As a person who calls Luxembourg my current home, I am particularly thrilled about this one. Qualifier Gilles Muller from Luxembourg has put his tiny country on the tennis map. Muller is the first player from Luxembourg to reach the last eight of a grand slam when he stunned number 5 seed Russian Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (10) at the U.S. Open. New York Times covers the story. Muller’s full interview is here.

The 130th-ranked Muller will play Roger Federer in the quarter-finals. GO Luxembourg! You can do it!

We have officially reached to the point where Russian players start eliminating each other at Australian Open.

First Elena Vesnina was crashed out of the event by fellow Russian Maria Sharapova 3-6, 0-6. The winner of the next all-Russian match was Maria Kirilenko. She successfully eliminated sixth-seeded Anna Chakvetadze.

More Russian duels are on the way. Maria Sharapova faces another tough Russian on the fourth round namely eleventh-seeded Elena Dementieva. They have encountered on nine different occasions, with seven victories for Sharapova. In another all-Russian duel, big hitting Nadia Petrova meets Ekaterina Makarova.

On the men’s side, Nikolay Davydenko will play with Mikhail Youzhny.

21 players from Russia have entered the Australian Open for men’s and women’s singles matches. 17 of them have advanced to the second round.

The first round results of the Russian players:

Women’s Singles Winners:

(5) Maria Sharapova (RUS) d. Jelena Kostanic Tosic (CRO) 6-4 6-3

(11) Elena Dementieva (RUS) d. Tzipora Obziler (ISR) 6-2 6-2 Read more »

Maria Sharapova gets mentioned in 2008 World Book Encyclopedia. (Via On the Baseline)

Dinara Safina is one of the players featured in the 2008 Tennis Players to Watch series. (Dinara Safina Makes Her Mark as Russians Continue to Dominate Tennis).

Nikolay Davydenko: World number four player Kolya whines about not being able to relocate to Moscow because he cannot afford an apartment there. Davydenko is a Russian citizen of Ukrainian origin, currently living in Germany, lists tax-haven Monte Carlo as his permanent residence, AND has applied for Austrian citizenship. Talk about Globalization! (Tvoy Den).

Read more »

Russian mafia’s attraction to the world of sports is nothing new. There are many examples how the Russian organized crime has successfully targeted top sports players, has socialized with them, and in some cases established businesses together. Most of these cases have involved hockey players, one of which is world famous Pavel Bure (Anna Kournikova’s ex-boyfriend/fiancé). However, after months of match-fixing allegations in tennis, AFP reports that US tennis legend John McEnroe expressed his concern that organized crime, such as the Russian mafia, could be infiltrating tennis. The outspoken former world number one believes that threats to tennis players or their families could be forcing them into throwing matches. Read more »

Maestro Roger beats Andy again.

Deuce Magazine features Warrior David Ferrer, who conquered Rafa Nadal to play Swiss top gun Federer in Masters Cup final.

Nikolay Davydenko wraps up his Masters Cup performance with a win over Fernando Gonzalez and goes to the Maldives to get some rest before Davis Cup final.

The German Tennis Federation plays down the Tommy Haas poisoning allegations.

Russia’s Davis Cup Captain Shamil Tarpischev reveals some of his secrets on how to motivate a player. In last year’s marathon match between Tursunov and Roddick, Tarpischev told Tursunov to get angry. When exhausted Dima said “I don’t know how,” Tarpischev’s response was: “Imagine, Volkov (another Russian coach) stole your girlfriend.”

Russia’s tennis captain Shamil Tarpischev has decided not to put charismatic Marat Safin on his team’s roaster in the upcoming Davis Cup final against the U.S.

Nikolay Davydenko will lead the Russian team which also includes world number 19 Mikhail Youzhny, Igor Andreev (33) and Dmitry Tursunov (34) for the three-day tie that starts on Nov. 30 in Portland, Oregon.

“There’s no point in drafting Marat to play the Americans. He only began training again this week after an extended break,” Tarpishchev told Reuters.

“But you can always change a player even just before the draw, so there’s is still a small chance that he would be in the team if someone’s injured or is not in top form. Marat might go to Portland anyway. He could be our secret weapon there.”

Read more »

Peter Bodo at Tennis.com discusses on ESPN Tennis site about their recent findings on how efficient the tennis players are on Grand Slams. The rating that they came up with is pretty interesting. Here are some of the surprises and non-surprises that they have unraveled.

Non-Surprises:

Roger Federer (surprise!) is atop the leaderboard, averaging 4.09 wins per Slam. That’s a statement on something many of us forget: Roger’s “slow-start” as an impact player. Those first 16 slams, in which Federer never reached a quarterfinal, pull down his average — although he is still averaging one win per Slam more than did Pete Sampras. The overall Open era leader is Bjorn Borg, with a whopping 5.22 average.And consider this: for all the grief Andy Roddick takes for being unable to beat Federer, or failing to add a second Grand Slam title to his collection, his average of 3.07 wins over 27 majors leaves him third, behind Federer and Rafael Nadal. Dude ain’t into sunscreen, I guess.

Surprises:

David Nalbandian. Despite having a reputation for choking or mailing in sub-par performances at majors, Nalby, while ranked No. 23, has averaged three wins per slam (in 24 appearances). This represents a higher percentage than either James Blake (No. 6, but with a paltry 1.74 wins per slam) or Lleyton Hewitt (now No. 21, but a former No. 1 whose career average in Slams is 2.97).

No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko has played in 27 majors, but his average is an anemic 1.85. It may be cold comfort for Kolya the Obscure, but current No. 12 Ivan Ljubicic stinks out the big joints even worse than Davydenko. Although he finished 2006 at No. 5, Ljubicic doesn’t even average a win per Slam (.97).

The full post is at ESPN Tennis Blog.