Andy Roddick Rescues Brooklyn Decker Hilariously From ‘Baby Tarantula’

Brooklyn Decker has an image of being a born and bred Southerner, but the fact is actress still cannot handle the native wildlife.

“No, on the back porch, tarantulas are not okay,” this the Grace and Frankie star shares in a hilarious video posted on her Instagram account of her niggling upon a huge and furry spider. “No, it is a baby tarantula. Get out of here!” Luckily, Decker, who is now 30 years old and born in North Carolina and now lives in Austin, had a less arachnophobic — if the spider wrangler on hand in husband Andy Roddick.
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Nadal Recovering Well

Rafael Nadal appears to be recovering well and he should be fully fit for participating in the US Open which is starting in the last week of this month.

Some more tests have been done on Nadal’s wrist and their results have suggested that the Spaniard is not too far away from getting recovered completely.

There have been doubts over Nadal’s participation at Flushing Meadows since he injured his wrist while playing a backhand shot in one of his practice sessions.

A couple of days back, his coach Toni Nadal had said that he was not sure if the left hander would be able to travel to New York to defend his title.

There was disappointment among Nadal’s fans after that remark of Toni, but, the statement released by the tennis Federation of Spain yesterday would have given them some relief.

That statement read, “A clinical assessment of Rafa’s injury has been done and we believe he is going through his recovery process alright. The condition of his wrist will keep getting assessed on a regular basis.”

Nadal has not stopped training. He has been having a few hits, but, with a wrist bandage on. Recently, on his official account on a social networking site, a snap was uploaded in which he could be seen practicing with his injured wrist bandaged.

Nadal is yet to feature in a competitive match after the Wimbledon Championships from where he had been knocked out by a qualifying teenager who was more than 100 places below him in the world rankings.

The 28-year old was scheduled to play in a couple of hard court tournaments in Toronto and then in Cincinnati ahead of the US Open, but, the wrist injury prevented him from doing so.

Mayer Hopes To Meet Federer

Leonardo Mayer hopes that he would be able to lock horns with his role model Roger Federer at some point of time in future.

Mayer has been active in the professional circuit for the last 11 years, but, he’s never taken Federer on.

Speaking in one of his recent interviews, the 27-year Old Argentinean said, “I have always admired Roger. He’s my hero. I watch his matches since the time I was a teenager. Hopefully, we would be up against each other in future. It’s something that I have been eagerly waiting for. That would be one of the biggest days of my career without a shadow of doubt.”

For Mayer, the 2014 season has been really successful as he has managed to achieve his first ATP glory this season. He defeated the Spaniard David Ferrer a few days ago in Hamburg to lift the trophy there.

When asked if at the start of his career, he had thought that it would take him so long to win his maiden ATP title, Mayer said, “I have won so late due to my injury problems. I have been hit by injuries on a regular basis and thus, it’s been hard for me to train regularly. It’s really satisfying to have finally won today. There is no better feeling than winning a title.”

Before the Hamburg tournament, Mayer had done well in the Wimbledon Championships as well. He had qualified to the fourth round there before suffering defeat against Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.

Mayer’s good form of late has taken him to his career best world ranking of 27. He was not even in top 45 at the start of the Wimbledon Championships.

He would definitely like to keep going in the upward direction in the rankings in the remaining of the season.

ISNER TAKES ON GULBIS

Andy Roddick’s countryman, John Isner, will take on Ernests Gulbis of Latvia in the quarter final round of the ongoing BNP Paribas Open.

Being the local boy, Isner has a slight advantage. He would get the support of the crowd and the form has been on his side too. He has put up some powerful performances on his way to final 8 so far.

In his previous match against Fernando Verdasco, Isner had smashed a total of 10 aces which suggests a thing or two about his current form.

Talking to the reporters ahead of his encounter against Gulbis, the 28 years old American said, “He is a very unpredictable player. He is bubbling with potential, but, you can’t say what kind of performance he is going to produce. He might be sensational or he might be ordinary.  I hope it’s the latter one tomorrow, but, look as I said, he is just brilliant. He can make the match one sided if it’s his day.”

“I think the main feature of his game is his ability of shot making. He gives the ball quite a bit of whack.”

Till date, Isner and Gulbis have gone head to head against each other thrice on the tour and surprisingly, it’s the Latvian who is leading despite him being lower than his American opponent in the ATP rankings. He has won two out of those three encounters.

However, the last match played between these two players had gone Isner’s way. So, the American can take that as a confidence booster for himself. He is the favourite to win this match anyway as he is a better hard court player, but, again, when Gulbis is out there, it’s hard to predict what he will come up with.

HORRIBLE 2013

Andy Roddick’s countryman, Ryan Harrison, had a horrible season in 2013. He lost almost 65% of the matches that he played during the season and he moved down all the way to no. 100 in the world rankings. But, he hasn’t got demoralized by that. He is full of confidence ahead of the 2014 season and he is aiming to make his way into top 10 in the world rankings.

Harrison had burst onto the scene 3 years back in 2010 and he had impressed the pundits with his performance in his debut season. People started considering him a bright prospect and backed him to move up in the world rankings pretty quickly. They were not wrong. Harrison did move up in the rankings in his first couple of seasons. When the 2012 season finished, he was the 43^rd ranked player in the world. But, in the last season, his game deteriorated considerably.

However, Harrison’s supporters still have no doubt about his potential. They believe that the last season was just an aberration and he will bounce back in 2014.

Harrison would be aware of the fact that to prove his supporters right, he will have to make big improvements in his game. He can’t keep playing the way he played in the last season.

Talking to the reporters about the 2014 season, the American player said, “It’s going to be a very important year for me. I want to show the world that I have got the ability to perform well consistently at this level and 2013 was just an aberration.”

“I want to get into the top 10. That’s the ultimate goal and I know I need to be consistent to achieve that goal.”

The good thing for Harrison is that he is just 21 at this point of time and he has got a lot of tennis ahead of him.

WILLIAMS STARTS IN CHINA

Andy Roddick’s countrywoman, Serena Williams, will start her campaign in the China Open 2013 from tomorrow and her opponent in the opening round will be Elena Vesnina of Russia.

This has been a great year for Serena who has been given the top seed in this competition. The American superstar has lifted a total of 9 trophies this year out of which 2 were the Grand Slams.

Serena has played a total of 71 matches this year and has won 67. This clearly suggests how dominating she has been right through the year.

It’s certain now that Serena will be the no. 1 player in the world at the end of this season. It was confirmed by World Tennis Association a couple of days back.

Serena is a professional player since the last 18 years and this is the third time in her career that she will end the season at the top of the rankings.

Yesterday, in an interview, Steffi Graf who currently holds the world record of winning the most number of Grand Slam singles trophies in Women’s tennis said that if Serena maintains her fitness, she can easily go past her.

Graf won 22 Grand Slams, while, Serena currently has 17 only. But, the kind of form she has been in the last couple of years, winning 6 more Grand Slams is not out of her reach; that’s for sure.

On the other hand, Serena’s opponent Vesnina has generally been considered as a doubles specialist. She has started to concentrate on singles matches since the last one year or so and she has actually performed quite well this season. She has lifted a couple of trophies including the one at Hobart at the start of this year.

These two players have faced each other thrice in the past and on all 3 occasions, Serena has been the winner.

On the basis of experience, form and past records, Serena is the clear favourite in this contest. To pull off an upset, Vesnina will have to play out of her skins.