Wimbledon 2010: Fashion Grades (Gentlemen)

The gentlemen, as usual, have less room for improvisation.

After last year's blingey kit, His Royal Goatness promised that this year's kit would follow the theme: "Less is More". For his warm up kit, he showed up in a mock turtleneck.

And then he narrowly avoided the curse of the tuxedo in his 1st round comeback against Falla.

Kudos to Nike for coming up with a kit that won't make a club player feel like a total wannabee (just a partial one).

Grade: A

The Mallorcan Matador usually tones down his florid kits for SW19. The only hint of color is the hot pink for the swoosh and the neck line. Surely the all-white rules of the AEC are more permissive, no?

Grade: B+

ARod has returned to the tri-colored polo in which he won Miami

While Lacoste is a fairly small fish compared to Nike and Adidas, it's a shame that with its heritage, it can't do more.

Grade: B+

Big Berd's swan-like polo is way too basic. His checkered Back Spin polo (white w/flat pewter) from Roland Garros would have worked better.

Grade: B-

The Djoker cannot be serious with his Sergio Tacchini kit with green piping. I don't think it fits his personality. ST has a white polo with a bold red stripe across that would have bought back the ghost of JMac.

Grade: B+

Despite his new Dunlop contract, Play Station still looks like he rolled out of bed, and has painted his old Prince sticks.

Grade: C

Le Monf's skin is the only color or texture in this sleveless KSwiss kit.

Grade: B-

For his compatriot Ali, why doesn't Adidas prohibit color photos of their player?

Grade: B-

Adidas chooses to obfuscate the pink line under the arms of Britain's hopes for a Slam winner. I'm not sure whether Muzz's pressers bore me more than his kit.

Grade: B-

Wimbledon 2010: Seedings and the Practice Courts

Wimbledon announced its seedings for the championships this year

1 Roger FEDERER (SUI)
2 Rafael NADAL (ESP)
3 Novak DJOKOVIC (SRB)
4 Andy MURRAY (GBR)
5 Andy RODDICK (USA)
6 Robin SODERLING (SWE)
7 Nikolay DAVYDENKO (RUS)
8 Fernando VERDASCO (ESP)
9 David FERRER (ESP)
10 Jo-Wilfried TSONGA (FRA)
11 Marin CILIC (CRO)
12 Tomas BERDYCH (CZE)
13 Mikhail YOUZHNY (RUS)
14 Juan Carlos FERRERO (ESP)
15 Lleyton HEWITT (AUS)
16 Jurgen MELZER (AUT)
17 Ivan LJUBICIC (CRO)
18 Sam QUERREY (USA)
19 Nicolas ALMAGRO (ESP)
20 Stanislas WAWRINKA (SUI)
21 Gael MONFILS (FRA)
22 Radek STEPANEK (CZE)
23 Feliciano LOPEZ (ESP)
24 John ISNER (USA)
25 Ivo KARLOVIC (CRO)
26 Marcos BAGHDATIS (CYP)
27 Thomaz BELLUCCI (BRA)
28 Gilles SIMON (FRA)
29 Ernests GULBIS (LAT)
30 Albert MONTANES (ESP)
31 Philipp KOHLSCHREIBER (GER)
32 Tommy ROBREDO (ESP)

The major departures from the current rankings are: Fed over Rafa even though Rafa is the current world #1, ARod over Sod and Playstation and Ferrer over Tsonga. The Rafa-Fed switch can be explained by Fed's record at Wimbledon as the defending champion, and is really not that significant at the end as they both get their own quarter. ARod's relatively high seeding is due to his status as the runner up last year, but he's probably crossing his finger's that he won't be assigned to Fed's quarter.

BTW, there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth over these departures from the ATP rankings. Some think Rafa is getting dissed. Rest assured, Wimbledon didn't cut a back room deal with the Federer camp: they employ this numerical formula (beautifully explained here): 100% of points from your ATP rankings + 75% of points from your best grass court performance in the past 12 months.

1 Serena WILLIAMS (USA)
2 Venus WILLIAMS (USA)
3 Caroline WOZNIACKI (DEN)
4 Jelena JANKOVIC (SRB)
5 Francesca SCHIAVONE (ITA)
6 Samantha STOSUR (AUS)
7 Agnieszka RADWANSKA (POL)
8 Kim CLIJSTERS (BEL)
9 Na LI (CHN)
10 Flavia PENNETTA (ITA)
11 Marion BARTOLI (FRA)
12 Nadia PETROVA (RUS)
13 Shahar PEER (ISR)
14 Victoria AZARENKA (BLR)
15 Yanina WICKMAYER (BEL)
16 Maria SHARAPOVA (RUS)
17 Justine HENIN (BEL)
18 Aravane REZAI (FRA)
19 Svetlana KUZNETSOVA (RUS)
20 Dinara SAFINA (RUS)
21 Vera ZVONAREVA (RUS)
22 Maria Jose MARTINEZ SANCHEZ (ESP)
23 Jie ZHENG (CHN)
24 Daniela HANTUCHOVA (SVK)
25 Lucie SAFAROVA (CZE)
26 Alisa KLEYBANOVA (RUS)
27 Maria KIRILENKO (RUS)
28 Alona BONDARENKO (UKR)
29 Anastasia PAVLYUCHENKOVA (RUS)
30 Yaroslava SHVEDOVA (KAZ)
31 Alexandra DULGHERU (ROU)
32 Sara ERRANI (ITA)

There are no major departures from the current rankings amongst the ladies. Safina gets no benefit from her grass court performance from last year since she's been off the tour due to injury. And, sadly, Demy is out of Wimbledon due to injury. Some might give Masha and Allez Bitch higher seedings but frankly both are on the comeback trail (Masha due to injury and Allez Bitch due to a return from retirement).

In other news, the Greatest Forehand Shanker is working on his inside out forehand.



He'll need that to avoid all those serves this Mallorcan Lefty likes to hit to his backhand.



Shrieka will need to hit a lot of running forehands as there's a whole new generation who've adopted her ball bashing style.

Roland Garros 2010: Karaoke Grades

It's refereshing to learn that Roland Garros has a tradition of getting the players to karaoke.



It ain't fair that Jumping Jo Willy practices "I Got A Feeling" after he wins any of his matches. A




What do you expect from Nole the king of parody? He roped compatriot Troicki to pretend to be Rafa. Of course, it's pretty hard to keep a straight-face through it all. I'm scarred for life. A-



If you've ever wondered about Muzz's masculinity, look no further. Tough to do MJ's high-voice. Go work on your voice in the off-season and you might getting more fans. B


He's probably too busy changing diapers now or his contribution is being kept under wraps. But I found this contribution from TMF from 2007. No grade.

Roland Garros 2010: Fashion Grades (Men)

As any tennis fan knows, every Grand Slam is a chance for the clothing companies to strut their new stuff. (Yeah, I know pics created via with the help of Photo Shop are already out there). So here come fashion grades.



I like the Bluegrass color of Federer's shirt and bandanna. The stripes on the sleeve do add a tasteful departure from his mostly classical/conservative kits. I have to give some credit to Nike for trying something different with a fade on his shoes. A club player could be comfortable buying this. B+



Rafa has always had the edgier designs from Nike. Last year, by decking him in polos, Nike attempted to make Rafa's kits more grown up. This year they've put him in crews and restored some the edginess. They're playing a delicate balance between edgy and grown up. This one succeeds. A.



A ball kid was asked to step in to play. The orange on Tsonga is the only variation of the same cut and style of every crew that Adidas has done the last few years. Ok, they've added a black or white line. Otherwise, total bore. C



Nothing really new here as Nando has been wearing this blue kit with diagonol stripes the entire clay court season. It's nice of Adidas to try a different pattern, but can't they do something different for a Slam? B-



Adidas, didn't you sign Muzz to a $5 million/year deal? Muzz may be ugly, and folks might want to punch out his teeth, but can a change of colors be that hard? Epic fail for not changing his kit since January. F



The fadeaway from white to blue on the Djoker's polo suits his flamboyant personality. Sergio Tachini has done the stripes across the chest since forever.
I see it working for certain kinds of guys. B+



ARod's Lacoste kit follows the tired theme of navy with white. (BTW, I wonder if ARod changed to a platform stance for his serve). This time we get stripes, and delete the tri-colored stripe on the collar. It's blah! C