A woman’s place is on tennis court
Gilles Simon was either trying to drum up interest in a Wimbledon tournament overshadowed by Euro 2012 or auditioning for a future Fox News Channel show when he ranted about men's tennis players deserving to be paid more than the women.
According to the Associated Press, Simon told reporters in French that he thinks "men's tennis is ahead of women's tennis" and "men spend twice as long on (the) court as women do at Grand Slams."
Some people may have been with him there, but he went a bit too far when he continued the diatribe, adding men "provide a more attractive show" in their matches.
Has he seen Maria Sharapova play?
Fittingly, it was Sharapova who offered the perfect return of Simon's nonsensical serve.
"I'm sure there are a few more people that watch my matches than his," she said.
Touche.
Serena Williams, seated next to Sharapova at the news conference, piled on by stating the obvious.
"Definitely a lot more people are watching Maria than Simon. She's way hotter than he is."
Tough to argue with that.
Simon, though, likely didn't hear any of it. He couldn't understand why the women were sitting up there talking when dinner wasn't cooked yet.
■ MAGIC BULLET - Fans at baseball games are often warned to stay alert for balls and bats that may leave the playing surface.
No matter how closely Charles Sweatt was paying attention, he had no way of avoiding the object that struck his leg during a Tampa Bay Rays game at Tropicana Field on June 16.
Sweatt's leg was hit by a stray bullet, believed to have been fired a mile or two from the stadium, according to St. Petersburg, Fla., police.
If you're thinking, "Wait, isn't that a domed stadium?" you're right.
The bullet is thought to have pierced the roof and hit Sweatt's right thigh, only bruising the 54-year-old. He first thought he was hit by a foul ball after feeling the mild sting from the impact.
The odds of such an event taking place are quite long, but the chances of it not being in Oakland are astronomical.
■ HITTING THE BOOKS - Of course, everyone knows most elite college basketball players are more student than athlete.
Top 25 teams are littered with players who view basketball simply as a distraction between tests.
In fact, those pesky classes may be the sole reason former North Carolina point guard and Phoenix Suns draftee Kendall Marshall struggled with his jump shot during his college career.
After his name was called Thursday night at the NBA Draft, Marshall explained his offensive woes to Brett Pollakoff of Probasketballtalk.com.
"Kendall Marshall said he knows he needs to work on his shooting, but 'now that school won't get in the way' he's not worried about it," Pollakoff tweeted.
Thank goodness Marshall has been relieved of that burden.
If hard work in the classroom is inversely proportional to success on the field, the UNLV football team must be full of Rhodes scholars.
COMPILED BY ADAM HILL
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
