Afternoon Baseball

Watching Maria Sharapova dominate five-time Slam winner Justine Henin-Hardenne was amazing. Not because Sharapova is hot. No, it was that she brought a brand of tennis against one of the best players of the last 15 years that makes it hard to believe she ever loses. The groundstrokes, the court coverage for such a tall player (try seeing Davenport reach some of the balls Maria gets to) and the masterful, Sampras-like serve placement and selection make for an unbeatable package.
But as glorious as it was to watch Sharapova on the court, watching her acceptance speech with Dick Enberg was, well, a lot like watching Rita from "Arrested Development." Gorgeous, but there's something missing upstairs. Is it the taking an hour to find her father in the stands after winning? The mistaking 360 degrees for 180? The thanking Henin-Hardenne for her "career" as if she's retiring? The almost destroying the trophy when she finally got it? Thank God for Enberg being classy.
EDIT: There was a bonus shot of Christine Taylor and Ben Stiller looking like they enjoy being married to each other, which is nice to see. Taylor looks as pretty at the U.S. Open as she does on-screen, and Stiller suddenly went entirely gray, which was a bit odd.


The "Nip/Tuck" season premiere was good and set up a lot of interesting plot lines for the season. I'm not part of the "hate Julia" crowd, but she was a big drain on the episode. It's hard to make a character not likeable when she's 6 months pregnant with a lobster-claw child, but that's what happened.
It seems they want to make Christian question whether several hundred women slept with is just a way to compensate for him really loving Sean. I hope that's not it. Sure, they have a metrosexual relationship, but that's a whole different thing. The best part of Christian, and a key appeal to the show, is that no matter what happens, even the Carver slicing him up and raping him, is that it boils down to one thing: It's Christian's world, and we're just part of it.
On that note, the scene with him nailing the mom and daughter is hilarious, as is the idea that they could try and lecture him. And for all of Brooke Shields trying to shame him, he gets his way. A deliciously pompous SOB, he is.