France’s Amelie Mauresmo and China’s Na Li won’t play at the US Open which starts August 27.

As expected, former world number one Amelie Mauresmo has pulled out of the final Grand Slam of the year in order to fully recover from a groin injury and to get her motivation back in the meantime. This is only a continuation of a tough 2007, in which Mauresmo endured a two-month lay-off with appendicitis after which her results on court have been much worse than usual.

Mauresmo hasn’t played any competitive tennis since the Fed Cup in July, while the last regular tournament she played was Wimbledon where her title defence ended with a fourth-round defeat by Czech Nicole Vaidisova. However, we might see her at the China Open in the second half of September.

World No. 21 Na Li has withdrawn because of a rib injury which has been bothering her since the Wimbledon warm-up tournament in Birmingham. So, the US Open is the second consecutive Grand Slam that the best-ranked Chinese player must skip.

The WTA tour is not the same without Mauresmo and Li; I hope they will fully recover soon. (via BBC, Reuters)

I was first interested in watching this video when Diane commented on it as “I laughed until I cried”. Unfortunately, I had to wait until it was published on You Tube to see it, being unable to watch it in Windows Media Player for some reason (probably because my internet connection isn’t fast enough). Anyway, it really is funny!

The same thing was happening to me yesterday while I was promoting some hair colors – I kept saying COROLS! Believe me, saying sentences that you’ve learned by heart is not as easy as it seems (even if they are short), especially when you’re in front of many people.

World No. 11 Martina Hingis will play two warm-up events before the US Open, final Grand Slam of the year.

The first hard-court tournament she’ll play will be the $1,340,000 Acura Classic in San Diego which starts on July 30th. Hingis reached the quarterfinals here last year and won the event in 1997 and 1999.

Martina will then take one week off and after that short break she’ll play another Tier I event, this time Rogers Cup presented by American Express in Toronto. This event switches each year between Toronto and Montreal and last year Martina reached the final where she lost to impressive Ana Ivanovic. Martina won this event in 1998, 1999, and 2000.

After these US Open tune-ups Hingis will take another week off to prepare for the Grand Slam she won in 1997. Last year Hingis was not successful at the hard-courts of the US Open losing to Virginie Razzano in the second round. (via martinaworld)