Even with all the sponsorships, most players can’t boast tennis bags like these. LaCorte have created these stylish accessories in three different styles, all made of top grain leathers, fine canvas and crafted hardware. These beauties are a definite must.

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World’s #2 player (sorry Rafa), Andy Murray unveiled his Fred Perry look in Gotham today and…it looks almsot exactly like his Wimledon look excpet he has a sharp and tidy blue polo that will perfectly comliment the court surface to confuse his opponents.

Polo Ralph Lauren  just introduced their 2009 US Open collection and they are certainly going for the Golden Era of 1930’s athletics look. The limited-edition short-sleeved ball polo is adorned with pieced chevron stripes, while the guy’s tennis polo is breathy and cleverly vintage looking. Both shirts are certainly timeless and your mixed doubles opponents will be filled with jealousy.

We’re not the only ones obsessed with the Nintendo Wii player stylings. Grand Slam Tennis from EA Sports features 23 pro characters, including 11 demigods like Chris Evert, John McEnroe, and Martina Navratilova in all of their vintage, wooden racket, and serve and volley glory.

Nikolay Davydenko might have had the worst birthday in the world today due to a crushing quarterfinal loss, and Rafael Nadal won’t in fact blow out his candles in Paris for the first time in five years. But there’s an upside to all of this. Geminis have dominated tennis and the French Open for as long as we can remember with Steffi Graf, Bjorn Borg, and Justine Henin celebrating their big days this week as well. And we can even describe how many other notable Twins ruled the game: Lindsay Davenport, Kim Clijsters, Novak Djokovic, Anna Kournikova, and Venus Williams are all members of this sign. And though Gemini players have ruled on clay over the last 5 years, this year it’s Leos and Tauruses that are making their mark. Today, two Leo men Robin Soderling and Fernando Gonzalez as well as two Taurus women, Dinara Safina and Dominika Cibulková have all all reached the semifinal stage at the Roland Garros.

This section will pay a weekly tribute to tennis players’ very best musings on the web and our inaugural entry doesn’t come from a personal website at all. Instead, it’s Serena Williams’ poignant essay about Rafael Nadal for Time, who in turn was selected as one of 100 most influential people in the world by the publication. If Serena doesn’t get a free dinner from Rafa in Paris after this, she should never look him in eyes ever again! Here’s our favorite prose:

I have never seen such tenacity, such ambition, such fight and such honor go into every shot as when I watch Rafael Nadal.

I want to be like him. The attitude he exudes the moment he walks out on the court is the attitude of a true champion. A champion whose desire to win is the same as the desire of a lion to eat. Stalking his prey with force and speed, Nadal, 22, has already become one of the game’s all-time best.