Australian Open Fantasy Tennis

I woke up to the news that Novak Djokovic has been kicked out of Australia. I can’t pretend to be sad about that. Not only does it remove a major hurdle for Rafa to win his second Australian Open (although I still think that’s unlikely), but it clarifies the men’s draw for fantasy tennis!

Want to play? You have only a few more hours to pick your fantasy team, so put down your dust mop and get busy!

Go to FanSlam.us. After you log in, you’ll see a long list of contests, most of which are marked “private.” Scroll down past all that, and you’ll come to a second grid marked “Fanslam Calendar: Upcoming Tournaments.” The contests you want are the first two listed, marked “Enter Free.”

You can find the rules on the FanSlam site or in last year’s blog post, Fantasy Tennis Is Here.

In the past, I’ve tried to set up a contest within a contest, with limited (actually, zero) success. I’ll keep trying, though, because one of these days someone will surprise me. If you want to compete within the LittleYellowBall community, set up your fantasy team(s) on FanSlam. Then return here and post your team roster(s) in the comment section. (Yes, there is a comment section. Keep scrolling.)

It’s no use coming to me after the tournament ends, claiming you were player “FedererFan1” on FanSlam and, hey look at that, you just happened to finish in first place. If your picks aren’t posted on LittleYellowBall before the first serve is struck (tonight at 7, EST), you’re out of luck.

In the event of more than one person entering this contest with me (as if), the person with the best result wins. There will be only one winner for each draw.

Here are my picks for the men:

My picks for the men
  • Nadal
  • Auger-Aliassime
  • Bautista Agut
  • Taylor Fritz
  • Alcaraz Garcia
  • De Minaur
  • James Duckworth
  • Andy Murray (a bargain at $5,000!)

And for the women:

My picks for the women
  • Kontaveit
  • Badosa
  • Halep
  • Gauff
  • Anisimova
  • Cornet
  • Keys
  • Kvitova

Winner gets a can of tennis balls—which, of course, will be Triniti balls.

Have fun!!

Friday Fashion Face-off: Best-dressed Man, 2021 US Open

Every slam, it’s the same story. I’m completely blindsided by the first Friday. How can it be time for another best-dressed man contest??

Fortunately, I was sent a gentle reminder by good friend and blog reader Eileen. An avid student of the game, Eileen went to the US Open for the opportunity to study the finer points of strategy and stroke execution. So dedicated is she in her quest for tennis excellence that she even shot some instructional video to continue her studies at home: Continue reading “Friday Fashion Face-off: Best-dressed Man, 2021 US Open”

Throwing Your Boobs

Have we talked about obnoxious match celebrations before? I feel like we have, but I don’t want to scroll through my whole site to figure it out. Besides, we have new, fun material to talk about.

A number of weeks ago, everyone’s favorite love-to-hate player Nick Kyrgios threw some shade at a few of the game’s top stars. He called out Rafa Nadal for being “salty” and Fernando Verdasco for arrogance.

But he saved his best shade for Novak Djokovic:

“I just feel like he has a sick obsession with wanting to be liked. He just wants to be like Roger….This whole celebration thing that he does after matches, it’s like so cringeworthy. It’s very cringeworthy.”

Have you seen Djokovic’s celebratory ritual? I couldn’t help but laugh at Kyrgios’s characterization. Cringing describes my reaction perfectly.

And it’s not just me and Kyrgios. Djokovic’s ridiculous “I give you my heart” pantomime rubs other people the wrong way, too–so much so that someone coined a term for it: Boob throwing. Continue reading “Throwing Your Boobs”

Friday Fashion Face-off: 2019 French Open Best-Dressed Man

We’ve reached the first Friday of the current Slam, the time when we’d normally be considering the nominees for the best-dressed man. I’ve been looking for nominees–truly I have–but they’re plum hard to find this year. The best we may be able to hope for is most adequately dressed man.

Let’s muddle through with what we have, shall we? Continue reading “Friday Fashion Face-off: 2019 French Open Best-Dressed Man”

Friday Fashion Face-off: A Study in Brown

Novak Djokovic’s career has been in something of a tailspin over the last year. Plagued by persistent elbow pain and an admitted drop in motivation, he axed his entire team, including his long-time coach, to shake himself out of his slump. He brought on Andre Agassi as an advisor, only to dump him a few months later.

In the last few weeks, he has reunited with his old coach, and we can only hope he’ll return to form soon. He won a tough three-setter against Kei Nishikori today and looked to be rediscovering some of his old drive.

While I was watching this match, I suddenly noticed another change Djokovic has made. He’s no longer sporting Uniqlo. Instead he’s being sponsored by Lacoste which today outfitted him in this red and white ensemble: Continue reading “Friday Fashion Face-off: A Study in Brown”

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