SAY IT AIN’TSO: Wayne Odesnik pleaded guilty to importing HGH into Australia prior to the Australian Open. He was fined $8,320 and could be banned for two years. Said fellow American James Blake, “I’m glad they caught him.” (A bit odd, don’t you think, that Odesnik is being coached by Argentine Guillermo Canas, who himself served a doping suspension after testing positive for a masking agent?)
TAKING TENNIS TO NEW HEIGHTS: In the Players’ Lounge at the Sony Ericsson, Kim Kardashian asked altitudinous John Isner and Sam Querrey, “How tall are you guys? My sister’s husband is 6-foot-9.” (Her sister’s husband is L.A. Lakers forward Lamar Odom.)
A-ROD AND D-WADE: Andy Roddick and Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade played a game of HORSE at the Sony Ericsson Open. Tweeted Roddick before the matchup, “I better not embarrass myself.”
A MARRIAGE ACROSS BORDERS: Talk about your cultural divides. It was one thing to see Amir Hadad, an Israeli, play doubles with Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, a Pakistani. Now India’s Sania Mirza says she will marry Pakistani cricket star Shoaib Malik. (The revelation comes only two months after Mirza broke off her engagement to a childhood friend, Sohrab Mirza.)
ANARCHY IN THE UK: A group of British politicians calling itself the All-Party Parliamentary Tennis Group issued a damning report of the state of professional tennis in the UK. According to the report, “Given the remarkable level of expenditure, in excess of 60 million pounds [$90 million] annually, it should be possible to deliver better outcomes than at present.”
WHERE’S THE HARMAN-Y?: The Times of London’s Neil Harman said that tennis is “in such disarray in Britain that it is hard to know where to start recounting how bad it has become.”
HEADLINES
Mardy Fish Exposes Frailties in Floundering Andy Murray
Murray Battered By Fish
THE NUMBERS
25-30: Pounds shed by Mardy Fish (who took down Andy Murray 6-4, 6-4 in Miami) following knee surgery.
QUOTEBOOK
“There’s nothing worse than that. That’s just plain cheating, and they should throw him out of tennis. There’s just no room for it.” — Andy Roddick on Wayne Odesnik, who was nabbed for importing HGH into Australia
“Perhaps Ernests should have to pay his own ‘carbon tax’ whenever he deliberately destroys a racket.” — Tom Tebbutt on Latvian Ernests Gulbis, who recently confessed to breaking more than 50 frames in anger in ’09
“I need to get focused again.” — Andy Murray
