Yay, Tennis!

The 2009 U.S. Open tennis tournament officially gets underway Monday, and in keeping with our whole “imbalanced” approach to covering things we are choosing to ignore actor Alec Baldwin’s endorsement of the tournament’s various “Green Initiatives.”

And yes, you are welcome for that.

Seriously … so there are 500 additional recycling bins at this year’s tournament? Yippee. Now go back to reading Tina Fey’s stuff on 30 Rock, Alec.

Anyway, as was the case last month at Wimbledon, our focus at the US Open is on the hotties -  especially when they play each other.

And right now (pre-”Babushka Effect,” mind you) there is none hotter than Maria Sharapova – she of the beaucoup endorsements and 101-decibel grunts.

Sure, she isn’t the player she was back in 2006, when she won the U.S. Open, nor is she really even the player she was last year when she won the Australian Open, her third career grand slam title.  That’s because in October of 2008, Sharapova (a.k.a. “Masha”) had major shoulder surgery that knocked her out of singles competition for eight months.

Since returning to the game, Sharapova has struggled mightily with her serve – and struggled to climb back to the No. 1 world ranking she previously held.  She’ll be seeded 29th at the Open, which is consistent with her No. 30 world ranking.

Of course, in the ranking that really matters (the one in our founding editor’s pants … errr, heart), Sharapova is and has always been No. 1 among tennis babes!

WEB EXTRA

U.S. Open (Official Site)

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