TENNIS: Maria Sharapova vs. Ashley Harkleroad

This is an easy one. Although I'm interested in the Schilling-Glavine duel and seeing if the Red Sox can sweep, today's one to watch is the tennis match between Maria Sharapova and Ashley Harkleroad. Yes, TennisTitan, I know Agassi is playing today at Wimbledon too. Nobody has been a bigger Andre fan over the years than me and I'll be rooting for him to win one for the road. But after seeing all those short-skirt Canon camera commercials recently, I'd much rather recommend that my readers follow Maria's highlights for the next 2 weeks.

Now I'm going to warn you, especially if you're not a tennis fan, you may want to turn down the volume on your tv when watching Sharapova in action. With each stroke of the ball, she lets out a loud grunt as if in pain from the sudden thrusting of her body. On second thought, if I'm going to put it that way, one might actually enjoy listening to such sounds. Perhaps it only adds to Maria's surplus of charms.

Unlike her Russian tennis-sex-goddess predecessor, Anna Kournikova, Sharapova is actually a very good tennis player. She's ranked 4th in the world and already won Wimbledon in 2004. Maria is 19 years old and at the very top of her game. Her opponent today is a player I've heard of but never really seen. Ashley Harkleroad is American, 21 years old, blonde, from the state of Georgia, and ranked 76th in the world. These are generally good qualities but they just can't compare with the form I'm seeing in those Canon commercials.

My pick: Maria Sharapova. In all seriousness, Sharapova has a power game that only a select few players can match when she's playing well. And she's got a body that only one player-turned-model can match (even if Kournikova plays like shit in doing so).



So that's what I'll be watching today. Who will you be watching? Maria Sharapova? Or Maria Sharapova?