World tennis update-- a correction

Back in 2008, Ape Canyon News Service reported that French Open tennis champion Ana Ivanovic (pictured below making a fist) had spent her childhood years learning to play tennis in an empty swimming pool due to the 1999 NATO bombing of her hometown of Belgrade.

Below: A building damaged by NATO bombing

However, it has recently come to our attention that this frequently-repeated story is not entirely accurate. Apparently, while it is true that Ivanovic and other young Serbian tennis players trained in a facility converted from its former use as a swimming pool, the mental images that many of us had formed of her actually playing in an unchanged, empty swimming pool were not correct.

Below: The facility where Ivanovic practiced. For more photos, click here.

While it is certainly hard to image many of today's top tennis stars practicing in conditions such as this, it is a far cry from the slippery, dimly-lit, empty swimming pool in which we were led to believe Ivanovic was forced to train. Ape Canyon News Service asks that you accept our sincerest apologies for having perpetuated this particular piece of mis-information. We always do our best to provide accurate information to our readers, and, in cases such as this, to correct any mistakes we have made.

Above: A photograph of Ivanovic making a fist

Below: One more photograph of Ivanovic making a fist

Finally: A bonus video for you to enjoy in which Ivanovic discusses the contents of her gym bag.

What I have been reading lately #15

I just finished reading Michael Dobbs' One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War. I learned the following interesting facts about the Cuban Missile Crisis:

1. Premier Khrushchev was really short - only 5'3".

2. President Kennedy swam in the White House pool twice a day for exercise.

3. The Soviet ships carrying the missiles never were "eyeball to eyeball" with U.S. Navy vessels enforcing the quarantine. In fact, Khrushchev ordered them to turn around almost immediately after the U.S. announced the blockade.

4. Kennedy's greatest accomplishment was not facing down the Soviets but his own generals, almost all of whom wanted to launch a massive pre-emptive strike against Cuba.

French Open - Women's Final

The French Open champion was Ana Ivanovic, who is Serbian. She defeated Dinara Safina, who is from Russia. The announcers made much of Ivanovic's abnormally flexible shoulders and the fact that she had to practice tennis in an empty swimming pool while growing up in "war-torn Belgrade." At the trophy presentation following the match, Ivanovic kept talking about how she rode her bicycle to tennis practice (presumably in the empty swimming pool...) Safina referred to Ivanovic's family and coaches as "annoying", but it appeared that she was trying to be funny. She also insisted that God likes the number three.

Tomorrow will be the inevitable Federer - Nadal showdown.