THE BEST THING SINCE THE DAGWOOD: A blogger on a Tennis Warehouse forum asked, “Is it just me or does Brooklyn Decker sound like some kind of sandwich?”
TAYLOR MADE: Taylor Dent carried his U.S. Open momentum into the Tulsa Challenger, where he dispatched Wayne Odesnik in the final for his first pro win in six years.
WHY DO TENNIS PLAYERS BOTHER RETIRING?: Another un-retirement? Yep. You can now add Joachim Johansson to the ever-growing list of those on the comeback trail (think Clijsters, Henin, etc.) The Swede scored an impressive 7-6(7), 6-3 win over Lleyton Hewitt in the first round of the Proton Malaysian Open. The 27-year-old, who downed Andy Roddick and reached the ’04 U.S. Open semis (where, ironically, he lost to Hewitt) and climbed as high as No. 9, retired from the tour in ‘08 after three years of battling shoulder injuries. (Wait a minute — didn’t Johansson used to date Lleyton’s sister, Jaslyn? We smell a conspiracy.)
THE NUMBERS
15.5: Million dollars raised for Andre Agassi‘s foundation through his Grand Slam for Children concert.
70: Percent of break points saved by Ivo Karlovic in ’09.
QUOTEBOOK
“We didn’t ever consider dropping Serena.” — Brand manager Courtney Schuster, whose company, Tampax, inked Williams to a series of print ads and web-only videos prior to her U.S. Open meltdown
“Back to reality. Back to work. No crowd. Just me and my backyard. It wasn’t as fun.” — Jesse Witten on his anticlimactic, post-USO stay at home in Naples, Fla.
“You could open a macrobiotic restaurant in Texas. You could manufacturer SUV’s when oil exceeds $100 a barrel. You could hire Michael Vick to endorse your brand of pet food. But if you really wanted to lose money, why not just run a tennis tournament in the autumn?” — Jon Wertheim
