Miami update

Click here for an article in today's Miami Herald, purportedly about Martina agreeing with Chris Evert's recent open letter to tennis great Serena Williams. However, only 2 direct quotes attributed to Martina can be found in the article, the rest is just useless fluff. If Martina sounds harsh in her comments, she could very well have been taken out of context - not the first time that's happened. Anyway, read it with a grain of salt. And there's a nice photo on that page from yesterday's match.

Martina & Liezel's semifinal tomorrow will be a night match on Stadium court. There have been no easy matches this week and tomorrow is no exception - they take on the #8 seeds, Shinobu Asagoe and Katarina Srebotnik.

Win in Miami

Martina & Liezel won their quarterfinal match at the Nasdaq-100 Open in Miami today, defeating Ting Li and Tian Tian Sun of China 7-6(3) 6-4. There are a few pics from the match on Getty Images.

WTT draft

The 2006 World TeamTennis draft was done yesterday. No surprise, Martina is playing WTT again this year for the Boston Lobsters. The WTT press release indicates this will be Martina's 18th WTT season but I think it is actually her 19th - 1976-78, 1981, 1991-96, 1998-present.

Martina's teammates on the Lobsters roster will be Todd Martin, Nicole Pratt, Amir Hadad, Kristin Schlukebir and Thomas Blake. Schlukebir & Blake are returning members from last season as is the Lobsters coach, Dr. Anne Smith.

More Martina...

More good news. Click here for a comprehensive list of all Martina's upcoming promotion activities for "Shape Your Self" - the file is in Microsoft Word format. Once again, I have to thank Martina's agent, Jeremy, for compiling this excellent list for us!

Looks like Martina is going to be all over the airwaves next week on shows like The Today Show, The Charlie Rose Show, Best Damn Sports Show Period, The Early Show, American Morning, Cold Pizza, Martha and many more; in addition to numerous radio appearances. That is just wonderful...

Click here for transcripts from Martina's press conference at the Nasdaq-100 Open yesterday. Martina & Liezel play their quarterfinal match on Stadium Court tomorrow!

More "Shape Your Self" updates...

First off, click here for a great article from the latest issue of Time magazine.

And good news for the Bay Area fans - Martina will be in San Francisco on April 11 for a book signing at 12:00 noon at 'A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books' (yes, that really is the name of the bookstore!)

Click here for a Microsoft Word document summarizing the dates, places & times of Martina's book signings starting next week. My special thanks go out to Martina's agent, Jeremy, for compiling this list for us.

And finally, many of you have probably already gotten your copy of "Shape Your Self" by now or will be getting it soon. I am looking for fans to write your own book reviews to post on my website. It doesn't matter if its just a few lines; I just feel it would be great to get some fan reaction to help spread the work about Martina's new book. Please feel free to e-mail me your thoughts and opinions. Thanks!

Another win in Miami

Martina & Liezel won their second round match at the Nasdaq-100 Open today, an impressive 6-3 7-6(2) victory over Iveta Benesova and Barbora Strycova. They have another difficult match ahead in the quarterfinals against the reigning Olympic champions, Ting Li and Tian Tian Sun of China.

Free tickets to see Martina!

Some great news here for fans in the New York City/tri-state area. Martina will be appearing on Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith, a sports talk show on ESPN2, live, on Monday, April 3, at 4:00 p.m. The studio is located in the heart of New York City, across the street from Madison Square Garden.

The audience producer of the show has been generous enough to offer all interested Martina fans FREE tickets to attend the show! If any of you are interested and would like to attend, please e-mail me and I will send you the contact information.

Also, don't forget Martina's appearance the same day at the New York Times' TimesTalks event.

First Round Win in Miami

Martina & Liezel won their first round match in Miami yesterday at the Nasdaq-100 Open, with an impressive 5-7 6-2 6-2 victory over Nadia Petrova and Patty Schnyder. This was Martina's first match win of the year. They have another difficult match ahead of them in Round 2, against the Czech team of Iveta Benesova and Barbora Strycova.

Nasdaq-100 Open draw

The draw for the Nasdaq-100 Open in Miami was done on Tuesday. Martina is playing with Liezel Horn-Huber again and they are seeded #7. They have a difficult first round match against Nadia Petrova & Patty Schnyder. For the complete doubles draw, click here.

"Shape Your Self" updates...

A couple of updates on "Shape Your Self"...

First, you can read an excerpt from the book on the website of Written Voices Radio. If that excerpt is anything to go by, I think it is safe to say we are really going to enjoy this book...

Depending on where you live, I have good news on Martina's upcoming book tour for "Shape Your Self". Here are a few more dates...

Martina will be in New York City on April 4 for a free book reading at 1:00 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Fifth Avenue.

That same day, she will also make an appearance in Huntington, Long Island, New York at the Book Revue for another signing at 8:00 p.m.

Moving out west, Martina will be in the Los Angeles area on April 9 for a book signing at Costco in Westlake Village at 3:00 p.m.

And on April 12, she will be in Seattle, Washington at Borders on Fourth Avenue at 12:00 p.m.

This is all I am aware of at the moment. Once again, if any of you are aware of other stops on Martina's book tour, please let me know. At present, we are aware of five appearances - the above four and Madison, Connecticut on April 5. Thanks!

In addition to her appearances on NBC's Today Show and CNN's American Morning, Martina will also be appearing on CBS's Early Show. Exact dates are not available at the moment, but I will keep you posted...

Magazine interviews

Just a brief heads up... an interview with Martina is featured in the latest issue of Tennis Week. And you can catch another interview in the May edition of Shape magazine.

Martina on the Today Show! (and much, much more...)

Ok, I've got a lot to report on Martina's new book coming out within the next few weeks, but her upcoming Today Show appearance is certainly something to look forward to. It's scheduled for April 3; she will be there to promote "Shape Your Self." So North American fans, make sure you don't miss this.

In addition to the Today Show, Martina will also promote her book on CNN's American Morning (probably the same day?) and the New York Times' "Times Talk" - tickets are available to the latter, check their site here. I love that picture of Martina they have on that page.

To those of you who get "Fit TV", their "Art of the Athlete" series will feature Martina on April 6 at 8:00 p.m., Eastern time. It's an hour-long program.

We don't know the details of Martina's upcoming book tour just yet, but here is one stop that has been confirmed. She will be in Madison, Connecticut on April 5 at R.J. Julia Booksellers. Check the site for ticket information.

Here's a link to an interview Martina did for the Washington Flyer. My thanks to Sam for posting this interivew on the message boards.

And here's some more good news. Martina has come up with a comprehensive exercise program to accompany her book and has teamed with SPRI to develop retail packages of fitness products used for the various exercises. You can read more about that in this SPRI press release.

Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race

Martina will be in Long Beach, California next month for the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race (car race, that is!) to be held in conjuction with the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the first race of the Champ Car World Series. For those unfamiliar with the Champ Car Series, check out their Wikipedia entry.

Check out the press release announcing the participants, including Martina. Qualifying begins April 7 with the real thing the following day.

This sounds like a fun event and it is for a good cause, but PLEASE BE CAREFUL, MARTINA!