- SPORTSbyBROOKS gives us one more reason to hate Sasha Vujacic. (Hint: He’s dating the girl in the picture.) They also have a strange story about Dwight Howard, as told by porn star Mary Carey.

- RED’S ARMY says that people should forget about LeBron James joining Kobe in Los Angeles. Are there actually those who think this might happen?

- PRO FOOTBALL TALK reports that the 7-1 Minnesota Vikings face potential blackouts after this week’s bye. Seriously. That’s pathetic.

- LARRY BROWN SPORTS wonders if the sign that the Chiefs posted is aimed at a certain running back with the initials “LJ.”

According to a report by ESPN.com, eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi admits to using crystal meth in 1997 in his upcoming autobiography. He also admits that he lied to tennis authorities when he failed a drug test, saying that he “unwittingly” took the substance.

According to an excerpt of the autobiography published Wednesday in The Times of London, the eight-time Grand Slam champion writes that he sent a letter to the ATP tour to explain the positive test, saying he accidentally drank from a soda spiked with meth by his assistant “Slim.”

“Then I come to the central lie of the letter,” Agassi writes. “I say that recently I drank accidentally from one of Slim’s spiked sodas, unwittingly ingesting his drugs. I ask for understanding and leniency and hastily sign it: Sincerely.

“I feel ashamed, of course. I promise myself that this lie is the end of it.”

According to the Times of London, Agassi writes in his book that “Slim” was the person who introduced him to crystal meth, dumping a small pile of powder on the coffee table.

“I snort some. I ease back on the couch and consider the Rubicon I’ve just crossed,” Agassi writes.

“There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I’ve never felt so alive, so hopeful — and I’ve never felt such energy.”

“I’m seized by a desperate desire to clean. I go tearing around my house, cleaning it from top to bottom. I dust the furniture. I scour the tub. I make the beds.”

I always find it interesting how athletes and celebrities are so willing at times to share the skeletons in their closet in order to sell their books. Here’s a guy that is one of the more popular stars to every play tennis and he outs himself as a crystal meth user in order to drum up some sales. It’s amazing, although not entirely dumb if you want people to flock to the stores to buy your book.

Maria Sharapova, who’s been mired in a horrific slump since returning from an injury 10 months ago, won the Toray Pan Pacific championship earlier today in Japan.

Sharapova was leading 5-2 in Saturday’s final at Ariake Colosseum when the seventh-seeded Jankovic took a timeout to have her right arm examined by the trainer.

The Serbian player returned to the court and lost the first two points of the eighth game before retiring.

“It’s disappointing,” Sharapova said. “It’s toward the end of the year and there are a lot of injuries so I wish Jelena a speedy recovery.”

It was Sharapova’s first title since Amelia Island in April, 2008, although she has spent long periods of the tour in the interim.

Even if Jelena Jankovic did have to retire in the first set, everyone on the WTA Tour is so broken down by the end of the year that nagging injuries are expected. I wasn’t able to catch this match for obvious reasons, but I would’ve liked to see how Sharapova looked coming out strong. She hasn’t been atrocious, but lately she’s tended to lose her rhythm rather quickly. With her performance today, Sharpova proved she’s down but not out. Anything is possible. Just look at Kim Clijsters, who won this past U.S. Open after taking two years off to start a family. Sharapova is only 22, so she has plenty of time to regain her authority.

This last U.S. Open was both entertaining and dramatic. Kim Clijsters and Juan Martin del Potro, both underdogs, captured the Grand Slam championship in their respective competitions. Getting the most press, however, was Serena Williams’ tirade against a lineswoman. (Serena was later fined $10,000.) Tennis had been fairly stable the past few years in terms of competition, top players, and sportsmanship. As of the U.S. Open, however, that sentiment is changing:

- Roger Federer, of all people, was docked $1,500 for using profanity while arguing with the chair umpire open during the men’s final. Was the expletive in Swiss-German?

- Led by Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych, the Czech Republic have reached their first Davis Cup final in 29 years after beating Marin Cilic and Lovro Zovko of Croatia in doubles.

- Spain also advanced into the Davis Cup finals, only without the services of Rafael Nadal. Spain owes a big thank you to Feliciano Lopez and Tommy Robredo. To his credit, Nadal is still suffering from abdominal pain.

- Can you believe Juan Martin del Potro is only the seventh male not named Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal to win a Grand Slam in the last seven years? Crazy. The others were Andre Agassi, Gaston Gaudio, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Marat Safin, Andy Roddick, and Novak Djokovic. In breaking it down that means, between those 28 Grand Slams, only nine champions have been crowned.

I love sports, but that doesn’t mean they’re perfect. Here are ten things that drive me crazy on a regular basis, in order of increasing stupidity:

10. The scoring system in tennis
Love? 15? 30? 40? Deuce? Actually, I kind of like “deuce.” But why not just go to four, win by two. It’s the exact same thing and a lot easier to follow when you’ve already thrown back a couple of Bloody Marys.

9. The overkill of NASCAR
Does it really take 500 laps to figure out which car and driver are the fastest? Here’s an idea: Make every race 50 to 100 laps and limit the number of pit stops. Every decision will be magnified and second-guessed and strategy will become an even bigger part of the sport.

8. Offsides (in soccer and hockey)
Anytime that you have defenders trying to encourage offsides calls by pulling up as they run/skate back to protect their goal, it’s not a good thing. There’s no offsides in basketball and it works just fine. When Randy Moss outruns a cornerback, play doesn’t stop because he has a clear path to the endzone. Why not reward anticipation and speed, and make soccer and hockey that much more exciting by creating a flurry of one-on-one situations between the striker/forward and the goalie?

Read the rest of this entry »

Per Yahoo! Sports…

Argentine Juan Martin del Potro beat five-times defending champion Roger Federer 3-6 7-6 4-6 7-6 6-2 on Monday to win his first U.S. Open title.

First and foremost, I want to commend Novak Djokovic for giving it his all. He played an incredible match, neck and neck with Federer in every set. However, while Djokovic was in top form, he’s no Roger Federer. Neither made many mistakes, earning points with well-placed shots after volleys rather than relying on aces.

After defeating Djokovic 7-6 7-5 7-5, Federer is now one match away from capturing his sixth consecutive U.S. Open Championship and sixteenth overall Grand Slam. He will face Juan Martin del Potro, the 20 year-old Argentine who defeated Rafael Nadal in straight sets earlier today. Del Potro has never made it to a Grand Slam final; Federer has been in 17 of the last 18. Who do you think is the favorite?

Djokovic and Federer provided several entertaining and clever drop shots, lobs, and lengthy volleys. Fed’s final winner in the twelfth game of the third set was just an extension of his dominance at this Grand Slam. But it was during the second to last point, seen in the video below, that caused Arthur Ashe Stadium to gasp in amazement. It’s the shot Federer is calling the greatest of his career.

Serena Williams is a badass. After dropping the first set to an unseeded Kim Clijsters, Serena slammed her racket into the court, mangling it entirely. Of course, the frustrated action wasn’t unprovoked, as she was playing far below her usual level. In the second set, Serena started to regain her form, until a terrible lineswoman decided to ruin the excitement.

With Williams serving at 5-6, 15-30 in the second set, she faulted on her first serve. On the second serve, a line judge called a foot fault, making it a double-fault. That made the score 15-40, putting Clijsters one point from victory.

Williams went over and shouted at the line judge, who walked over and reported it to the chair umpire. That led to the chair umpire awarding a penalty point to Clijsters, ending the match.

Though it is unclear what exactly Williams said to the linesperson, she was heard on the CBS broadcast telling the linesperson, “I didn’t say I would kill you. Are you serious?” during the discussion with tournament officials that followed.

Williams already had been given a code violation warning when she broke her racket after losing the first set.

What a lame way to end this exciting semifinal. At least Serena was entertaining, ripping into this dolt without restraint. Watching the countless replays on CBS, you can clearly see Serena mouth the words, “I’m going shove this ball down your f–ing throat.” Yowza. That’s my girl.

Needless to say, Kim Clijsters was outplaying Serena before all the mayhem ensued. Clijsters, a former Grand Slam champion, had taken 2 years off to nurse injuries and grieve over the death of her father. Later, she got married and even had a baby. Although her life had changed drastically, Clijsters couldn’t stay away from the game any longer. The U.S. Open is her first Grand Slam since returning and, guess what, she’s in the finals. Good for her.

She’ll face Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark on Sunday for the championship.

I didn’t say it was from a woman! How scary would it be to see some rambunctious fan storming at you, knowing what’s previously happened to Monica Seles? Still, once Nadal sensed the fan’s innocent yet homoerotic intentions, the talented Spaniard welcomed him with open arms. I heard these guys on the radio the other day — I forget which program — comparing Rafael Nadal to Alex Rodriguez, saying each is the most hated player in their respective sport. Are you kidding me? What’s not to like about Nadal? I think fans just don’t want to accept that, when 100 percent, he can beat Roger Federer on any surface.

He’s played well thus far, recently defeating Fernando Gonzalez after two days of rain postponed the match.

“I can’t tell you, because I don’t have the answer,” Gonzalez said when asked to explain his quick disintegration.

Though Nadal’s sore abdominals are still a concern, he certainly wasn’t overtaxed in this match, as he headed into what could be a very long weekend.

A match that had been a taut, well-played affair got postponed Thursday night with Nadal leading 3-2 in the second-set tiebreaker. They had to wait out an entire day of rain before coming back to the court to resume under overcast skies and temperatures in the 60s.

Final numbers: 59 unforced errors for Gonzalez to 13 for Nadal; Nadal won 31 of the 43 points played after the restart. The whole affair took 34 minutes to wrap up.

As of right now, the men’s semifinals are scheduled to take place on Sunday. Roger Federer will take on Novak Djokavic and Juan Martin del Potro will try his luck against Nadal. That is, of course, if the rain doesn’t push everything back to next year.

By now, most sports fans know about Melanie Oudin’s remarkable run at the U.S. Open. At just 17 years of age, the no. 70-ranked American defeated both Maria Sharapova and Elena Dementieva. Though she lost in the quarterfinals to Caroline Wozniacki, she’s been the most captivating athlete at the U.S. Open. Unfortunately, her success has been tainted by her parents’ pending divorce, driven by the mother’s affair with Oudin’s coach. Yikes.

All the nice things about her remain accurate and worth saying.

But once again, the adults have apparently found a way to wreck things for the kids.

Before this became public, there would be no asterisks next to what Oudin achieved. No slants, few downsides. Just praise for hard work and a job well done, under great pressure on a very public stage.

Parents going through a divorce is one thing. Tennis has that, just as in all walks of life. Rafael Nadal’s parents are going through that, and he is pretty much left alone to deal with it as he wants, despite the public nature of what he does.

But when the charge is adultery and those charged are the mother and the coach, it’s just too juicy for the public to shrug and remember only backhands and forehands.

To be honest, I don’t think either Oudin story has legs. The U.S. Open is the last Grand Slam on the tennis calendar. Obviously, Grand Slams receive the most coverage, so Oudin won’t garner our interest until the Australian Open in January. Every tennis fan loves a newfound success story, but Oudin will have to perform well in consecutive Grand Slams to really make her mark. With the tennis year coming to a close and Oudin keeping a low profile, this tripe about her parents’ divorce will naturally go away.

Oudin’s story was great while it lasted — I just wished it was an unfamiliar American male showing up the big names instead. We already have the Williams sisters.