there. Women’s sporting outfits have evolved into something of a fashion statement and every tournament, eyes are focused on who’s wearing what and who’s wearing what’s hot and what’s not.  It’s not just their dresses (which other sport can use “dress” to describe what its athletes wear?) but also the shoes, the bags, the accessories. Besides the racquet bags, women players sometimes even bring purses or TULA bags. Heck, even the guys do bring man purses sometimes.

There are several blogs that focus on tennis fashion, most notably Tennis Served Fresh. I like browsing their features, especially during the Slams. Of course, the main people to watch when it comes to making fashion statements are Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova. I haven’t seen Masha with a tula bag, but her customized Prince racquet bags have their own flair. I think it is actually these two players, Sharapova first, who started the trend of wearing different outfits for day and night matches at the U.S. Open. Night matches usually call for black tones and day matches are usually complemented by lighter, more playful colors. The U.S. Open, after all, is the flashiest of all the Grand Slam events. I really wish I could go there someday, maybe with a Tula bag around my shoulders as I stomp the U.S. Open grounds.

The best thing about being a tennis player, and I suppose this is true for all top players, is that they get all those stuff for free. Imagine that! I don’t care how many similar pairs of shoes and sets of outfits they get, and that’s not mentioning racquet sponsors, the most envious part of that is that they get them for free! And those are not lightly prized items, mind.

Before the start of the U.S. Open a few weeks from now, I’m reposting an old article here.

Photo credit: Antoine Couvercelle/DPPI/Icon SMI

The late great American writer David Foster Wallace, who wrote the essay “Federer as Religious Experence,”  in the The New York Times had a deep appreciation for tennis, having played competitive junior tennis in his youth. He also wrote the essay “The String Theory” for Esquire magazine in 1996, at the height of the Agassi-Sampras era.

Tennis is a beautiful sport. And not because it is glamorous nor because it is becoming such a platform for fashion that players even don chrome accessories while playing.  The most ardent followers of the game would agree that it is the most beautiful sport there is. Mr. Wallace said as such, and although he also maintained that “Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports, he also said that “serious tennis is a kind of art.” And I agree. I cannot put into words the marvel and appreciation I have for tennis as eloquently as Mr. Wallace had written his own; I cannot explain why the popping sound created by a clean strike of the racket strings to a fuzzy yellow ball is like music to my ears, or why watching Roger Federer’s footwork gives me as much delight as watching an entire ballet troupe, but I can tell you that I will never love another sport as much as I love tennis. Take that from an avid badminton player. Take that with a grain of salt and indifference.

It makes me sad that I cannot play the game. But access to watching professional tennis takes away whatever resentment I have. I cannot begin to imagine the kind of dedication and single-mindedness the top-level players have in trying to perfect their craft. I can only gape in front of the TV screen or my computer monitor whenever I see an almost impossible shot or angle, or whenever I realize that these people spend the majority of their time (in truth, the whole of their present lives) training hard to eliminate in their system the one thing that every one of us would like to avoid, no matter what your profession is - committing errors, unforced or otherwise.

Maybe it’s indeed the athletic artistry that compels me to watch tennis as avidly as another would watch a soap opera.  Or maybe it’s what Andre Agassi said – that “there are just so many parallels between tennis and life.” At the end of the day, it’s still just a game. But what a beautiful game this one is.

1. Tennis is a gentleman’s sport. Women’s tennis is another thing, but I’m talking about the fact that you can’t fault the top players of the sport when in comes to conducting themselves in the tennis courts and in public. You have Federer and Nadal, who both seem to be genuinely nice guys. Now, even the initially brash types like Andy Roddick and Andy Murray have seemed to have matured into respectable, well-mannered individuals.  Some may find that boring, but I don’t. Totally out of topic, but this is a proof that transformation is not boring: Roger Federer before (in a tuxedo shirt in 2003) and after (in a fab suit in 2009).

2. The Williams sister are indeed the best of their lot.  This past Wimbledon made me a fan of Venus. She has the game, the spirit, and the mindset of a true champion. Serena, on the other hand, has the game to unnerve her older sister. The women’s doubles event proved the drawing power of the sister. Centre Court was packed, compared with the poorly attended mixed doubles event (or this can be attributed to the very long match that preceded it – the epic Federer-Roddick final).

3. Several up-and-coming women players are promising, but I still miss Justine Henin. Her game was both powerful and beautiful. Her backhand stroke alone was dubbed as the most beautiful stroke tennis has ever seen, and that’s not a light compliment at all.

4. Doubles is an entirely different game from singles. It’s a shame that power ruled over guile and deft hands during the Williams/Williams vs Stosur/Stubbs match. I was still cheering for the underdog.

5. I really thought Mirka will go on labor during the men’s final. Such tension-filled match.