On Sunday November 16, for the first time since the November 4th election, President-Elect Barack Obama and wife Michelle will sit down together for an interview with with CBS's 60 Minutes.
Actual Interview
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"He was better than me in the first two sets, but I took the second one. It was daylight robbery!" Tsonga said. "It's not easy. This is the tournament for the best eight players in the world. Every match is difficult and you've got to give your best to win," Djokovic said. "He had more support from the crowd, but I don't blame them. He's a good player, an interesting player, plays with a lot of emotion. He deserved to win today." Photos By Getty Images
The Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai began a bit rough for France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. You remember, the whole "towelgate" thing? Then there was the very tight loss to Spanaird Juan Martin del Potro 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/5). After having just won the Paris Masters, the tables turned dramatically on Tsonga. All of that drama ended today.
Tsonga, who was already eliminated from competition and having lost the first set, came 
swinging back and stopped a potential clean sweep of the Gold Group by Serbian Novak Djokovic. Tsonga defeated Djokovic 1-6, 7-5, 6-1. The Frenchman fought back in the second set and was a man on fire in the third. It was poetry in motion.
It seems as if ever since his loss in the Australian Open final this year, Tsonga has pretty much had Djokovic's number. This defeat gives Tsonga three wins in a row over the Djokovic after his victories in Bangkok and Paris.
You know a force from heaven. You know something that God made. And Aretha is a gift from God. When it comes to expressing yourself through song, there is no one who can touch her. She is the reason why women want to sing.
"Hey guys,
American Serena Williams shakes her groove thang at the Sony Ericsson end of year party at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel during the Sony Ericsson Championships at the Khalifa Tennis Complex.
Tennis icon and super star Serena Williams will officially visit Kenya for three days this week to officially inaugurate a school built using her funds.
Ms Williams will officially open the Serena Williams Secondary School in Matooni, Makueni constituency in Eastern province, on Friday, November 14.
The school was built through partnership between the Build African Schools initiative - an American non profit making organization - and Hewlett Packard, the world's largest technology firm.
Hewlett Packard, as part of its commitment to support education in developing countries, will install in each school a computer laboratory and classroom, laptop, printers, the World Wide Web, and facilitate training for the teachers and students.
It is the first time for Ms Williams, who is ranked number three in the world, to visit Kenya.
She will be accompanied by among others, her mother.
Mr. Patrick O'Sullivan, Founder and CEO of Build African Schools, said the objective of the Non-Profit Organisation to build primary and secondary schools in marginalized areas to give chance to students to access secondary school education in a bid to empower them.
"We are indeed honored to have Ms Williams visit Kenya at this momentous time in American history when we have a new President elect who has roots in Kenya," said Mr Dickson Mutaiti, the Director of Projects Build African Schools in Kenya.
"During her visit, Ms Williams will officially open a secondary school put up in her name, to give chance to needy primary school students who want to pursue secondary school education," Mr Mutaiti said.
Serena Williams's secondary school is located in Mutyamboa location, Makueni Constituency, near Sultan Hamud Township along the Nairobi Mombasa Road.
The school will give chance to hundreds of primary school pupils in the location to pursue secondary school education.
The area is semi arid, with schools far in and between.
The area suffers from high school drop out rate, and most students are orphans due to the high HIV /Aids prevalence rate in the area.
Build African Schools and HP have joined together since 2004 to help children in Africa have access to education.
The partnership will result in new schools constructed by Build African Schools which will then be fully equipped by Hewlett Packard with their state of the art computers and printers. Solar Power and the internet will also be installed at each school.
By building schools and equipping them with electricity, computers and other teaching aids, Build African Schools and Hewlett Packard offers children educational opportunities and choices that will ultimately empower them to determine their own future.
Earlier today one of my regular readers, Hasheem, brought it to my attention that Rodney Harmon, former Men's High Performance Director at the USTA, had been let go. Of course my curiosity was peaked, as Rodney Harmon just recently served as the USA Olympic Men's Team Head Coach.
My research turned up this USA Today article that is very involved, and among a lot of other things, reports the following:
"The USTA has been in supplemental-type coaching, but now we are putting ourselves on the line for players who want to be part of the program," says Patrick McEnroe, who was hired in April to oversee the elite development program along with his duties as U.S. Davis Cup captain. "We want to have more people out there working together on a common cause to find talent that will be playing at the U.S. Open one day."
McEnroe, an easy-going consensus builder but hard-nosed decision maker, has not wasted time in shaking up the staff and hiring new blood.
Last month he removed men's high performance director Rodney Harmon and women's director Jean Nachand; they will be replaced by Jay Berger and Ola Malmqvist, who were both promoted from within the USTA coaching ranks. McEnroe has let go of several other coaches, mostly at the USTA's West Coast training site in Carson, Calif. In September he brought in former top-10 player Jose Higueras as director of coaching for the program.
USTA chief executive of professional tennis Arlen Kantarian, who hired McEnroe and oversaw development, is leaving, too.
Once content to let private academies such as Bollettieri/IMG churn out another Andre Agassi or hope superstars like the Williams sisters would emerge from the inner city or suburbs, the USTA now runs a full-time boarding program in Boca Raton, Fla., in conjunction with the Evert Tennis Academy, where the country's best juniors can live, train and go to school — all for free.
Another part of the article states:
For the first time since 2002, both Venus and Serena Williams are competing this week in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships as two of the eight qualifiers in the season finale. Next week Andy Roddick will tee up American hopes in Shanghai, having reached the season-ending Masters Cup for a sixth consecutive year.Those strengths of U.S. tennis, however, can't hide the glaring weakness in the next generation.
"I don't think we're on the right track," eighth-ranked Venus Williams said Monday of the flagging U.S. fortunes. "I'm not sure what track we should be on, but it does seem like we should be able to produce some players, especially with our history throughout the game. … So hopefully we can figure it out soon, because we can also see the sport waning some in the U.S., which wouldn't be good."
Beyond Venus, 28, and Serena, 27, the drop-off for U.S. women is precipitous. No other Americans are in the top 35, and just five occupy slots in the top 100. None is younger than 23. That's a far cry from the 1980s, when U.S. women represented half or more of the year-end top 10 seven times between 1980-88.
Sixth-ranked Roddick, 26, remains an elite mainstay along with late bloomer James Blake, who is ranked No. 10 and turns 29 next month. Of the remaining seven men in the top 100, only 21-year-olds Sam Querrey (No. 40) and Jesse Levine (No. 94) are under the age of 26.
This is an extensive article and offers a lot more, to read it in its entirety click here.
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