Tennis Talking Points

Andy Roddick

<i>Our weekly Friday look at newsmakers in the tennis world.</i><br><br>Roddick reached a milestone in his first tournament since losing the epic Wimbledon final. With a 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory against Sam Querrey in the third round of the Legg Mason Classic, Roddick joined Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt and Carlos Moya as the only active players with 500 career victories. ''It is validation of consistency in my career,'' said the fifth-ranked Roddick, who is 500-157 all time.

Ana Ivanovic

Ivanovic returned this week after sitting out since Wimbledon with a thigh injury. Following a first-match victory against Vania King at the L.A. Women's Tennis Championships, the 11th-seeded Ivanovic lost to Samantha Stosur in a 62-minute rout. Nevertheless, Ivanovic is encouraged about her prospects. ''I'm headed in the right direction,'' she said.

The Samurai

Sam Querrey's boisterous fan section made headlines at last week's L.A. Tennis Open when Germany's Tommy Haas, the American's semifinal opponent, ripped the group for having ''no class.'' This week, the Samurai released a statement attempting to clear the air. ''To make up for it," the fan club wrote, ''we would like to follow in the steps of the White House, and offer to take Haas out for a beer (Beck's, of course) and reconcile our differences at the upcoming U.S. Open Tennis Championships."

Zheng Jie

Down a break in the third set, Zheng rallied to upset top-ranked and defending champion Dinara Safina in the third round in L.A. It was the 26-year-old's first victory against the Russian in five career meetings.

Rafael Nadal

Nadal was already practicing in Montreal on Thursday in anticipation of his return from a 10-week absence at next week's Rogers Cup. The 23-year-old Spaniard has been inactive since his fourth-round loss to Robin Soderling at the French Open. He is the defending champion in Montreal.

Charlene Riva and Myla Rose Federer

The first photo of Roger Federer's twin daughters hit the Web as the 15-time Grand Slam winner posted it on his Facebook account. ''As promised, here is a family picture that my dad took,'' Federer wrote. ''He thinks he's becoming a professional photographer.''

Dinara Safina

The news wasn't all bad this week for Safina. One day before her surpring loss to Zheng Jie, Safina became the first player to qualify for the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in Dona Qatar. The world's top eight players will compete for a record purse of $4.45 million.

Elena Dementieva and Kim Clijsters

Clijsters, a former world No. 1 in the midst of a comeback, will play an exhibition Saturday against fourth-ranked Elena Dementieva in the most unusual of locales: on a specially made court in the large water fountains at the Kings Island theme park outside Cincinnati. Clijsters then will play next week's tournament in the area, her first WTA event since 2007.

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