Taylor will be doing one-on-one off-court spotlight interviews with the stars for the US Open website at this year's championships. Catch all the video clips here (and if I do say so myself, he seems to be a natural)!

Here's the 411: I am currently in my final year of college, and things are getting quite crazy with finishing up my degree and applying for medical school and such, I know it's not an excuse! What I've decided is to look for people to help out with the site, as obviously it's become too much for me to do every day, and I truly want Taylor Dent Online to be a regular source of news for all Taylor fans. But I can't start all the work until Christmas vacation, so just let me make it to Christmas vacation and I promise you all that TDO shall be up again!

If you have web experience and can commit to helping out with Taylor Dent Online on a regular basis, you can feel free to contact me now. I will have a better idea what is needed over Christmas, but roughly I'd need someone to help with the photos (daily), someone to help maintain articles and interviews (daily), someone to update stats (weekly), &etc. If any or all sound interesting to you (but you must be able to commit), drop me a line sometime!

Last month the Knoxville Racquet Club hosted the 2nd annual Hammers and Racquets event, a tennis event that raises money for Knoxville Habitat for Humanity. Participating in the event were hometown boy Chris Woodruff, Mike DePalmer Jr., Ben Testerman, and Taylor. The four played a doubles set, with Woodruff and Testerman edging out, 5-4. After a live auction Taylor and Chris took the court to play two entertaining singles sets, with Taylor winning 6-4 6-4. Habitat for Humanity's mission is to help families purchase safe, decent, and affordable homes. Read more and check out the great photos here!

Taylor lost in the first round of the singles to Tim Henman, 2-6 4-6, and with Robby Ginepri in the doubles to Leander Paes and Nenad Zimonjic, 1-6 6-1 6-7. He is scheduled to play the Grand Prix de Tenis de Lyon next week.

Taylor went out in the first round of Madrid, losing 2-6 4-6 to Tim Henman. The former top-ten-ranked Brit is trying to salvage his 2005. Match stats will be posted if/when they become available.

This week the Masters Series Madrid event kicks off and Taylor is slated to take on Tim Henman in the first round later today. He is in seventh seed Gaston Gaudio's section of the draw and will contend first for a right to play tenth seed Radek Stepanek. Taylor has 75 points to defend from last year's quarterfinal showing, where he lost to David Nalbandian in straight sets.
Last week Taylor lost in the first round of the if... Stockholm Open to Davide Sanguinetti, 6-2 4-6 4-6. The week before lost in the quarterfinal of the AIG Tokyo Outdoor to Jarkko Niemenin, 4-6 7-5 6-7(3), after winning his third round match the same day against Wayne Arthurs, 6-4 6-7(5) 6-3. Hopefully Taylor can defend his points this week and press for a top 25 finish (he's currently 28th on this week's entry rankings).

From a TVNZ article about the recent doping issues regarding Mariano Puerta:[more]
From an article in The Age last week about Hopman Cup:[more]
From last week's upset in Stockholm:[more]

Look! A tiebreaker! Not necessarily a shock when Taylor plays hard-serving lefty Wayne Arthurs, nor is it surprising that Taylor lost the breaker to Arthurs today. But despite that he took their third-round match 6-4 6-7(5) 6-3 to set up a quarterfinal against Finn Jarko Niemenin. Due to the rain delay earlier in the week they are playing today also -- check back for the result! Of the three other top five seeds that made the quarters, only one has survived: fifth seed Mario Ancic prevailed where second seed Radek Stepanek and third seed Robby Ginepri could not. Ancic downed Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, the conquerer of top seed Mariano Puerta in earlier rounds.

From ATPtennis.com:[more]

After a first-round bye, Taylor finally took to the court on Thursday after rain postponed his Wednesday start. He downed Dimitri Tursanov 6-3 7-6(3) to reach the third round, where he'll play hard-serving Aussie Wayne Arthurs.

From TennisKatrina.com:[more]
Taylor's sneakers from the 2005 US Open third round match vs. Lleyton Hewitt went for US $775 on eBay. His Adidas shirt from the same match went for US $660.

I suppose you can tell by the time between this and the last update that school has started for yours truly again. Boo! But I shall endeavor to soldier on, and will also be putting out info for anyone who'd like to help out here at TDO soon.
Anyhow, Taylor is playing the AIG in Tokyo, where he's seeded fourth. In round two he'll take on Russian talent Dmitri Tursanov on Wednesday (shedule of play). Check out the draw and be sure to check out all the field at the official site.

First, I am pleased as punch at all the new traffic Taylor Dent Online is getting, whether you've been here before or just recently stumbled across it, whether you've been following Taylor since Aptos '97 or saw him play for the first time just this past month in New York -- welcome! Traffic always surges around a grand slam event, but I hope you all will continue following Taylor throughout the year: tennis has an eleven-month season after all, there is just about always action to follow. And Taylor always does well at the indoor hardcourt and carpet tournaments that cap each year, so this is a great time to be getting into his career!
Second, I just wanted to gently remind everyone that this website is a fan-run website: I, a lowly fan with no connections or influence to speak of, operate TDO with no official affiliation to Taylor Dent. This means that a) any personal opinions I am foolish enough to let slip are not necessarily endorsed by Taylor Dent or his management or family, etc, and b) that any fan mail delivered through this website is delivered to me, the said lowly fan of a webmaster, and not Taylor Dent or his management or family. If you wish to leave Taylor a message, please leave them in the guestbook; if you have a specific question for Taylor, let me know in your email that you want me to pass it on to him and I will do my best. I make no guarantees, but I am more than happy to try to help anybody interested in Taylor's tennis and career. I will not pass on messages of good luck and congratulations to Taylor simply because this would be too inconvenient, not because Taylor doesn't appreciate his fans. Hopefully Taylor reads the messages in the guestbook, because there are a lot of lovely sentiments there from fans over the years. That's another thing I can't guarantee, of course, but as a fan-run site TDO has no real right to impose demands on the free time of Taylor or his management or family.
As always, let me know if you're confused, and thanks for your visit!

A little bird (in the form of certain American telelvision tennis commentators) has it that Taylor plans to head for Sarasota to work at Bolletieri's, the famed tennis training academy that has churned out greats from Seles to Courier to Sharapova and more.
Oh, alright alright. It's not technically a rumour, I just wanted to use the rumour icon again. You know, its so hard to come across juicy tennis gossip. Anyway, Taylor actually confirmed the plans in his post-match interview from Sunday:Of course, it would go a long way in silencing those who say that Taylor's not serious about his fitness. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long to see if the deal went through.

An update on upcoming tournaments: the China Open draw has come out with no trace of Taylor, so Beijing has been taken off the schedule. Still looking out to see if he'll reprise his Thailand Open appearance, but as with the China Open, Bangkok is only a speculation based on previous years' entries. Beyond that Taylor's next confirmed appearance is Tokyo's Japan Open at the start of October. Stay tuned.

The Curse of the Defunct DSL has struck yours truly, and that's why TDO hasn't been updated in a week. Plus, it's always a bit harder to update after a loss, which is what Taylor suffered at the hands of Lleyton Hewitt this past Sunday. The fiery Aussie took the dramatic five-set contest (perhaps a Hewitt-Dent Grand Slam tradition in the making) 6-3 3-6 6-7 6-2 7-5 with passing shots like lasers and nerves of steel. Though both men's serves let them down at various times on Sunday, it was Taylor's game that suffered the more. Yet as he often does, Taylor remained positive after the loss: "Believe it or not, I'm encouraged with the fact that it's not something else that let me down. It's not another thing about my tennis that I have to worry about. It's still just the serve." Be sure to check out all the quotes from all the articles posted, including three new excellent pieces from Monday, and catch Taylor's final post-match interview from the 2005 US Open. If there is time then yours truly will highlight a few important points and quotes out in the near future.
Unfortunately photos will not be up until yours truly has internet at home again (probably next weekend) sine the public library doesn't allow downloading files -- apologies! But for once its actually not my fault

Career Head-to-head: 1-4
   2005 Wimbledon, Grass, R16: Hewitt 6-4 6-4 6-7 6-3
   2005 Adelaide, Hard, Q: Dent 67-6 6-3
   2003 Scottsdale, Hard, S: Hewitt 6-2 6-4
   2001 Indianapolis, Hard, R32: Hewitt 6-2 7-6
   2001 Wimbledon, Grass, R64: Hewitt 1-6 7-5 6-3 6-7 6-3
Analysis, Matthew Cronin (usopen.org):[more]
Hewitt on playing Taylor:[more]
Taylor on playing Hewitt:[more]

Third match, third time a morning start. This time, Taylor will take on third seed Lleyton Hewitt as the 11:30 AM match on Arthur Ashe.
Arthur Ashe 11.30 AM Start
1. Men's Singles - 3rd Rnd.
Lleyton Hewitt (AUS)[3] vs. Taylor Dent (USA)[25]
Not Before 2:00 PM
2. Women's Singles - 4th Rnd.
Maria Sharapova (RUS)[1] vs. Sania Mirza (IND)
Not Before 3:45 PM
3. Women's Singles - 4th Rnd.
Venus Williams (USA)[10] vs. Serena Williams (USA)[8]

Post-match interview: Transcript
Post-match interview: Video
Article: Dent aims not to let Hewitt rattle him
Article: Dent vs. Hewitt Highlights Open Third Round
More articles
Photos up!

Taylor took 155 minutes to dispatch 19-year-old Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, 6-3 6-2 4-6 7-5. With the win he improves one on last year's second-round exit, though is yet one shy of his best appearance at the US Open (2003 fourth round). He will play Australian former champ Lleyton Hewitt, who took out a game Jose Acasuso in three sets. Taylor is 1-4 against Hewitt, his only win coming earlier this year in the Adelaide quarterfinal, 7-6 6-3. The third-seeded Hewitt took Taylor out in the second round of Wimbledon this year. Below are the match stats from today.

Match Summary	Almagro(ESP)	Dent(USA)
1st Serve %	82 of 148 = 55 %	55 of 113 = 49 %
Aces	10	17
Double Faults	7	10
Unforced Errors	43	34
Winning %, 1st Serve	54 of 82 = 66 %	43 of 55 = 78 %
Winning %, 2nd Serve	30 of 66 = 45 %	34 of 59 = 58 %
Winners (Incl. Service)	52	50
Receiving Pts. Won	36 of 114 = 32 %	64 of 148 = 43 %
Break Pt. Conversions	3 of 4 = 75 %	6 of 16 = 38 %
Net Approaches	20 of 26 = 77 %	73 of 119 = 61 %
Total Pts. Won	120	141
Fastest Serve	139 MPH	148 MPH
Average 1st Serve Speed	120 MPH	124 MPH
Average 2nd Serve Speed	91 MPH	101 MPH
Match Time	2hr 35min