WORLD SPORTS STARS: October 2010

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Dirk Nowitzki best

Dirk Werner Nowitzki (German pronunciation: [ˈdɪʁk ˈweʁnɐ noˈvitski]) (born June 19, 1978) is a German professional basketball player who plays for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). An alumnus of Röntgen Gymnasium and DJK Würzburg basketball club, Nowitzki was drafted ninth overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1998 NBA Draft, and was immediately traded to the Mavericks, where he has played ever since. Standing at 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m), Nowitzki plays the power forward position but also has the mobility, size, and shooting ability to play the other frontcourt positions, center and small forward.

Nowitzki has led the Mavericks to ten consecutive NBA Playoffs (2000–01 to 2009–10), including a Conference Finals appearance in 2003 and an NBA Finals appearance in 2006. He is a nine-time NBA All-Star and ten-time member of the All-NBA Teams, and is the first European-born player in NBA history to receive the NBA Most Valuable Player award.[2] He is the first Maverick ever to be voted into an All-NBA Team and also holds several all-time Mavericks franchise records.[3]

Nowitzki led the German national basketball team to a bronze medal in the 2002 FIBA World Championship and the silver medal in EuroBasket 2005, and was leading scorer and elected Most Valuable Player in both tournaments. Regarded as one of the best European players in basketball history, Nowitzki was named the Euroscar European Basketball Player of the Year by the Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport for five years in a row, the Mister Europa European Player of the Year by the Italian sports magazine Superbasket in 2005, and the FIBA Europe Basketball Player of the Year the same year.[3]
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Early years
* 2 DJK Würzburg (1994–98)
* 3 Dallas Mavericks (1998–present)
o 3.1 Difficult start (1998–99)
o 3.2 Mark Cuban and the "Big Three" (1999–2004)
o 3.3 Franchise player (2004–present)
* 4 International career
* 5 Player profile
o 5.1 NBA career statistics
+ 5.1.1 Regular season
+ 5.1.2 Playoffs
* 6 Personal life
* 7 Books
* 8 See also
* 9 Notes
* 10 External links

[edit] Early years

Born in Würzburg, Germany, Nowitzki comes from an athletic family: his mother Helga was a professional basketball player and his father Jörg-Werner was a handball player who represented Germany at the highest international level.[4] His older sister Silke, a local champion in track and field, also became a basketball player and now works for the NBA in International TV.[3][5] Nowitzki was a very tall child; most of the time he stood above his peers by a foot or more.[4] He initially played handball and tennis, but soon grew tired of being called a "freak" for his height and eventually turned to basketball.[6] After joining the local DJK Würzburg, the 15-year-old attracted the attention of former German international basketball player Holger Geschwindner, who spotted his talent immediately and offered to coach him individually two to three times per week. After getting both the approval of Nowitzki and his parents, Geschwindner put his pupil through an unorthodox training scheme: he emphasized shooting and passing exercises, and shunned weight training and tactical drills, because he felt it was "unnecessary friction".[7] Furthermore, Geschwindner encouraged Nowitzki to play a musical instrument and read literature to make him a more complete personality.[7]

After a year, the coach was so impressed that he said to his pupil: "You must now decide whether you want to play against the best in the world or just stay a local hero in Germany. If you choose latter, we will stop training immediately, because nobody can prevent that anymore. But if you want to play against the best, we have to train on a daily basis." After pondering for two days, Nowitzki decided on the former. Geschwindner let him train seven days a week with DJK Würzburg players and future German internationals Robert Garrett, Marvin Willoughby and Demond Greene, and in the summer of 1994, the 16-year-old Nowitzki made the DJK squad.[8]
[edit] DJK Würzburg (1994–98)

When Nowitzki joined the team, DJK played in the Second Bundesliga, South Division. His first trainer was Pit Stahl, who played the tall teenager as an outside-scoring forward rather than an inside-scoring center to utilise his shooting skills.[9] In the 1994–95 Second Bundesliga season, ambitious DJK finished as a disappointing sixth of 12 teams; the rookie Nowitzki was often benched and struggled with bad school grades, which forced him to study rather than work on his game.[10] In the next 1995–96 Second Bundesliga season, Nowitzki established himself as a starter next to Finnish star forward Martti Kuisma and soon became a regular double-digit scorer: after German national basketball coach Dirk Bauermann saw him score 24 points in a DJK game, he stated that "Dirk Nowitzki is the greatest German basketball talent of the last 10, maybe 15 years". DJK finished second in the South Division, but could not earn promotion after losing 86–62 in the deciding match versus BG Ludwigsburg: in that game, Nowitzki scored only eight points.[11]

In the 1996–97 Second Bundesliga season, the team's top scorer Kuisma left the team, and Holger Geschwindner replaced Pit Stahl as head coach. Filling Kuisma's void, Nowitzki averaged 19.4 points per game and led DJK again to second place after the regular season, but could not help his team gain promotion.[12] In the following 1997–98 Second Bundesliga season, Nowitzki finished his "Abitur" (German A-levels), but had to do his compulsory military service in the Bundeswehr (German Military) which lasted from September 1, 1997 to June 30, 1998;[3] Nowitzki described this period as "a tough time at first, we had no privileges and had to participate in all the drills... later [after finishing the tough "Grundausbildung", the most intensive initial part of the service] it was much more relaxed".[13] Concerning basketball, the 18-year old, who had grown to 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) tall, forward flourished further, leading DJK to a 36:4 point total (in Germany, a victory gives 2:0 points and a loss 0:2) and ending as leading scorer with 28.2 points per game. In the promotion playoffs, DJK finally broke its bane, finishing at first place with 14:2 points and earning promotion; Nowitzki scored 26 points in the deciding 95–88 win against Freiburg and was voted "German Basketballer of the Year" by the German BASKET magazine.[14]

Abroad, Nowitzki's progress did not go unnoticed. In 1996, FC Barcelona Bàsquet wanted to sign him, but Nowitzki refused to move before finishing his German A-levels.[15] A year later, the teenager participated in the Nike "Hoop Heroes Tour", where he played against NBA stars like Charles Barkley and Scottie Pippen. In a 30-minute show match, Nowitzki outplayed Barkley and even dunked on him, causing the latter to exclaim: "The boy is a genius. If he wants to enter the NBA, he can call me."[16] On March 29, 1998, Nowitzki was chosen to play in the Nike Hoop Summit, one of the premier talent watches in U.S. men's basketball. In a match between the U.S. talents and the international talents, Nowitzki scored 33 points on 6-of-12 shooting, 14 rebounds and 3 steals for the internationals[3] and outplayed future US NBA stars Rashard Lewis and Al Harrington. He impressed with an array of quickness, ball handling, and shooting range, and from that moment on a multitude of European and NBA clubs wanted to recruit him.[17]

Dirk Nowitzki

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Caroline Wozniacki b.f.t.s

Caroline Wozniacki born 11 July 1990, is a Danish tennis player. As of 11 October 2010 (2010 -10-11)[update], she is ranked World No. 1 on the WTA Tour. She has won twelve WTA singles titles and was the runner-up at the 2009 US Open.
Contents
* 1 Career
o 1.1 2006
o 1.2 2007
o 1.3 2008
o 1.4 2009
o 1.5 2010
* 2 Equipment
* 3 Career statistics
o 3.1 Grand Slam finals
+ 3.1.1 Singles: 1 (0–1)
* 4 Singles performance timeline
* 5 Awards
* 6 Playing style
* 7 Personal life
* 8 References
* 9 External links
Career
Wozniacki has won several junior tournaments (including the 2006 Wimbledon girls' singles tournament and the 2005 Orange Bowl tennis championship), and made her debut on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour at Cincinnati's Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open on 19 July 2005, losing to the top-seeded and later champion Patty Schnyder in the first round.
2006
In 2006, she was the first seed at the Australian Open (junior girls' singles), but lost the final to eight-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia. She was seeded second with Anna Tatishvili in the doubles tournament, but the pair was knocked out in the semifinals by the French-Italian pair of Alizé Cornet and Corinna Dentoni, who were seeded eighth.
In February in Memphis, she reached her first WTA Tour quarterfinal, beating Kristina Brandi and Ashley Harkleroad in the first two rounds before losing to third-seeded Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden.
, Wozniacki won the Liverpool International Tennis Tournament beating Ashley Harkleroad in the finals.
Later that year, she was given a wildcard to the 2006 Wimbledon Championships senior qualifying tournament, where she was beaten in the first qualifying round by Miho Saeki. However, Wozniacki went on to win the girls' singles tournament, beating Slovak Magdaléna Rybáriková in the finals.
In August, she reached another WTA Tour quarter-final, this time at the Nordea Nordic Light Open in Stockholm. She defeated top 100 players Iveta Benešová and Eleni Daniilidou before falling to eventual champion and third-seeded Jie Zheng.
Wozniacki was seeded second in the year's last major tournament, the 2006 US Open – Girls' Singles. In the first round on 3 September she won the first set against Russian Alexandra Panova, but was disqualified in the second set for verbally abusing an umpire. Wozniacki was said to have used an expletive in referring to a linesman who made a disputed call; however, on her blog, she claimed to say "take your sunglasses of [sic]" and to be mistaken for talking to the linesman when she was criticizing herself after the next point.
In her last junior tournament, the Osaka Mayor's Cup, she won the girls' singles and doubles.
Her first senior title came shortly after on 29 October, when she won the $25,000 ITF-tournament in Istanbul by beating Tatjana Malek in the final.
Wozniacki was set to face Venus Williams on 27 November in an exhibition match in Copenhagen, but five days before the event, Williams canceled because of an injury. The two did, however, face each other in the Memphis WTA Tier III event on 20 February. Williams beat Wozniacki, ending the nine-match winning streak Wozniacki had at the time.
On 30 November, Wozniacki was named ambassador for Danish Junior Tennis by the Culture Minister of Denmark at the time, Brian Mikkelsen.
2007
In early January she played the Hong Kong exhibition tournament Watsons Water Champions Challenge.
On 4 February, she won the singles title in Ortisei, Italy, at an ITF $75,000 tournament, beating the Italian player Alberta Brianti 4–6, 7–5, 6–3. On 4 March, she won the $75,000 ITF tournament in Las Vegas, beating top-seed Akiko Morigami in the final 6–3, 6–2.
She obtained a wild card for the 2007 Pacific Life Open – Women's Singles main draw and made her Tier I-debut there. She was knocked out in the second round by Martina Hingis 6–1, 6–3. The two faced each other again on 27 April in Copenhagen for an exhibition match, where Wozniacki again lost 7–6(7), 3–6, 6–2.
She then made the semifinals of the AIG Open in Tokyo in October, her first career semifinal and also the first Danish woman to reach a WTA semifinal since Tine Scheuer-Larsen in 1986 at Bregenz. Wozniacki lost to Venus Williams 6–3, 7–5.---

Caroline Wozniacki

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Fernando Verdasco

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Tatiana Golovin star is..

Tatiana Golovin (born January 25, 1988) is an inactive Russian-born French professional tennis player. She is best known for winning the 2004 French Open mixed doubles event with Richard Gasquet, and also for reaching the singles quarterfinal at the 2006 U.S. Open, losing to the eventual champion Maria Sharapova. The 22-year-old's highest singles ranking to date is 12.

She was born in Moscow but she moved to Paris with her parents, and attained French citizenship. She has two sisters, Olga and Oxana. She also spent six years at Nick Bollettieri's tennis camp in Bradenton, Florida, and she speaks fluent French, English and Russian. She is currently coached by former World No. 1 Mats Wilander, having previously been coached by Brad Gilbert and Dean Goldfine. She lives in Hampstead, north London with her boyfriend, Arsenal footballer, Samir Nasri.[1]
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Career review
o 1.1 Tour debut (2002–2003)
o 1.2 2004
o 1.3 2005
o 1.4 2006
o 1.5 2007
o 1.6 2008
o 1.7 2009
* 2 Major finals
o 2.1 Grand Slam finals
+ 2.1.1 Mixed doubles: 1 (1-0)
* 3 Career finals
o 3.1 Singles: 7 (2-5)
* 4 Singles performance time line
* 5 References
* 6 External links

[edit] Career review
[edit] Tour debut (2002–2003)

Golovin made her ITF Circuit debut at Cagnes-sur-Mer (France) in 2002. She played in three more ITF events (including one semifinal) later that year, but she failed to qualify for the French Open.

In 2003, Golovin won her first WTA Tour main draw match at Indian Wells against No.146 Gisela Dulko (losing in the second round to Italian Francesca Schiavone). Golovin lost in the first round at Miami, Strasbourg and Roland Garros. She also played in four ITF Circuit events.
[edit] 2004

At the Australian Open, Golovin (as No.354, with wild card) upset No.14 seed Anna Smashnova in the second round and No.23 seed Lina Krasnoroutskaya in the third round (on her 16th birthday), before falling to No.25 seed Lisa Raymond in the fourth round. It was just her second Grand Slam tournament and fifth Tour event she entered, and afterwards, on February 2, she rose to No.136 in the WTA ranking.

At Roland Garros, Golovin won the mixed doubles trophy with Richard Gasquet, as a Wild Card team, defeating Cara Black/Wayne Black. They became the youngest champions in 23 years (16 for Golovin, 17 for Gasquet). At Wimbledon, she reached the fourth round, with wins over Alina Jidkova, Francesca Schiavone, and Emmanuelle Gagliardi, before falling to World No. 10 Serena Williams.

Golovin reached the semifinal at the Paris Indoors, losing to Mary Pierce, after beating world No.10 Elena Dementieva in the quarterfinal for her first Top 10 win. In her first Tour grass court main draw at Birmingham, Golovin reached her first Tour singles final, which she lost to Maria Sharapova in 3 sets. Golovin reached her first Tier I quarterfinal in Montreal at the Rogers Cup, losing to Vera Zvonareva. Afterwards, she also reached the quarterfinal in Luxembourg, losing to eventual champion Alicia Molik.

Golovin was a member of the France Fed Cup team, that defeated Italy in the quarterfinal and Spain in the semifinal, before falling to Russia in the final, in which she defeated No.5 Svetlana Kuznetsova. During the year, she debuted in the Top 100 on February 16 (at No.91), and in the Top 50 on June 14 (at No.50).
[edit] 2005

Aged 17 years and eight months, Golovin reached the final in Tokyo at the Japan Open as No. 3 seed, losing to No. 2 seed Nicole Vaidišová, aged 16 years and five months. Golovin retired with a left achilles tendinitis, trailing 7–6(4) 3–2. She was also five-time semifinalist on four different surfaces: on hardcourt at Gold Coast, losing to Schnyder in 3 sets and later that year again on hardcourt at Seoul, losing to Jelena Janković in three sets; on carpet at Paris Indoors, which was her second straight semifinalthere, losing the third set tie-break against Dinara Safina; clay at Charleston, where she secured her third career Top 10 victory versus No. 8 Venus Williams en route to her first Tier I semifinal, before falling to Justine Henin-Hardenne in 2 sets; and grass at Birmingham, losing to Maria Sharapova.

Golovin also reached the quarterfinal at Linz losing to Ana Ivanović. She achieved a career-best performance at Roland Garros, reaching the third round as No.17 seed, before falling to No.12 seed Elena Bovina, and reaching an equal-best performance at the US Open, losing as No.23 seed in the third round to No.15 seed Nathalie Dechy in three sets. Golovin also made back-to-back fourth round appearances at Tier I hardcourt events in Indian Wells and Miami, losing to No.5 Elena Dementieva in three sets at both events.

She made her Top 20 debut (at No.18) after her semi-final appearance at Charleston.
[edit] 2006

At her first tournament of the year in Gold Coast, Golovin reached the quarterfinal, losing to finalist Flavia Pennetta in three sets. She then lost in the first round of the Australian Open to Italian Mara Santangelo. Golovin reached her third consecutive Paris Indoors semifinal, defeating Nadia Petrova 3–6, 7–6(7), 6–3 in the quarterfinal, saving match point down 7–6 in tie-break. The victory over world No. 7 Petrova was the fourth top 10 win of her career. She then lost to top seed and eventual champion Amélie Mauresmo 7–6(5) 5–7 2–6 in the semi's, having held 4–2 second-set lead and a match point while serving for the match at 5–4.

Golovin reached her second career Tier I semifinal at Miami, where she defeated world No.8 Elena Dementieva in the fourth round for the fifth career top 10 victory and 100th career singles match win. In the semifinal, Golovin overcame a 5–1 deficit and four match points while down 5–3 in second set versus Maria Sharapova, pushing the match to a third set before she sprained her left ankle and retired at 3–6 7–6(5) 3–4.[2] She made her return to the WTA Tour at Roland Garros, falling in the first round to Jie Zheng. Golovin went 2–1 in France's 3–2 Fed Cup World Group I Play-off victory over the Czech Republic.

Golovin's third semifinal of the season was at Stanford, where, as an unseeded player, she upset Ai Sugiyama and Anna-Lena Grönefeld on the way, losing to No. 2 seed Patty Schnyder. Golovin then reached the quarterfinal of the U.S. Open, defeating Nadia Petrova for the second time in 2006 in the third round and Anna Chakvetadze in the fourth. She then lost to No. 3 seed and eventual champion Maria Sharapova 6–7(4), 6–7(0) in over two hours. After a first round exit in Luxembourg following the U.S. Open, Golovin reached her first final since the Japan Open Tennis Championships in 2005 at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart by defeating Elena Likhovtseva in the first round, Iveta Benešová in the second, Michaëlla Krajicek in the quarterfinal, and 5th seed Patty Schnyder in the semifinal. Golovin then lost to Nadia Petrova 3–6 6–7 in the final.

At the Zürich Open, Golovin reached the second round, defeating Nicole Vaidišová (6–2, 6–0) in the first, before retiring with a foot injury against Maria Kirilenko while leading 4–2 in the fist set.dth: 327px; height: 489px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSTBl89z-UHW_is1WNRJ5dwkgDXRk6A8bfQxgNbzEuJShpwpV6GR2CYC2spHnCljaL4veeh4zvmJvQYNvUqHzhoGYskpCnfcjdfcsPXaEyCwaAw5K-_4CqcwUcG15mb6J9RPFyxe4txhA/s400/Tatiana+Golovin4.jpg" alt="" border="0" />Tatiana Golovin