Surprisingly, the winner of the fourth, and final, Gland Slam tournament of 2009 (the U.S. Open) was not Federer or Nadal, but the Argentinean player Juan Martín del Potro, who dethroned Mr Fed. to claim his first major title, in his first Grand Slam final. Congrats!

The U.S. Open, however, marks the end of the “Fashionista vs Gladiator” segment for this year, with Federer just edging out Nadal with 2 Slams to the Spaniard’s 1.

It was a good year for the fashion-conscious one, who, after claiming the elusive Roland Garros title, went on to claim back his Wimbledon trophy, and welcome twin girls into his slick world. However, the year wasn’t so rapturous for my little gladiator, who, after a shock defeat at Roland Garros, went into temporary retirement, citing a knee injury. But he was back in action at The Open, and made it into the semi-finals, so there’s hope for a more plausible “Fashionaista vs Gladiator” in 2010.

For now i’ll say that it’s been fun, we’ve watched some great tennis and witnessed a record-breaking moment.

Stay safe. Stay cool. And don’t forget to check back with me next year for more tennis tantrums (yes, I’m talking about Miss Williams!).

See you in January!

By now you should be familiar with the show’s format (if you watch it!), but if not, it goes a little something like this… Ellen appears, introduces herself etc., and then proceeds to gyrate around the room, among the studio audience and over a coffee table to a funky club banger, before swinging into her chair to start the “talking” segment of her show.

Well, the season premiere wasn’t much different; however, Ms. Degeneres did add an extra scoop of sugar and So You Think You Can Dance spice to the proceedings by gracing the stage with the 10 finalists to perform a rehearsed dance number. Check out the clip below.

p.s. If I were a talk show host, I’d shamelessly steal her format – the “I would ideally like to be a professional dancer, but it’s not going to happen so i’ll masquerade as a talk show host” format! Hey, whatever works. I’m not hating, i’m lovin’ her work.

First came 100 single dancing Sascha Fierces in Piccadilly Circus (at which 100 single women were given tickets to see the pop star), and yesterday, on my… “B’Day” (I couldn’t resist!), came a giant game of musical chairs, also in central London, at which fans could win more tickets to her one free concert (November 15) during her tour stop in the UK.

The event saw 200 die-hards battle it out to win 50 pairs of tickets, three Super Fan tickets and a VIP box for 15 people, and the happy winner, as well as all the chair action, can be seen in the video below:

To all of you disappointed fans, don’t worry, you’ve still got a few more weeks to win tickets. Head over to Trident’s website for more info.

It’s purely a coincidence, but the Soundtrack to Life this month is a Madonna track (like it was last year on this magical day). My fellow Leo also had something to celebrate a few days ago, so let’s all celebrate together with her new single, Celebration. Why do I get the feeling that if I say the C word one more time there’ll be an assassination?!

(Promo poster)

Alvin Ailey, the New York dance company, is touring in Europe at the moment and last week I finally got the chance to catch the group in Paris, and for those of you who happen to be in the French capital this week (until Saturday), I recommend you check it out – if you can get your hands on some reasonably priced tickets!

The company delivered a good performance, although the constant bowing in between segments did, after a while, begin to annoy me. Aside from that it was a solid, sexy show guys and gals.

If you’re not familiar with the group, check out the video below and if the spirit moves you, head down to the Théâtre du Châtelet.

N.B. dance sequence 3.15. Usher, Chris Brown, Timberlake et al., you can’t tell me nothin’!

Scream

Congratulations Federer, you’ve done in. You’ve beaten Sampras’s record and have acquired the record-breaking 15th Gland Slam title. My condolenses do however go to Andy Roddick, who had my support. It was a tough match, but as the tired and clichéd saying goes, someone had to lose, and fashion-conscious-Fed wasn’t going down twice in a final at his beloved Wimbledon.

The Williams war was won yesterday by Serena, and all eyes were firmly fixed on centre court this afternoon, and on the man Nike has labeled ”RF”. The mood was set. The retractable roof ready. Pete Sampras, Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg – all the men whose names have been tossed around the table in the heated discussion to decide who is, once and for all, the greatest player of all time – were all there, along with Federer’s seemingly close friend Gavin Rossdale, to witness the occasion. And the occasion didn’t disappoint – well, Federer at least.

After 4 hours and 17 minutes (including a 5th, 95 minute, 30 game set), Fed was crowned champion encore une fois. And what better way to celebrate than to don a ”here’s one Nike prepared earlier – just in case” sweater with “15″ goldy stitched on the back. Yes Roger, we noticed! Very fitting (Andy looks pleased!).

But all jokes aside, it’s a job well done and the Fashionista is a master at what he does, although I don’t believe he’s the greatest man to have ever graced the tennis courts – yet.

Moving swifty, but only briefly, on to women’s tennis. As usual, the Williams sisters dominated the fortnight and, as usual, cleaned up at the event, with Serena taking the ladies’ singles titles away from her sister, before joining Venus to destroy two Australian girls, whose names I can’t mention (because I don’t know them), in the doubles final.

The Williams sisters aren’t really given enough credit for what they do, and so I’d like to give them a shout out – only a small one mind you! There have been many discussions over the past few years about the state of the ladies’ game, and how it’s not as engaging as men’s tennis. But when you think about it (leave a comment if i’m wrong), if not for the top 3 male players (Federer, Nadal and British Murray), who would tune in to watch the male game? People are quick to jump on the bandwagon and attack women’s tennis, but the Williams sisters are the only two holding it up right now – to the point where they can go off and pursue comical fashion ventures and pop back to the court whenever they feel like it! I’m sure if someone were to carry out a survey to find out how many female players the common man knew, Venus and Serena’s names would probably be the only two with a tick beside them. And although Tom, Dick and Harriet may know a few more male players (aside from the aforementioned three), how many are we actually really interested in? One more than the Williams sisters makes [the top] 3!

p.s. what has happened to the Gladiator (Nadal)? To say Fashionista vs Gladiator hasn’t been the contest I anticipated would be an understatement!

We’ve heard it all before but this is music to my ears.

Apparently, the A-listers are refusing to eat at the London hotspot until the bluefin is taken off the menu. “As customers and fans of Nobu we strongly feel that bluefin tuna must be completely removed from your menu due to it’s perilous position as an extremely endangered animal,” the petition reads. “Nobu is a restaurant we all love, a world leader in sushi with a fantastic reputation and enormous influence. If Nobu took a definitive stand on this issue it could make a critical difference.”

It has also emerged that due to the complaints, the restaurant’s menu has started carrying the message: “Bluefin tuna is an environmentally threatened species. Please ask your server for an alternative”. Are the heads of the chain aware of how comical their N.B. is? Just take it off the menu!

But celebs… Do you think that the poor bluefin is the only fish that wants to live, or will you only worry about the others when they cease to exist because you’re still implying that you don’t mind if the ecosystems are destroyed by overfishing, just as long as the tunafish is left out of it? And you’ll still continue to eat at Nobu but with “no blue” on the menu. Stars are funny. You can just picture them: ”here, sign the petition to stop the sale of the bluefin. Don’t worry though, there’s plenty more fish in the sea”.