FanHouse

Shamefully, Agassi Fails the Trust Test

Greg Couch — 2009-10-30T16:30:00 00:00

Filed under: ATP

You're being handled, played, manipulated. I am, too.

Where is Andre Agassi? Why hasn't he come out in the past 72 hours to tell us that drugs weren't the greatest thing to happen to him, no matter what his book excerpts seem to say? Why has this man who has done so many great things with his school for disadvantaged kids, let the message just hang out there?

Drugs fun. Hate tennis. Bad relationship with Dad.

If he wanted to clear his soul, to confess to his sins, then why did he need be paid $5 million to do it.

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Serena Williams Is No. 1, and Deserves It

Greg Couch — 2009-10-28T20:30:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: WTA, WTA Rankings

She threatened a player, didn't try most of the year, famously threatened a line judge and was thrown out of a match.

The other thing Serena Williams did in 2009 was this:

She won the year-end No. 1 ranking. It became official Wednesday in Doha, Qatar, at the WTA Championships when Dinara Safina, the current No. 1 Williams was trying to overcome, withdrew from the tournament with a bad back. It guaranteed that Williams would finish the year No. 1 for the first time since 2002.

Two more things: She deserves it.

And it's the best thing for tennis.

More Coverage: Serena Stays Unbeaten in Doha

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Agassi's Admission Falls in Gray Zone

Greg Couch — 2009-10-28T00:20:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: Media Watch

Image is everything. That what's Andre Agassi told us from the start. It has been the headline to his career, his life.

He went from the punk kid, all image and no substance, to the grown man philanthropist, creating, running and also raising funds for a charter school for disadvantaged kids.

He grew up so well, cleaned up so nicely, and won a humanitarian award in September at the U.S. Open. Now he comes back with this:

Agassi writes in his autobiography that he regularly used crystal meth on tour in 1997 when he was 27 years old. He failed the tennis tour's drug test, and then lied his way out of it by saying he had accidentally taken a drink from a glass of his assistant who, he said, used to spike his own drinks with the drug.

Why, Andre? Why did you do it? Why did you feel the need to say it? What happens to your image now?

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Torturous Wait Ends for Ball State Coach

Greg Couch — 2009-10-24T21:00:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: Ball State, Eastern Michigan

YPSILANTI, Mich. -- Stan Parrish wins again. He won in 1986, and now he won again Saturday.

In between? Well, no. No wins as a head coach. But on Saturday, Parrish, the head coach at Ball State put an end, briefly at least, to 23 years and six days of head coaching pain.

Ball State 29, Eastern Michigan 27.

That's the last two years of Reagan, two Bushes, one Clinton and closing in on a year of Obama without leading a team to victory.

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Was the Fix in on Wozniacki's 'Injury'?

Greg Couch — 2009-10-21T20:04:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: WTA

In a sport that has had a serious gambling scandal involving suspicions of match-fixing, how are we supposed to take Caroline Wozniacki's match the other day?

I'm starting to wonder exactly how many tennis matches aren't really on the up-and-up. Wozniacki, who reached the U.S. Open final, led Anne Kremer 7-5, 5-0 Tuesday at the Luxembourg Open.

And that's when Wozniacki chose to retire from the match with an injury. No broken bones. No fall. She had won seven straight games and was four points from winning.

"The injury suddenly happened," she said.

No way.

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Martina Hingis Fades From Game

Greg Couch — 2009-10-20T20:20:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: WTA

Some of the excuses from these athletes are just laughable. They thought they were just injecting vitamins in their behinds. They didn't know the ingredients in that medicine. They must have gotten it in their systems by kissing a woman who had been using the stuff at a bar.

Martina Hingis never made an excuse for failing a cocaine test. She said she never did the stuff and had no clue how it could have gotten into her system, if it really did.

So it's over for Hingis. She failed that test more than two years ago, and now her suspension is up, and it's the era of comebacks in women's tennis. I always figured she'd try again. A failed drug test was no way for a great athlete to end a career.

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Serena, Lineswoman Won't Hug It Out

Greg Couch — 2009-10-19T22:15:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: U.S. Open, WTA

Two days after threatening to shove a tennis ball down her throat, Serena Williams said she would like to give a U.S. Open line judge "a big ole hug."

Unfortunately, that happy -- heartfelt? -- reunion will have to wait. The Serena line judge, whose identity has remained a secret, will not be at the WTA Tour Championships next week in Doha, Qatar.

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No Pain, No Gain on the Tours

Greg Couch — 2009-10-19T19:00:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: WTA, ATP

Three weeks. That's all Andy Roddick is expected to miss with the knee injury that knocked him out of the Shanghai Masters last week in the middle of his first-round match.

It should still give him time to qualify for the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London in November.

"Results of the MRI [scan] showed a mild sprain of his medial collateral ligament of the left knee," said a statement on Roddick's website. "The news was very good for Andy. No surgery will be needed and Andy is expected to make a 100 percent recovery."

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Gimme a 'T' for Texas and 'T' for Terrible

Greg Couch — 2009-10-17T20:30:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: Oklahoma, Texas, Big 12

DALLAS -- Colt McCoy did it all with a sore thumb. Colt McCoy also had lost his voice during the week because of a cold. Colt McCoy saved the game with a tackle. A tackle from a quarterback!

This is why headlines and highlights aren't enough. Texas beat Oklahoma 16-13 Saturday to go 6-0 and keep up its run toward the national championship in its System Stinks Redemption Tour.

But when you watch the recap on ESPN and hear the fairy tale of McCoy, keep this in mind:

He wasn't any good.

And Texas? Worse.

More Coverage: Sam Bradford Down, Sooners Are Out

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Players Divided Over Grueling Schedule

Greg Couch — 2009-10-15T20:10:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: WTA, ATP

It seemed so simple at first, when Andy Roddick made his point better than anyone could. He complained on Monday that the tennis schedule is too demanding, and warned that star players could start dropping.

Then his knee popped, and he dropped.

But that has turned into a disagreement between two former No. 1 players, Roddick and Marat Safin, and other players have piped in over the hot topic on tour now. And it all shows how difficult this scheduling mess will be to clear up.

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Hellish Schedule Breaking Down Players

Greg Couch — 2009-10-13T23:30:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: WTA, ATP

Andy Roddick warned us. Everyone has been warning us, really, with words or with pain, or meltdowns.

But on Monday, Roddick complained that the tennis schedule is too rough on the players. He called the requirements of the tour "ridiculous," and warned that the short-sightedness of the rules-makers might cut short the careers of stars.

More Coverage: Del Potro Joins Shanghai Injured List

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Worth the Weight: Serena Does Right Thing With Body Issue

Greg Couch — 2009-10-12T15:00:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: WTA

Serena Williams appeared nude, or at least awfully close, on the cover of ESPN the Magazine's The Body Issue last week, and there was probably some uncomfortable line crossed for women's sports between selling sex and sport.

But if so, it was worth it. Williams has found a great new role, an important role, though the message would have come through much stronger without air-brushing, by celebrating form exactly the way form is. Heaven forbid if any photo-shopping was involved.

Williams looks great in the magazine, as do, frankly, all the other athletes, male and female, inside. But Williams is pushing the line here more than most of the others, and I'd just like to say this:

Good for her. Somehow, we have pushed a dangerous ideal on young girls everywhere, celebrating size zero walking down a runway. Why do we want girls to feel like zeroes anyway?

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Eat Something Damir, No One Cares if You Don't

Greg Couch — 2009-10-08T19:30:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: Police Blotter, WTA

This is probably not the right form of protest for tennis' ultimate Psycho Dad, Damir Dokic. See, the thing is, if you choose to hurt yourself, it's only effective if people care.

Dokic has spent enough time bullying, intimidating and threatening, much of that allegedly directed at his daughter, Jelena Dokic, that he doesn't exactly have the stuff of a martyr.

"I am very worried," Damir's lawyer, Bosijka Djukic, told the Associated Press Thursday.

So that's one. And Djukic said that Dokic' wife -- that makes two who apparently care -- had said that Damir won't take food, water or medicine in protest of his 15-month prison term in Serbia.

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Safina Didn't Have 'It' for No. 1 Spot

Greg Couch — 2009-10-06T20:00:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: WTA, WTA Rankings

The pain is over. The anguish, the torture, the pressure, the agony.

When Dinara Safina took the No. 1 ranking in women's tennis in April, she said it was her childhood dream. She also apologized for it, which was our first warning.

But now, finally, she has lost the ranking. Serena Williams, after her 6-3, 6-2 victory over Russian Ekaterina Makarova in the second round of the China Open Tuesday, will move to No. 1 next week. It's a much better fit for everyone.

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No Safety Net as Tennis Weighs Potential Serena Punishment

Greg Couch — 2009-10-05T15:31:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: WTA, WTA Rankings

The stakes go way up now.

Tennis' governing bodies have no way out of a racial mess over Serena Williams.

No. 1 Dinara Safina, a point of controversy over why she has that ranking in the first place, lost again Monday. And now, Williams has to win just one more match, Tuesday in China against a nobody, to finally regain her spot as No. 1 in the world.

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Fans of Bears, Lions Finally Have Quarterbacks to Cheer

Greg Couch — 2009-10-04T20:30:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: Chicago Bears, Lions, NFL Quarterbacks

CHICAGO - Matthew Stafford stood by his locker in jeans and polo shirt denying that he had ever screamed: "No, I'm all right. I don't remember yelling.''

But you did. You grabbed your knee and screamed after a sack by Adewale Ogunleye, and then you didn't come back into the game.

"(Then) it was a silent yell.''

A few minutes later, he walked out while a few of us stood there pretending not to watch him do it.

"Giving me the eye test, huh?" he said. "See if I can walk?"

More: Check Box Score | Green Bay-Minnesota MNF Preview

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Chicago's Party Over Before It Started

Greg Couch — 2009-10-02T16:23:00 00:00

by Greg CouchCHICAGO -- The party hadn't even started. The Daley Plaza downtown was packed with thousands of fans surrounding the huge Picasso sculpture, whatever it is, that's an iconic point of the city. By 9 a.m. Friday, the three big screens set up were showing early Olympic stuff. Across the street, a banner draped on a building with a the word "Imagine."

This was going to be the day Chicago got the 2016 Olympics.

Announcement at 11:57 a.m. The city waited. Well, it was planning to wait, anyway. Because it was around 10:15 or so that word from the first-round of voting came out.

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Krumm Pulls Off Comeback of the Ages

Greg Couch — 2009-09-27T21:30:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: WTA

For tennis players, things can hurt at 19, but the body heals in about 15 minutes. At 29, "Well, I'm probably going to groan when I get up out of this seat,'' said James Blake, describing it.

"You feel the knees a little more. You feel the back. I can't roll out of the car and hit anymore. I need to be in there stretching, be on the bike for five minutes, do all these things to warm up my body. It's not as much fun."

That's what makes it so amazing that Kimiko Date Krumm won the Korea Open Sunday, beating Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-3, 6-3.

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Clijsters Aces Tough Tennis Schedule

Greg Couch — 2009-09-25T00:15:00 00:00

by Greg Couch

Filed under: WTA

Kim Clijsters walked into her press conference Thursday and made a big statement: "I'm here to announce the end of my second career ...

"Just joking."

No, she didn't end it. Instead, she probably lengthened it. What she did was declare her independence from the grueling tennis schedule that once left her burned out mentally and physically.

It's a schedule that seems impossible to master, and leaves too many players trying hard and wearing out. Serena Williams has lasted for years, but has done it by trying only during majors, then lacking the attitude of a champion the rest of the year.

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Indiana State Football's Sad State

Greg Couch — 2009-09-24T01:15:00 00:00

by Greg CouchTERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- It used to be a source of pride at Indiana State. I mean, it was only 1967 when the school became the first place to put AstroTurf in an outdoor stadium. Back then, that was moonshot-age stuff, a symbol for Indiana State football.

But decay and deterioration hit. Neglect, too. That was the worst part. You're supposed to replace the stuff every 10 years. They didn't, and in the 1980s, it got hard. It was something to overcome, a badge of courage. And the teams won big.

"I still have marks all over my body from it," Trent Miles, the current head coach and former player from those glory days said after Wednesday's practice.

He rolled up the outside of his shorts to show a big burn mark.

The turf lived on for years, but the program did not. Indiana State is now the worst college football team in the country. The. Worst.

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