tennis night in america Archives - World Tennis Magazine

World No. 1 Roger Federer is set to return to Shanghai next week for his first tournament back on the ATP Tour since losing in the quarterfinals to Tomas Berdych. Rested, re-energized and looking to keep his top ranking, Federer will no doubt battle his way to the ATP World Tour Finals in London next month in hopes of defending his title.

Earlier this year during Tennis Night in America, Federer spoke with Harry Cicma prior to his exhibition match against the now-retired Andy Roddick.

Always a charmer on camera, watch on as the Swiss maestro comments on his great friendship with Andy both on- and off-the-court, his love for New York City, and his goals for the rest of 2012.

“World Tennis with Harry Cicma Presented by Infiniti of Norwood” is a nationally televised tennis television show in its fourth season and features exclusive interviews and features with the biggest names in tennis. The show has aired on the New England Sports Network (NESN) since 2009, and also airs on Comcast Sports Net Mid Atlantic, and can also be seen here on www.WorldTennisMagazine.com.

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Cicma is the former sports anchor and producer at NBC in Providence, R.I., CBS in Springfield, Mass., and ABC in Sioux City, Iowa. He is the co-founder and host of “World Tennis with Harry Cicma” and also served as a commentator for other networks including Fox Sports Net and Tennis Channel and has commentated for World Team Tennis and the U.S. Open tennis championship’s world feed. A former ATP world-ranked doubles player, he was also a standout Big East tennis player at Rutgers University.

The annual “Garden Party” for tennis took place Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

The annual BNP Paribas Showdown provided New York City with its “tennis fix” exactly six months before the summer’s city tennis showcase – the US Open – as Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova, Andy Roddick and Roger Federer entertained with exhibition tennis and fun hijinks that provided smiles and laughs for all 18,000-plus fans on hand.

Exhibition tennis is sometimes tough for real tennis aficiandos to swallow – all participants Monday seemed to going at about 70 percent speed – but hardly a fan left feeling unsatisfied with their entertainment experience. After all, any chance to see stars of this caliber perform their craft in a setting such as the “World’s Most Famous Arena” is something to highlight water-cooler conversations and tennis club chatter among those who attended or watched on ESPN2. However, these post-mortem conversations are not about Roddick’s screaming forehand passing shots that broke Federer’s serve or Sharapova’s clutch drop volley down break point in the second set. This was not “real tennis” with something on the line. This was fun. This was pure exhibition entertainment. This was a party – a celebration of tennis.

Fans are more likely to talk more about Wozniacki grabbing a young girl and dancing with her on court, and Sharapova also obliging, picking out a older male business executive and also strutting to the music on the other side of the night. Or Federer hitting his famous “tweener” and then teeing up Roddick to try and turn the same trick during the same rally (although Roddick failed to execute the shot, causing him to jokingly toss his racquet in Federer’s direction, nearly hitting a ball girl by accident. Almost all exhibitions feature the obligatory “imitations” – and this one did not disappoint (or DID disappoint to the tennis purists.) When a fan yelled from the rafters “Come on Rafa!” Roddick rolled up his sleeves and did his best impression of Rafael Nadal that he could muster – grunts and all!

The unequivocal highlight of the night was when Wozniacki enticed her boyfriend Rory McIlroy, enjoying his first day as the No. 1 ranked professional golfer in the world, out of the stands to play a point against Sharapova (winning it, causing Sharapova to jibe after the match that he won almost as many points as Caroline did against her.)

For the record Sharapova defeated Wozniacki 6-3, 6-4 and Roddick beat Federer 7-5, 7-6 (7). But that was what hardly mattered.