TENNIS in DEPTH.

Right after his loss to Tommy Haas at the Wimbledon recently, Djokovic was spotted on a vacation with girlfriend Jelena in Portofino, Italy.

Rumours are flying around that Novak and long-time girlfriend Jelena Ristic are secretly married and are enjoying a honeymoon on board a 60′ Sunseeker Yacht cruising the Adriatic.

No idea if this story has been confirmed.

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Andrea Petkovic of Germany captured her first WTA Tour title on Sunday, beating Ioana Raluca Olaru of Romania 6-2, 6-3 at the Nuernberger Gastein Ladies.

The 98th-ranked Petkovic has won eight titles on the lower ranked ITF circuit, but had never before reached a WTA quarterfinal.

“I was hoping to land my first title here,” she said. “It will take some time to realize I’ve actually done it but I am just very happy now.”

Petkovic tore ligaments in her right knee at the 2008 Australian Open and was out for eight months.

“Rehabilitation was long and hard but made me a stronger person,” the 21-year-old said. “Winning this title shows I am a better player now.”

No. 66 Olaru, who upset top-seeded Alize Cornet in Saturday’s semifinals, also played her first career final.

She had won both previous clay-court matches against Petkovic, but struggled throughout this time.

“I am obviously disappointed, I wanted to play better tennis today,” Olaru said. “But I had a great week and must be satisfied with that.”

Petkovic dominated the first part of the match with powerful groundstrokes. She raced into a 5-0 lead, failed to serve out the set at 5-1, but broke Olaru immediately afterward with a backhand winner.

The second set went with serve for the first six games. At 3-3, Olaru missed three break points and lost her own serve in the next game.

Petkovic wrapped up the victory with a service winner on her first match point.

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Nikolay Davydenko won his first ATP title this year after breezing past Paul Henri-Mathieu 6-4 6-2 in the German Open final in Hamburg.

The second-seeded Russian won five break points as he made light work of Mathieu, who was seeded 13th.

Prior to the match, Davydenko had not won a title in over a year, when he triumphed in Warsaw in June 2008. He was hampered through the first several months of 2009 by a heel injury suffered in his first tournament of the year in Chennai.

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Seventeen-time champion USA is in the final for the first time since 2003. It reached the last stage thanks to a stunning debut from Alexa Glatch, which saw her upset two higher-ranked players and a stirring fightback from Liezel Huber and Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the deciding doubles against Czech Republic in the semifinal. Captain Mary Joe Fernandez needs to do the ‘right’ thing and keep the team that put the US into the final together for the final against Italy. The Williams sisters, who refused to represent their country in the qurter and semi finals, should not be considered for the Fed Cup team. 

Italy has never defeated USA in Fed Cup, losing all nine previous meetings between the two nations. The last time they met was in the 2003 quarterfinal in Washington, where USA ran out 5-0 victors.

The ITF has announced that Circolo del Tennis “Rocco Polimeni” in Reggio Calabria will stage the 2009 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas Final between Italy and USA on 7-8 November. The tie will be held outdoors on clay. The selection of the venue is subject to a successful site visit by the ITF.

Reggio Calabria is located in southern Italy and is the largest and oldest city in the region and the second oldest city in Italy overall.

Italy ended Russia’s three-year unbeaten Fed Cup record to advance to the final for the third time in four years, and its first at home. Italy won its first Fed Cup title in 2006, defeating Belgium 3-2 in a dramatic final doubles rubber to become the first team to win the Fed Cup without playing a tie at home since the home-and-away format was adopted in 1995.

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The world number three, who only started lessons two weeks ago, passed the test at the first attempt.

He wrote on Twitter: “Sorry for passing my driving test first time this morning. just two minor faults.”

His new licence will be a relief for girlfriend Kim Sears who will no longer have to ferry him around.

Murray was knocked out of Wimbledon in the semi-final, losing in four sets to fast-serving American Andy Roddick.

And he was straight behind the wheel – of a go-kart – choosing to race around the track with friends instead of watching the men’s final.

Since Wimbledon Murray has also found time for five-a-side football with Tim Henman and rounds of golf with his coaching team.

The 22-year-old, from Dunblane, also made a surprise appearance at Eastbourne this week as he represented the North of Scotland against Hertfordshire.

Murray will be hoping to be in the driving seat at the US Open, which starts at the end of August.

He says the hard court tournament, where he was runner up last year, provides his best chance of winning a grand slam title.

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The 2009 Bank of the West Classic today announced a partial playing schedule for the opening round of this year’s tournament which features perhaps the best player field in the 39-year history of the event.

Three-time Grand Slam Champion Maria Sharapova will play Monday, July 27 at 7 p.m. against 2008 Bank of the West Classic semifinalist Ai Sugiyama.

The day session on Tuesday, July 28 will feature No. 4 seed Jelena Jankovic taking the court against a tournament qualifier in the third match on Stadium Court. That match will be followed by No. 2 seed Venus Williams against Canadian wildcard entry Stephanie Dubois.

Tuesday’s evening session will open with top-seed Serena Williams facing Chinese star Li Na at 7 p.m.

The remaining first round schedule will be announced on Sunday, July 26.

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Nikolay Davydenko reached his first final of an injury-hit season with a 7-5 7-6 (7/2) victory over David Ferrer at the International German Open in Hamburg.

The Russian second seed fought back from 5-2 down in the opening set with five straight games and then edged a close second set to see off the sixth seed.

Davydenko, whose last title came in Warsaw last June, missed three months of the season with a heel injury.

The world number 12 will face Paul-Henri Mathieu in Sunday’s final after he fought back from a set and a break down to beat qualifier Pablo Cuevas 4-6 6-3 7-5.

The Uruguayan had beaten three seeds to reach the last four and recovered from 2-5 down in the decider to level at 5-5 only for 13th seed Mathieu to pull away again.

The Frenchman last reached a ATP Tour final in Metz last year, when he lost to Dmitry Tursunov, and he said: “It’s a good week so far but for sure you want to win when you are in the final.”

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The semifinal line-up was set at the Banka Koper Slovenia Open on Friday, with two players breaking through to the last four for the first time on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. The other two contenders are rather more experienced at this stage of proceedings: top seed Dinara Safina and defending champion Sara Errani, the No.5 seed this week.

The first of the semifinal debutantes to win through was Alberta Brianti of Italy, whose previous best effort was a quarterfinal run at Kolkata in 2006. Pushing veteran status at the age of 29, Brianti has been in good form of late, winning her way through qualifying at Wimbledon. Today she put on an assured display to dispatch France’s Camille Pin in straight sets, 63 62.

“I played well since the beginning, I tried to lead the match and it went well,” said Brianti, who is currently ranked No.106. “I’m happy to have reached the semifinals.”

The other semifinal pits Swiss 19-year-old Stefanie Voegele, who reached her first Tour quarterfinal at Birmingham in June and has gone one step better here, against Errani.

“I played a good match, concentrating on every point – I will have to do the same in the semifinal and we will see what happens,” said 87th-ranked Voegele after her 49-minute, 61 61 defeat of Paraguyan 33-year-old Rossana de los Ríos, who had been gunning for her third Tour semifinal, but first since 2001.

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