- 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.”

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.

Competition just got interesting at the U.S. Open as Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova, and Dinara Safina have all been eliminated.

Melanie Oudin’s face was flushed from a mix of exertion and excitement and maybe even a bit of bewilderment — “Yes, I DID beat Maria Sharapova!” running through her mind — when she stepped out of the U.S. Open locker room and saw Mom.

Several hours later, on the same court, another unheralded American who has lived in Georgia pulled off another upset of a past U.S. Open champion: 55th-ranked John Isner pounded 38 aces and eliminated No. 5 Andy Roddick 7-6 (3), 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 7-6 (5) to reach the fourth round at a major tournament for the first time.

Keeping with the day’s theme, No. 1-seeded Dinara Safina exited, too, a 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (5) loser against 72nd-ranked Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic. After escaping the first two rounds with poorly played three-set victories, Safina wasted three match points Saturday night and finished with nine double-faults and 39 total unforced errors. Her departure means the Williams sisters are the only members of the top five women left in the field

On the plus side, at least Roddick was ousted by a fellow American. While I wanted to see Roddick take on Nadal in the final, I’m now completely rooting for this Isner character. The Georgia Bulldogs alum has yet to make his mark during his time on the ATP Tour. This looks like his chance.

Oudin’s story is even more exciting. Not only did she eliminate Maria Sharapova, but she upset Elena Dementieva, a two-time Grand Slam finalist and the Beijing Olympics gold medalist, in the second round. For the sake of diversity, I hope she makes it to the finals.

- AWFUL ANNOUNCING reports (via SI) that Erin Andrews will appear on Oprah to discuss the peephole video.

- BALL DON’T LIE continues its flurry of top 10 lists during the NBA offseason, and this one’s a treat. They count down the worst uniforms of the last 10 years, and there are some doozies.

- FIVE TOOL TOOL offers up 10 ways to improve fantasy football.

- BLEACHER REPORT has eight beautiful reasons why we should watch the U.S. Open, starting with Maria Sharapova.

- JERSEY CHASER has pics from Thomas Jones’s birthday party that prove he’s into the number “2″ and strippers.

She was upset in the second round by Gisela Dulko.

Sharapova won seven consecutive games during one stretch but let a late lead slip away Wednesday and was beaten by Gisela Dulko 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in the second round at Wimbledon.

Gratuitous bikini photo after the jump.

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After a month of gathering more than 10 million votes, Askmen.com just released their Top 99 Women list for 2009. Anyone ready and willing to waste some time at work, you’ve got to check this thing out because as expected, there are some knockouts on the list.

Here are a couple ladies from the sports world to wet your appetite:

#26 Olympian Leyrn Franco:

#39 Former WWE star Stacy Keibler

#73 MMA Fighter Gina Carano

#83 Tennis star Maria Sharapova

#91 Race Car Driver Danica Patrick

#96 Tennis hottie Ana Ivanovic

I won’t spoil who’s No. 1, but hot-ass Marisa Miller is in the top 10, so that’s good enough for me.

Boy, is Danica Patrick’s stock slipping or what? She seems to be turning into the Anna Kournikova of the racing world, although at least she did win one major race (out of 64 starts…but still).

Stacy Keibler is smokin’. ESPN needs to pair her with Erin Andrews and have them do SportsCenter a couple times a week. It would be better than the crap they have doing the highlights now.

Head to Askmen.com to check out their Top 99 Women of 2009 list.

Fox Sports put together a good list of the top sports stories that didn’t happen in 2008.

The 10th-seeded Wildcats should have toppled Kansas in the Midwest Regional Final. Down by two points, Davidson had the final possession. It was a good three-point shooting team. All the Wildcats had to do was get somebody free to knock down the decisive trey. With one more bucket, they would have furthered the legend of March Madness.

Alas, Davidson guard Jason Richards took the last shot and clanked it. The Jayhawks escaped, 59-57, then went on to win the national title. Had Davidson done the right thing, North Carolina coach Roy Williams would not have attended the championship game as a KU fan. That was uncomfortable for everybody.

“You dream about that type of stuff when you’re a little kid, having the opportunity to win the game, take your team to the Final Four,” Richards said of his last shot. But this dream didn’t come true. “I had a great look,” he said. “Maybe you could say we could have gotten a better shot. At that point, it seemed like the best shot for us. My team had confidence in me. Unfortunately, I just missed the shot and fell short.”

Click here to see the rest of the list.