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Today Adidas announced that Danish tennis sensation Caroline Wozniacki will represent the new fall/winter 2009 adidas by Stella McCartney tennis range at the U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows. Currently ranked No. 9 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, Caroline has been selected to become the exclusive new face of the tennis line and will be playing in apparel and footwear from the distinctive sport performance collection at all upcoming tournaments starting with the U.S. Open. (She replaces Maria Kirilenko).

For me it is essential to wear products that combine performance and style. I need to have breathable apparel and footwear that is lightweight, stable and well cushioned. With the adidas by Stella McCartney tennis line I feel like I have everything any fashionable female tennis player always dreams about: cutting-edge adidas technologies combined with Stella’s unique designs that actually perform. “I always play better when I feel good, that is very important to me so I’m really excited about getting out on court in it!” says Caroline Wozniacki.

Stella McCartney comments, It’s very rare for a fashion designer to dress one of the top 10 players in the world. I couldn’t be more thrilled and happy to be given that opportunity. Lets hope this will enhance her performance!

Caroline will be wearing key styles from

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Winning a Wimbledon title was a dream, as it is for any player, but there was an extra incentive for Knowles.

“I have a British passport – my mom’s British – so I’ve grown up in the tradition of Wimbledon. It was always the one tournament I wanted to win,” he revealed. “To finally have won it, it’s thrilling. To be on Centre Court, and to go up in the Royal Box and receive the trophy, it’s something that no one can ever take away from me.”

Knowles has now won all four Grand Slam tournaments, adding his first mixed doubles title to his men’s doubles titles won alongside former partner Daniel Nestor at the 2002 Australian Open, 2004 US Open and 2007 Roland Garros. He and Nestor were also finalists at Wimbledon in 2002.

The Bahamian also achieved a special milestone earlier in The Championships, playing his 1000th career doubles match – the most among active players – in the men’s doubles quarter-finals with Mahesh Bhupathi. He is only the sixth player to reach the 1000-match plateau, joining Cyril Suk (1147), Sherwood Stewart (1080), Todd Woodbridge (1042), Rick Leach (1038) and Jonas Bjorkman (1015).

“At the start of your career it’s not really something you set out to do,” said the 37-year old. “It’s

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Kim Clijsters, the 2005 US Open champion and former world No.1, has confirmed she will make her return to the WTA Tour next month at the Western & Southern Financial Group Open in Cincinnati.

The Belgian has been slowly warming herself up for the American hard court season since announcing that she was coming out of retirement in late March of this year. After playing against Steffi Graf at the Wimbledon exhibition to celebrate the new roof in May, she then beat Michaella Krajicek in another exhibition last month.

At the age of just 23, Clijsters retired in 2007 with one major and 34 tour titles to her name, having held the top ranking for 19 weeks. Boredom, injuries and the desire to start a family were all factors in her decision as reasons for leaving the game.

“I’m going to focus on the big tournaments and the Grand Slams”

“I’m really going to try and focus on the really big tournaments and the Grand Slams and I will peak for moments I really want to do well,” Clijsters said about her return. “We’ll evaluate things after the US Open and take it from there.”

Clijsters has also requested wild cards at the Rogers Cup in Toronto and the US Open, but she will face the sternest test on her return.

The commitment list for both the Masters 1000 event and

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Manacor, Balearic Islands – Spain, July 14th, 2009

Rafa Nadal underwent further medical tests today in Barcelona. He is slowly recovering from his injury and will resume practice next Monday July 20th. He will back in action in Montreal where he is defending champion.

Rafa travelled to Barcelona yesterday and underwent medical exams to see the evolution of the insertion tendinitis of both Quadricipitals Tendons through an MRI and radiography under the supervision of his doctor Angel Ruiz-Cotorro.

“The evolution of his injury is positive and the player will continue with his physiotherapy and muscular work and will resume his tennis activity in a progressive way starting next Monday July 20th, estimating his return to competition on August 8th at the Montreal event” says Angel Ruiz-Cotorro, Rafa’s doctor.

Rafa will travel back today to Manacor to continue with his recovery plan and will resume his tennis practice next Monday.

Rafa Nadal: “I am happy with the way the tests went and of the positive evolution of the injury as the doctors are saying. I am really looking forward to practice again and to do again what I most like: to play tennis. The event in Montreal is important and I expect to be there fit to play. Until then I need to continue to work on my recovery and practice

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World No. 61 Juan Monaco swiftly put behind him the disappointment of losing two Davis Cup rubbers at the weekend by booking his place in the second round of the Catella Swedish Open. The Argentine ousted his eighth-seeded countryman Maximo Gonzalez 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-1 on Tuesday at the ATP World Tour 250 clay-court tennis tournament in Bastad.

The 25-year-old Monaco twice trailed by a break of serve in the first set before clinching it on a tie-break and rallied from dropping the second set to break serve three times in the deciding set to seal victory after two hours and 18 minutes. The Tandil native is making his fourth appearance in Bastad and reached the quarter-finals on his debut in 2004 (l. to F. Gonzalez).

Argentine qualifier Guillermo Canas dismissed the challenge of Bulgarian wild card Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 7-6(2) to set up a second-round meeting with Swede Andreas Vinciguerra. Former World No. 8 Canas, currently at No. 151 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings, is making his fourth appearance in Bastad and was a quarter-finalist in 2002 (l. to Calleri).

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The weekend proved a nightmare for Blake, and he left open the question about whether he would want to continue playing when USA next competes in the competition in March. “It’s not the right moment to think about that,” he said after his defeat to Cilic, “because I’m still too emotional about losing, but I’ll have to think about it.”

So will Patrick McEnroe. The Bryan twins proved that they are still a rock solid selection, but as neither is a singles player, it means the other two members of the team have to be singles players on whom the captain can rely for at least two points. Roddick is a shoo-in whenever he’s available, but Blake may no longer be. Fish is enjoying something of an Indian summer in his career, but if one of the promising generation of American youngsters makes a decent breakthrough – perhaps Jesse Levine – then Blake’s place may be far from certain.

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Former world number one doubles legend Todd Woodbridge was today announced as Tennis Australia’s new National men’s and Optus Australian Davis Cup coach.

The newly expanded, full-time position combines a role as the national men’s coach overseeing the entire male player development pathway with the Optus Australian Davis Cup coaching job.

“I am excited by the challenge ahead. This job appealed to me because of the breadth of the scope and the chance to make a difference,” Woodbridge, a former world number 19, said.

“It goes way beyond the Davis Cup and allows me to work with top players and coaches at various levels of their development.

“We have some terrific talent in both the playing and coaching ranks and a recently improved structure that I believe can help us drive some big improvements in Australian tennis performance,” he explained.

Tennis Australia Director of Tennis Craig Tiley said the new role is a pivotal leadership position crucial to the development of tennis in Australia.

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