It was announced on Friday that teen tennis prodigy Jennifer Capriati and former #1 ranked player in the world will be inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame.

Capriati burst on the seen as a powerful 13-year-old groundstoker and was a force to be reckoned with winning 14 singles titles including 3 major championships (Australian Open in 2001, 2002 and French Open, 2001). Capriati also won a gold medal in 1992 at the Barcelona Games and completed her career with a match record of 430-176.

Roger Federer wants everyone to know he’s on vacation and that he can open his eyes under water.

“Just finishing up my vacation and sending everyone greetings from under the water!” — Roger Federer

What’cha gonna do when the largest arms in the tennis world run wild….on YOU! (Hulkster voice)

It looks as though this whole breakup with Drake has Serena Williams pretty bummed out. This is what Serena had to say after winning her first match of 2012 at the Brisbane International.

“I don’t love tennis today. I’ve actually never liked sports, and I never understood how I became an athlete. I don’t like working out; I don’t like anything that has to do with working physically.”

Good luck this year, Serena.

Forever Young

Imagine my shock when I researched Anna Kournikova this week and found out that she just turned 30. In many ways, that kind of sums her up. None of the numbers associated with her matter much, long as she’s looking the way she is in the picture above.

The former tennis pro last played in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tour in 2003, and is probably most famous for having never won a singles tournament her entire career.

This stat baffles me. It did before, it does now. For a professional tennis player of her skills to never win one tournament, just any tournament, says a lot about what she wasn’t as an athlete.

But then again, Kournikova’s whole narrative has always been more aesthetic than athletic. She brought many new fans to the sport. To follow her tennis career was just an excuse to watch a beautiful girl swing a racket. You just felt less guilty and sexist.

Kournikova was a sensation, despite the lack of a winning record, she made millions of endorsements usually reserved for you know, successful athletes. No matter though, her ascension via physical appearance is rivaled by few, if any. One time, a towel boy at the Australian Open was offered $63 for a sweat-soaked Kournikova towel. The most ridiculous part of the story is that the towel boy said no.

But it wouldn’t be fair to say that Kournikova was just another athlete. She was one of a kind in many ways. No other female athlete took their popularity and made a career on the sheer power of attraction. Kournikova changed the dynamic of what it meant to be a successful athlete. You didn’t need to be good at your sport, you just needed to brand yourself appropriately.

Asked about her shortcomings as a tennis player, Kournikova expressed no regrets: “In a perfect world, would I have won a tournament? Yes. But I wasn’t able to string those matches together. Sometimes I got unlucky, and sometimes I just lost. Regrets? Not a thing. Except to be a little stronger physically. Come on, regrets? I grew up a little girl in the Soviet Union playing at a small sports club. Tennis gave me my life.”

Kournikova is very aware of who she is and who she isn’t. Does she deserve such popularity and wealth? I’m not sure why being a lesser player would make you less deserving of either. Is it unfair? I don’t feel like it’s entirely unfair. These are questions that I’m sure everyone has their own answers to.

Anna Kournikova may have never won a tournament as a tennis player, just don’t say she’s never accomplished anything.

- steven lebron

Follow @steven_lebron on twitter.

Awkward photo of the day: Yao Ming poses with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Zhang Ze at the 2011 China Open in Beijing.

New athlete power couple nickname alert: Caroline Wozniacki + Rory McIlroy = “Wozzilroy”

Thought this was the U.S. Open not Medieval Times. What’s with the goblet? Oh and yeah, Tommy Lee Jones is looking well.

sanadamojo:

Pretty cool shot of the Roger Federer Nike poster that was seen on TV during Federer’s midnight beat down session of Jaun Monaco.

(Source: theseasonofmists)

Current status at the U.S. Open.

The New York Times has really been steppin’ up their funny game lately. Here’s a slideshow of Andy Samberg re-enacting iconic men’s tennis champions: McEnroe, Agassi, Borg, Connors, and Sampras. (Photo illustration by Walter Iooss Jr. Digital composite by Picturehouse.)