French Open champion Rafael Nadal is already preparing hard for the upcoming hard-court season as he hopes to reclaim his spot on top of the ATP rankings at the end of the year.
Nadal, fresh from a first round exit at the hands of Steve Darcis at the Wimbledon Open, is already gearing up for what would be crucial five months of tennis.
After spending eight months of knee rehabilitation, the Spaniard is in position to become world's no.1 player again without worrying to defend a single point in the second half of the tennis year.
Nadal's preparation for the hard-court season, including the US Open championships, has been well documented. He has posted several comments and pictures on his Facebook account, showing him training for the upcoming competition.
"Preparado para entrenar! Ready to Practice," said Nadal in one of his posts on Facebook.
Meanwhile, BBC Radio 5 commentator John Iverdale made a public apology for his sexist comment on Wimbledon Open ladies' singles champion Marion Bartoli of France.
"Do you think Bartoli's dad told her when she was little 'You're never going to be a looker. You'll never be a Sharapova, so you have to be scrappy and fight?'" said the BBC commentator.
Iverdale's comment was seen as a little overboard, but Marion's father did not show any signs of anger towards the BBC commentator and stressed Marion is always beautiful to him.
"I am not angry. She is my beautiful daughter. The relationship between Marion and me has always been unbelievable so I don't know what this reporter is talking about. When she was five years old, she was playing like every kid and having fun on the tennis court," said Marion's father.
Iverdale responded with a public apology:
"The point I was trying to make, in a rather ham-fisted kind of way, was that in a world where the public perception of tennis players is that they're all six-feet-tall Amazonian athletes, Marion - who is the Wimbledon champion - bucks that trend."
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