Martina Hingis Wedding Pictures

Martina Hingis wedding pictures were published in a German online publication on Monday - December 13, 2010. The SCHWEIZER-ILLUSTRIERTE Online website featured a photo gallery of Martina Hingis and her husband, Thibauld Hutin, some pictures of which were taken during their "secret wedding" in Paris. Hingis, at age 30 is six years older than her husband who is 24. She will retain her family name. They would like to start a family family in a year or two. The couple have indicated that they would like to settle in Switzerland.

The wedding was celebrated by a small family reception held at the Presidential Suite of Paris's Hotel George V. A wedding banquet is apparently being scheduled for the spring of 2011. The newlyweds are expected to honeymoon in the Maldives.

Hingis and Hutin met at a show-jumping competition in April this year. Hingis has been engaged to marry more than once - first to tennis player Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic and to Swiss attorney Andreas Bieri.

Hingis was a former #1 in women's tennis and she has lifted 5 Grand Slam trophies including the 1997 Wimbledon title. She retired from professional tennis at the age of 22 in 2002 due to injuries. She made a comeback in 2005 but was forced to retire again in 2007 after a failed drug test. She has won 43 WTA singles titles, and has won nine Grand Slam titles in doubles.

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2010 Davis Cup Finals: Serbia wins 1st Davis Cup over France, 3-2

Photo from daviscup.com.

2010 Davis Cup Championship Tie - Belgrade, Serbia
Serbia beats France, 3-2; 2010 Davis Cup Finals - MATCH RESULTS:

Match 1 - G Monfils [FRA] bt J Tipsaveric [SRB] 6-1, 7-6(4), 6-0
Match 2 - N Djokovic [SRB] bt G Simon [FRA] 6-3, 6-1, 7-5
Match 3 - A Clement & M LLodra [FRA] bt N Zimonjic & V Troicki 3-6, 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-5, 6-4
Match 4 - N Djokovic [SRB] bt G Monfils [FRA] 6-2, 6-2, 6-4
Match 5 - V Troicki [SRB] bt M Llodra [FRA] 6-2, 6-2, 6-3

DECEMBER 5, 2010, Sunday - Latest Update: World #30 Victor Troicki beat higher ranked Michael Llodra of France 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 to help Serbia wins its first ever Davis Cup title in its first championship appearance. The host nation trailed 9-time Davis Cup champion France 1-2 after losing the doubles match in the second day of the tie. World #3 Novak Djokovic evened up the series with a victory over French #1 Gael Monfils earlier in the day. That result sent the Davis Cup championship tie into a decider and Troicki overcame youth and inexperience to win in straight sets and hand France it's seventh championship defeat in 16 trips to the finals.



DECEMBER 5, 2010, Sunday: World #3 Novak Djokovic continued his dominance over France's Gael Monfils allowing host Serbia to tie the 2010 Davis Cup championships at 2 matches apiece. Djokovic beat Monfils in straight sets 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 and retains a perfect 6-0 record against the Frenchman. The tie will now depend on the winner of the last rubber. Both teams changed replaced the singles players that lost last Friday and this year's Davis Cup title will now depend on the winner between world #23 Michael Llodra of France and world #30 Victor Troicki of Serbia.

M LLODRA [FRA] vs V TROICKI [SRB]
Head-to-head Record: M Llodra - 0; V Troicki - 0
YTD Titles Won: LLodra - 2; Troicki - 1
Career Titles: LLodra - 5; Troicki - 1

YTD Won/Lost: LLodra - 29/21; Troicki - 36/30
Career Won/Lost: LLodra - 141/165; Troicki - 95/87

Career Prize Money: LLodra - $5,576,618; Troicki - $2,271,208


Photo above is screenshot from atpworldtour.com.

DECEMBER 4, 2010, Saturday: France took the upper hand with a doubles victory in the 2010 Davis Cup finals against Serbia to seize the lead, 2-1. The team of veterans Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra produced a stunning comeback to beat the host team's Nenad Zimonjic and Victor Troicki in the pivotal doubles rubber. The French duo were behind 0-2 but won the last 3 sets to score a captivating 3-6, 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 victory. The one point advantage is critical as France just needs to score a victory in two reverse singles matches tomorrow to win it's 10th Davis Cup title. World #3 Novak Djokovic will go against world #12 Gael Monfils in the fourth match in the tie, while world #49 Janko Tipsaveric will be going against world #42 Gilles Simon. Serbia will have to win both matches tomorrow to win its first ever Davis Cup title.

DJOKOVIC vs MONFILS Head-to-head Record: Djokovic - 5, Monfils - 0
Last Match, US Open 2010 Quarterfinals:
Novak Djokovic bt Gael Monfils 7-6(2), 6-1, 6-2

SIMON vs TIPSAVERIC Head-to-head Record: Simon - 1, Tipsaveric - 0
Last Match, Rotterdam 2008 R16:
Gilles Simon bt Janko Tipsaveric 7-6(4), 7-6(4)

DECEMBER 3, 2010, Friday: France and Serbia split their first two singles matches to end up tied after the first day of the 2010 Davis Cup finals in Belgrade, Serbia. The higher ranked players emerged victorious in convincing three set wins. World #12 Gael Monfils beat world #49 Janko Tipsaveric 6-1, 7-6(4), 6-0 in the first match while world #3 Novak Djokovic beat world #42 Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-1, 7-5 in the second match.


Photo above is screenshot from DavisCup.com.

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Countries with Most Players in Women's Tennis Rankings - Dec 2010

The United States is the country with the most number of players in the top 1000 and top 500 of the WTA women's tennis rankings with Russia in close second in both sets of rankings. However, Russia is still the country to beat having the most players in both the top 200 and top 100. Russia is the only country to place either 1st or 2nd in all ranking sets. The United States was beaten by the Czech Republic in the #2 position for most players in the top 100. Australia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain were the other countries that were included in the top 10 for all ranking sets. See the lists below.

Countries with Most Players in Top 1000 of Women's Tennis Rankings
1.  United States  - 87
2.  Russia         - 81
3.  Japan          - 53
4.  Italy          - 52
5.  France         - 46
6.  Germany        - 41
7.  Australia      - 36
7.  Ukraine        - 36
9.  Spain          - 35
10. Romania        - 33
10. Czech Republic - 33

Countries with Most Players in Top 500 of Women's Tennis Rankings

1.  United States  - 48
2.  Russia         - 46

3.  France         - 26

4.  Italy          - 25

5.  Japan          - 23

5.  Ukraine        - 23

7.  Australia      - 21

8.  Germany        - 20

9.  Czech Republic - 18

9.  Spain          - 18

Countries with Most Players in Top 200 of Women's Tennis Rankings

1.  Russia         - 27

2.  United States  - 16

3.  Czech Republic - 12

4.  France         - 11

5.  Germany        - 10

6.  Italy          - 10

7.  Spain          -  9

8.  Australia      -  7

9.  Romania        -  7

10. Ukraine        -  6

Countries with Most Players in Top 100 of Women's Tennis Rankings

1.  Russia         - 27

2.  Czech Republic - 12

3.  Italy          - 10

3.  United States  - 16

5.  Romania        -  7

5.  Spain          -  9

7.  Belgium        -  4

7.  China          -  4

7.  Germany        -  4

10. Austria        -  3

10. Australia      -  3

10. Serbia         -  3

10. France         -  3

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Google: Top 10 Most Searched Women Tennis Players for 2010

A woman tennis player currently ranked #165 in the tennis rankings is the most searched woman tennis player in 2010 based on Google search volume index. Sania Mirza, India’s most famous sportswoman, beat out more accomplished tennis players such as 13-time Grand Slam titlist Serena Williams, WTA player of the year Kim Clijsters, and world #1 Caroline Wozniacki. Mirza was heavily searched during her April marriage to Shoaib Malik, the former Pakistan cricket captain, and the tumultuous build-up to the event. Pakistan, India, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Poland were the top 5 countries where Mirza was searched.

Last year’s most search woman tennis player, Serena Williams is in second spot behind Mirza. The former world #1 player barely played this year, but her searches peaked in January and July – when she won her 12th and 13th Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, respectively. Williams has not played a WTA tournament since Wimbledon due to a knee injury and has just announced recently that she will not defend her Australian Open title in Melbourne this coming January. Top countries searching for Serena Williams are India, United States, Australia, Belgium, and Canada.

3-time Grand Slam champion and advertising star Maria Sharapova is the third most search tennis player. Peak searches for Sharapova were during her Australian Open campaign (lost in the first round to Maria Kirilenko), her US Open campaign (lost to Wozniacki in fourth round), and her October
engagement to basketball player Sasha Vujacic. Top countries searching for Sharapova are Pakistan, the Philippines, India, Morocco, and Malaysia.

World #4 and 7-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams and tennis glamour girl Anna Kournikova are the fourth and fifth most searched women tennis players. Venus was most searched in South Africa, the United States and Australia while Kournikova was most searched in India, Finland and Australia. Rounding out the top 10 most searched women tennis players are former #1 Ana Ivanovic (#6), current world #1 Caroline Wozniacki (#7), Chinese player Na Li (#8), WTA player of the year and US Open champion Kim Clijsters (#9), and WTA comeback player of the year Justine Henin (#10).

Top 10 Most Searched Women Tennis Players for 2010
Rank – Tennis Player – Google Search Volume Index relative to Mirza


 1 Sania Mirza           1.00
 2 Serena Williams       0.75
 3 Maria Sharapova       0.55
 4 Venus Williams        0.50
 5 Anna Kournikova       0.40
 6 Ana Ivanovic          0.35
 7 Caroline Wozniacki    0.30
 8 Na Li                 0.20
 9 Kim Clijsters         0.15
10 Justine Henin         0.15

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Which is more popular - Men's Tennis or Women's Tennis?

Google Trends is showing that based on Internet traffic, the ATP tour website is more popular than the WTA tour website. In the past 12 months, Google Trends data shows that the number of unique visitors to the www.atpworldtour.com website, the official website of the ATP Tour, is more than twice as much as the number of unique visitors to www.wtatour.com - the official website of the WTA tour. See graph below. Of course, one may argue that website visitors may not necessarily translate to actual popularity between the two tennis tours, but its nevertheless a good indicator. What's surprising is the discrepancy. A 25% to even 50% difference between website visitors sounds more plausible, but twice as much? Then again, the WTA Tour website has considerably less content and is definitely less interactive than the ATP Tour website.

TOP 10 Countries visiting the ATP Tour website:
1. United States
2. United Kingdom
3. Spain
4. China
5. Italy
6. Japan
7. Canada
8. Argentina
9. France
10. India

TOP 10 Countries visiting the WTA Tour website:
1. Japan
2. United States
3. Denmark
4. Italy
5. United Kingdom
6. Russia
7. Serbia
8. Germany
9. Poland
10. Israel

Five observations on the countries visiting the WTA and ATP websites:

- China is more interested in men's tennis than women's tennis but not a single Chinese man is in the top 100.

- Would Denmark rank as high as #3 without Caroline Wozniacki? How about Japan? Is the interest all because of Kimiko Date-Krumm?

- I was expecting Russia to have more Internet visitors to the WTA website.

- Germany is not ranked in the top 10 for the ATP tour despite German players occupying 10 slots in the top 100 of men's tennis.

- Is Andy Murray generating more interest in tennis in the UK than Rafael Nadal is doing in Spain?

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ATP Men's Tennis Career Prize Money Rankings - December 2010

View Latest Updates on Men's Tennis Career Prize Money Leaders - 2012 Updates | View Latest Women's Tennis Career Prize Money Leaders - 2012 Updates.

Roger Federer set another tennis record by becoming the first tennis player to earn more than $60 million in career prize money. In the latest ATP Career Prize Money Rankings released by the atpworldtour.com website, the Swiss #2, leads 7 active players in the top 20 list of career prize money earners in men's tennis. Federer also holds the record with the most number of Grand Slam titles by a male tennis player, having won his 16 Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January.

American legend and 14-time major winner Pete Sampras is at #2 in the career prize money rankings with $43.28 million. His slot is being threatened by world #1 Rafael Nadal who has so far won $35.80 million. Nadal won more than $8 million in prize money this year, to go from #4 last year to #3. He now trails Sampras by less than $8 million and if he replicates his year-to-date earnings this year, he can surpass Sampras to claim the number two spot next year.

Rounding out the top 5 career prize money earners are retired players Andrei Agassi of the USA and Boris Becker of Germany. Novak Djokovic of Serbia, the current #3-ranked player is the only other active player in the top 10. He occupies the tenth spot with $19.76 million. One other active players is likely to join the top 10 by end of next year. Andy Roddick of the USA is at #12 with $19.03 million and trails retired Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia by less than $0.80 million. Ivanisevic currently occupies the 9th spot in the career prize money rankings.

Other active players in the top 20 are Lleyton Hewitt of Australia with $18.84 million (#13), Nikolay Davydenko of Russia with $14.19 million (#17), and Andy Murray of the United Kingdom with $13.47 million (#19). Recently retired Carlos Moya of Spain occupies the 20th spot with $13.44 million.

The top career prize money earner without a singles Grand Slam championship is doubles specialist Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden. He occupies the 15th spot with $14.60 million. The top career prize money earner who never reached the #1 ranking is Goran Ivanisevic.

Below is the ATP Career Prize Money Rankings as of December 2010.

1 Federer,  Roger                     $60,060,358

2 Sampras,  Pete                      $43,280,489

3 Nadal,  Rafael                      $35,796,162

4 Agassi,  Andre                      $31,152,975

5 Becker,  Boris                      $25,080,956

6 Kafelnikov,  Yevgeny                $23,883,797

7 Lendl,  Ivan                        $21,262,417

8 Edberg,  Stefan                     $20,630,941

9 Ivanisevic,  Goran                  $19,876,579

10 Djokovic,  Novak                   $19,762,956

11 Chang,  Michael                    $19,145,632

12 Roddick,  Andy                     $19,026,697

13 Hewitt,  Lleyton                   $18,843,702

14 Kuerten,  Gustavo                  $14,807,000

15 Bjorkman,  Jonas                   $14,600,323

16 Safin,  Marat                      $14,373,291

17 Davydenko,  Nikolay                $14,187,891

18 Courier,  Jim                      $14,034,132

19 Murray,  Andy                      $13,467,298

20 Moya,  Carlos                      $13,443,970

21 Ferrero,  Juan  Carlos             $13,320,292

22 Stich,  Michael                    $12,595,128

23 McEnroe,  John                     $12,552,132

24 Muster,  Thomas                    $12,240,574

25 Henman,  Tim                       $11,635,542

26 Bruguera,  Sergi                   $11,632,199

27 Rafter,  Patrick                   $11,127,058

28 Enqvist,  Thomas                   $10,461,641

29 Korda,  Petr                       $10,448,900

30 Corretja,  Alex                    $10,411,354

31 Nalbandian,  David                 $10,391,107

32 Woodbridge,  Todd                  $10,095,245

33 Krajicek,  Richard                 $10,077,425

34 Santoro,  Fabrice                  $10,021,132

35 Haas,  Tommy                       $9,979,980

36 Ferreira,  Wayne                   $9,969,617

37 Rios,  Marcelo                     $9,713,771

38 Ljubicic,  Ivan                    $9,289,549

39 Ferrer,  David                     $9,250,842

40 Nestor,  Daniel                    $9,140,752

41 Rusedski,  Greg                    $8,944,841

42 Mirnyi,  Max                       $8,894,949

43 Robredo,  Tommy                    $8,732,363

44 Gonzalez,  Fernando                $8,731,544

45 Soderling,  Robin                  $8,699,288

46 Connors,  Jimmy                    $8,641,040

47 Woodforde,  Mark                   $8,571,605

48 Martin,  Todd                      $8,254,455

49 Grosjean,  Sebastien               $8,131,803

50 Wilander,  Mats                    $7,976,256

51 Youzhny,  Mikhail                  $7,889,433

52 Haarhuis,  Paul                    $7,749,011

53 Costa,  Albert                     $7,685,228

54 Novak,  Jiri                       $7,618,613

55 Bryan,  Bob                        $7,504,069

56 Kiefer,  Nicolas                   $7,480,465

57 Berdych,  Tomas                    $7,317,211

58 Bryan,  Mike                       $7,275,146

59 Schuettler,  Rainer                $7,193,528

60 Johansson,  Thomas                 $7,168,029

61 Verdasco,  Fernando                $7,090,545

62 Hrbaty,  Dominik                   $7,065,241

63 Blake,  James                      $7,044,262

64 Philippoussis,  Mark               $6,985,202

65 Pioline,  Cedric                   $6,921,029

66 Knowles,  Mark                     $6,873,103

67 Rosset,  Marc                      $6,812,693

68 Clement,  Arnaud                   $6,790,290

69 Del Potro,  Juan Martin            $6,775,148

70 Medvedev,  Andrei                  $6,721,560

71 Stepanek,  Radek                   $6,677,713

72 Lapentti,  Nicolas                 $6,313,898

73 Gaudio,  Gaston                    $6,064,696

74 Paes,  Leander                     $5,986,439

75 Coria,  Guillermo                  $5,915,620

76 Hlasek,  Jakob                     $5,895,293

77 Larsson,  Magnus                   $5,839,451

78 Damm,  Martin                      $5,721,417

79 Forget,  Guy                       $5,669,934

80 Melzer,  Jurgen                    $5,638,437

81 Llodra,  Michael                   $5,576,618

82 Gilbert,  Brad                     $5,509,060

83 Chela,  Juan Ignacio               $5,432,391

84 Bhupathi,  Mahesh                  $5,388,860

85 Jarryd,  Anders                    $5,378,067

86 Lopez,  Feliciano                  $5,366,816

87 Sanchez,  Emilio                   $5,339,395

88 Mantilla,  Felix                   $5,332,214

89 Canas,  Guillermo                  $5,285,575

90 Wheaton,  David                    $5,238,401

91 Pavel,  Andrei                     $5,225,028

92 Zimonjic,  Nenad                   $5,199,653

93 Schalken,  Sjeng                   $5,192,798

94 Black,  Byron                      $5,159,775

95 Tsonga,  Jo-Wilfried               $5,126,316

96 Kucera,  Karol                     $5,061,125

97 Spadea,  Vincent                   $5,012,880

98 Eltingh,  Jacco                    $4,926,864

99 Vilas,  Guillermo                  $4,923,882

100 Nieminen,  Jarkko                 $4,897,610

The ATP Career Prize Money Rankings is published by the atpworldtour.com website.

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