Aaliyah Holly wood Female Star

Aaliyah Dana Haughton (January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001), who performed under the mononym Aaliyah ( /əˈliːə/), was an American R&B recording artist, actress and model. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of 10, she appeared on the television show Star Search and performed in concert alongside Gladys Knight. At age 12, Aaliyah signed with Jive Records and her uncle Barry Hankerson's Blackground Records. Hankerson introduced her to R. Kelly, who became her mentor, as well as lead songwriter and producer of her debut album, Age Ain't Nothing but a Number. The album sold three million copies in the United States and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). After facing allegations of an illegal marriage with R.Kelly, Aaliyah ended her contract with Jive and signed with Atlantic Records.
Aaliyah worked with record producers Timbaland and Missy Elliott for her second album, One in a Million; it sold 3.7 million copies in the United States and over eight million copies worldwide. In 2000, Aaliyah appeared in her first major film, Romeo Must Die. She contributed to the film's soundtrack, which spawned the single "Try Again". The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 solely on airplay, making Aaliyah the first artist in Billboard history to achieve this feat. "Try Again" earned Aaliyah a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female R&B Vocalist.
After completing Romeo Must Die, Aaliyah filmed her part in Queen of the Damned. She released her third and final album, Aaliyah, in July 2001. On August 25, 2001, Aaliyah and eight others were killed in an airplane crash in The Bahamas after filming the music video for the single "Rock the Boat". The pilot, Luis Morales III, was unlicensed at the time of the accident and had traces of cocaine and alcohol in his system. Aaliyah's family later filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Blackhawk International Airways, which was settled out of court. Since then, Aaliyah's music has continued to achieve commercial success with several posthumous releases. Aaliyah recorded several number one R&B hits and five top ten Billboard Hot 100 singles. She has been credited for helping redefine R&B and hip hop, earning her the nicknames "Princess of R&B" and "Queen of Urban Pop". She is listed by Billboard as the tenth most successful female R&B artist of the past 25 years, and 27th most successful R&B artist overall.

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Tennis players who get my attention Photos Gallery

Since I received so many emails about my recent Australian Open post, I figured I'd indulge myself (and hopefully anyone else who stops by) with some photos of some of the world's best tennis players. No disrespect intended for those I did not include. My list is actually a lot longer than this, but one has to draw the line somewhere.

World's No. 1 Tennis Player, Rafael Nadal (ESP)
No. 8 highest ranked American, Andy Roddick (USA)
No. 9 Fernando Verdasco (ESP)
No. 28 Juan Monaco (ARG)
No. 150 Robby Ginepri (USA)
As you can see you need not be a sports enthusiast to enjoy the game of tennis.

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American Tennis Player PHotos Gallery

Might as well get the big one out of the way. . . I just don't expect to be typing names like James Blake when I am recapping pro circuit results for y'all. No offense to the big dogs or the little dogs but I just get used to the same set of a couple dozen names every week. So when I saw tennis demigod James Blake listed in the main draw of this event, much less with a WC by his name, I was scratching my head. I mean, a 50K event is not chump change to someone like me but I have to think it is pretty chumpy to a world class athlete like Blake. My first thought was, gee, James Blake is a pretty common name so naaaahhhhh, can't be the same guy. But of course it was. The plot thickens. He's here as a WC, not even seeded. He barely squeaks by Frank Dancevic (CAN) in three sets in R1. Frank who? (an aside - Dancevic was Canada's #1 for a while, has been as high as 65 in the world before a back injury plunged him below 200. Factoid - he was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario). Okay, Blake throttled Lucky Loser Nick Monroe in R2 3 and 2. Was Nick a little starstruck? I would be! Then Blake loses to Young in the semis. So . . . I don't know what to say other than good on 'ya, Donnie and I will be checking the news feeds to see what everyone else has to say about this development.

American Tennis Player
American Tennis PlayerEnough handwringing over Mr. Blake. Let's give props where props are due. Mr. Donald Young also had a scare in the first round from Grega Zemlja (SLO) 7-6, 4-6, 7-6. Now that's a match! The Chicago native and Atlanta resident is having a good year, including stunning world #5 Andy Murray in straight sets at Indian Wells 7-6, 6-3. Young had a similar score in his second round win here over WC Dennis Kudla 7-5, 6-3. While Young battled Zemlja, Kudla also had a tough match in R1 against WC Michael Shabaz 6-7, 6-4, 6-2. Young's win over Kudla put him out of the frying pan and into the fire against #1 seed Rainer Schuettler (GER). Schuettler had vanquished Carson Ball and Greg Ouellette to make it to the quarters and had his eyes on the prize. But Young refused to yield after a shaky start and came away with another win 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. Once again it took three sets but Young came up the victor again, beating Blake 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 to set up a final against Wayne Odesnik.
American Tennis Player
American Tennis Player
Let's take a moment here to see how Odesnik arrived at the final. In hindsight he appears to have had a much easier time getting there than Young. In the bottom half of the draw, he beat #3 seed Michael Russell in straight sets in R1, then Philip Bester (CAN) easily 2 and 1. The quarterfinal match was more of a challenge with Vasek Pospisil (CAN) across the net. But after sweeping the first set breaker 7-0, Odesnik powered through the second set surrendering only two games. Bobby Reynolds was there to greet him at the semis after eliminating #2 seed Go Soeda (JPN) in R2 and Alex Kuznetsov in the quarters. Once again Odesnik scratched out a tiebreak win against Reynolds in the first set and cruised through the second, 7-6, 6-1.
American Tennis Player
The American men meant business in Tallahassee last week. 15 in the singles main draw, 9 advanced to R2, 6 to quarters. It was an All-American semifinal and final. #7 seed Donald Young emerged as champion but unseeded qualy Wayne Odesnik pushed it to three sets before succumbing 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Imagine the roar from the crowd after Odesnik took the second, extending the tennis enjoyment for everyone. Probably not as loud as the roar when Young upset James Blake in three sets in the semis. . . yes, that James Blake. More on that in a minute.

Forestmeadows Tennis Complex
The event was held at the city owned Forestmeadows Tennis Complex. The 19 court facility is split 6 hard/13 clay but this event was held on the hard courts. The Tally Challenger, as it is lovingly known, is in its 19th...

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Andy Roddick American Tennis Player

Andy Roddick marked his best performance in the year 2009 when he posed a threat to Roger Federer to claim his 15th Grand Slam title. He is an American player and is former World No. 1 Player. He claims his winning streaks easily on clay and grass courts. He is among the top ranked US players and hence is the only American to make his way in the top 10 rankings. He marked his important in by claiming the title of US open in the year 2003. He eventually made his way to finals of other grand slams as well. Roger Federer was the man who posed a great difficulty at the finals all time and he lost most of the matches to him. However, he along with Federer holds the record to be in the top 10 rankings since the year 2002.

Andy Roddick starts his attacking in the court from the first serve itself and he is widely known for his impeccable and strong serves. He even holds a record of the fastest served ball. Over the years he has been a permanent member of the Davis Cup team of America and has also helped to win the Davis Cup in the year 2007.

The year 2009 paved his way to the most prestigious final of the tournaments, but he could not win the most win. However, he has a long list of tournaments to witness in the year 2010 where he can pose a severe challenge to other top players and fight back his World No. 1 ranking.

Andy Roddick Tennis
Andy Roddick Tennis
Andy Roddick Tennis
Andy Roddick Tennis
Andy Roddick Tennis
Andy Roddick Tennis
Andy Roddick Tennis

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