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Dent's loss at tennis is win at home with new baby
By TANALEE SMITH
Associated Press
2010-01-21 08:12 PM
American Taylor Dent hates to lose, but at least this defeat solved a tricky dilemma.

His wife, former tennis pro Jennifer Hopkins, is due to have their first baby a week from Friday _ or sooner.

"I'll be on the phone to get flights as soon as I have a shower and get back to my hotel," Dent said after Thursday's second-round defeat at the Australian Open to No. 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. "She's due in a week but the doctor says she's due any second. She's right there. She's ready to go."

Dent said they are having a boy, who they've already decided to name Declan James Phillip Dent _ Declan because they like the name, and the other two after each of their fathers.

"I'm not nervous at all," Dent said. "I'm excited, I'm a little giddy about it."

The 28-year-old is staging a comeback to tennis after three back operations starting in 2006 and the fear he'd never play tennis again. Last September he made it to the third round of the U.S. Open.

Once a world No. 21, Dent is trying to improve his current No. 79 ranking and said thoughts of the impending birth did not distract him during his match against Tsonga.

"I was out there to win, I was out there to compete hard," he said. "It just unfortunately didn't go my way tonight."

Dent is the son of Australian Phil Dent, runner-up in the 1974 Australian Open, and Betty Ann Stuart, a former top 10 player in the United States.

He said he and his wife are as prepared as they can be to welcome their son, particularly Hopkins.

"She wants to have a litter," he laughed. "She wants to have four of them!"

___

A MIXED DOUBLES DREAM TEAM: If Andy Roddick isn't interested in partnering her for mixed doubles at the 2012 Olympics, Serena Williams said she has a couple of tall brothers in mind to join her.

The International Olympic Committee in December approved the return of mixed doubles to the London Games. Mixed doubles was played at several Olympics from 1900 to 1924.

"I'm going to have to play a little mixed so I can get my body ready," she said. "Hopefully I'll be chosen on the Olympic team. When that time gets closer, I'm going to play a little mixed. It'll be fun. I'll have a blast."

Williams said she and friend Roddick have talked about partnering but if he is out, she's looking to Bob or Mike Bryan, twin brothers who are the No. 1 men's doubles team.

"Are you kidding? I would love to play with one of them," she said Thursday, acknowledging she'd rather have them on her side than playing against them.

And as for her sister? Venus is already in discussions with one of them, Williams revealed.

___

LOOKING FOR SUPPORT: Donald Young was hailed as a "tennis phenom" when he turned pro at age 14 in 2004.

At the end of that year, Newsweek magazine named him as an American worth watching _ in the same "Who's Next" issue that profiled Sen. Barack Obama on its cover as a man with potential.

In 2005, Young won the Australian Open junior title. In 2007 he made it to the third round of the U.S. Open and _ at 18 years, 5 months _ he cracked the top 100 on the men's tour.

But Young _ who lost at the Australian Open on Thursday in the second round _ has had a sporadic career and is now ranked No. 195. He says greater support from his country could help him excel.

He claimed before the U.S. Open that the U.S. Tennis Association was pressuring him to drop his parents as coaches.

He said Thursday he has not been in contact with the tennis body since then.

"Hopefully we can work together because I would love the support of USTA and hopefully we can come to mutual terms," he said. "We'll see where it goes from there because obviously I feel like a lot of the great players who have come up or good ones have had the support of their country. So it would be nice to have it."

Young lost 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-1 to former No. 1-ranked Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.

"I'm just focused on playing tennis and winning matches and trying to get better," he said. "Hopefully that comes into play and works also."

___

IT'S ALL ABOUT ME: _ Now that he's shown he can beat Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, people are suddenly asking questions about Nikolay Davydenko.

More about the man than the player. And he likes it.

The 28-year-old Russian has played professionally for a decade but he entered the big time late last year by beating Federer and Nadal on his way to the ATP World Tour Final title in London. Then he did it again, in Doha earlier this month en route to the Qatar Open title.

Now, he's into the third round at the Australian Open, where he's seeded No. 6, and media from around the world want to know: Does he drink vodka? Does he have kids? Does he want kids? Does he want to write a book about his life story?

Some responses: Yes, he occasionally imbibes _ if he's going out clubbing he mixes vodka and Red Bull for an extra jolt. Otherwise, "If I drink only vodka, I go straight to sleep." As for the book, there's no publisher lined up just yet.

Davydenko grinned when reality dawned on him.

"It's interesting. We're not talking about tennis," Davydenko told a news conference following his 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 win over Ukraine qualifier Illya Marchenko. "We're talking about my life. This is my first experience like this with the press."

Davydenko turned pro in 1999. He's never made a Grand Slam final _ or moved beyond the quarters at Melbourne in eight previous appearances _ but lately he's on a roll.

He dominated his match Wednesday and extended a current winning streak to 11 matches, including his title runs at the 2009 World Tour Finals and the 2010 season-opener at Doha.

Davydenko now has 20 career titles and hopes, one day, to tell his children that he won lots of tournaments, he said.

He and his wife, Irina, who have been married since November 2006, do not have children yet. He's got mixed feelings about whether now is the right time to start a family.

"Yes. No. Yes and no," he replied to a question. "I would really like to have kids now."

He noted that Federer and Australian player Lleyton Hewitt _ who're also both 28 _ already each have two children. The main holdout, Davydenko said, is his wife, who travels with him on the tour and is concerned that having children will distract her husband from his tennis.

She wonders if Davydenko will want to travel less and spend more time at home and get lazy about practicing, he said.

"Now I'm top 10. She's scared," he said. "Maybe for me it's better to be with my wife at this time, no kids."

 
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