Russian PROsport magazine’s August 3rd issue features Svetlana Kuznetsova. The photos have turned out to be quite beautiful. Last December, PROsport also had a great photo session with Vera Zvonareva.

What the world has been waiting for…  Roger Federer has posted the first photo of his twin girls on his Facebook page. The photo was taken by his father.

Tennis player Maria Sharapova with an annual income of $22 million tops the list of the 50 powerful Russian celebrities. She is followed by football forward Andrei Arshavin with over $7 million. There are 19 newcomers on the list among whom are Dinara Safina (16th, $4.5 million), and Vera Zvonareva (42nd, $2,4 million). Elena Dementieva was the 19th ($1.9 million) and Svetlana Kuznetsova was 33rd ($3 million). The rankings were estimated based on earnings, media exposure and search terms on Yandex Russian search engine.

Interestingly Maria was also the only Russian ranked at 76th on the Forbes’ 100 Celebrities list 2009. It should be noted that Maria was sidelines for nine months by the shoulder injury.  Despite her absence from the courts, her web rank was 15. Not bad ha?

Read more about Maria’s celebrity power here, and here.

World number 1 Roger Federer proudly announced on his website the arrival of his twin girls Charlene Riva and Myla Rose who were born Thursday night in Switzerland:

“This is the greatest day of our lives. Mirka, Myla and Charlene are all healthy and doing very well.”

Congratulations to Roger and Mirka!

(Photo: Getty)

It is good to be Serena Williams. AP says President Barack Obama and his family welcomed the Wimbledon champion Serena Williams to the White House yesterday.
“It was amazing. I love President Obama; he has such an unbelievable presence, and he seems to be so normal — and he noticed my shoes. I think that was the highlight of the whole day, was he liked my shoes.”

“He asked me, ‘Should I be wearing high heels?’ So I thought that was kind of funny because he may have been right,” Williams said. “Because it is a job hazard for me, but I insist on wearing them.”

Williams also had an opportunity to meet the First Lady and the rest of Obamas including Bo Obama:

“I didn’t know she had such an amazing personality. She had me cracking up and laughing. I knew she was a great person, but now I really understand how important this first family is to the United States. And the kids were just so cute and sweet, and the dog was nice.”

[TIB: Here is Serena’s reaction to Barack Obama’s election.]

Serbian media are speculating that Novak Djokovic may have already married to his long-time girlfriend Jelena Ristic. Here are some photos of Novak who spotted vacationing with girlfriend Jelena in Portofino, Italy. But vacationing is not the only reason that’s fueling the rumors. It is believed that the couple is set to embark on a month-long journey aboard a luxury Manhattan 60 yacht which Novak was reportedly reserved a year ago. I guess we have to wait and see if he is following the footsteps of Roger Federer and Andy Roddick.

More photos after the cut… Read more »

Andy Roddick interview

Wimbledon, July 05, 2009

Q. Did you just lose to the world’s greatest tennis player ever?

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah.

Q. Can you talk about when you were sitting in the chair and the crowd was chanting your name, what did that mean to you?

ANDY RODDICK: That was nice. You know, it showed that they appreciated I guess what we did out there today. You know, it was definitely a nice and appreciated gesture by them.

Q. How is it possible to hold your concentration? You served from behind on 10 occasions with the title at stake.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, you just keep going. I mean, you don’t really — looking back it seems like a lot, but each time it was just a point, and then another one and then another one. I guess it added up after a while.

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Roger Federer interview
Wimbledon Final, July 5, 2009.

Q. How hard was that compared to other finals you have played here?

ROGER FEDERER: It was difficult, because I thought Andy played great. You know, I mean, I’m obviously ?? I know how it is to play a Wimbledon final. I know how it is to play a fifth set in the final, in a Wimbledon final.

But it felt different. It was so different to what I experienced the last few years with Rafa, you know, where it was a baseline game. Today it was a serve and return game, which is more classical for grass.

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And here is Elena Dementieva’s interview after losing Serena Williams in a dramatic Wimbledon thriller. Jon Wertheim twitted about it: “just out of dementieva presser…that, friends, is class.”

Q. Is it a match you thought on merit you should have won?

ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Well, I think it was a very close match, and I think we both were playing very well today. It was a good fight.

Actually, I feel very satisfied the way I was playing today. The only regret I have, maybe I should take a little bit more risk on match point, should go down the line.

But overall it was a good match.

Q. Do you think this is the best match ever you have played on grass?

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Venus Williams’ interview after blowing world No. 1 Dinara Safina away 6-1, 6-0
Q. Was that one of your easiest passages through to a final?VENUS WILLIAMS: Yes, it was very successful for me. I was really pleased with my form. Of course, playing against the No. 1 player in the world, it’s exciting to play so well.

So, I mean, obviously I had to work hard for it, but I was able to do a lot of the right things today.

Q. Was it near perfect?

VENUS WILLIAMS: You know what, uhm, I don’t know if there’s such a thing as perfect for an athlete, but I felt happy with it. And I felt like my performance has been building each round better and better. So it felt good to play even better today.

Q. Today do you think you were 6?1, 6?Love stronger than Safina, or something happened to her? The score is very strange.

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