Tennis Chatter: Between the Cups

It's Wednesday in Seattle, which means rain, wind and gray skies all come together for one day of inspiring weather! Needless to say winter is in full force here, but we're lucky not to be in the South, where I can't imagine the devastation the tornado victims are going through right now.

It's been a wacky week in the neighborhood that I live in: last week there was a shooting at a burger joint, then a woman threatening to kill herself on a church roof along with a wondering homeless lady who came into my cafe Monday morning pleading with me to call 911.

I guess living in the city never has it's dull moments, right?

The dull moment that engrossed the tennis world (aka last week) is over for now, as the women have battled it out in round one of Fed Cup and the men are getting set for their own ties this coming weekend.

My friend Erwin over at TSF has put together a little preview (with some visuals, of course) of what he is calling the "Center of his Universe:" the Russia versus Serbia tie.

While Russia-Serbia is promising plenty of good-looking guys and hopefully some good-looking tennis, there are plenty of enjoyable match-ups in the first round of the men's action.

If you missed this juicy story from last week's tie between Israel and Russia, I would check it out. Craig Hickman gives a great play-by-play of how Maria Sharapova pulled a Justine (via the '04 Aussie, not '03 French). It even includes a clip from JuJuBean's disgraceful moment! How spectacular!

For some reason, the YouTube clips have been pulled of the incidents in Israel. Speculations as to why... ?

And while the American men focus on taking care of the Austrians this weekend, Joel Drucker tells us what Andy Roddick needs to focus on in order to once again be a top 5 threat on the ATP Tour.