Italian open — and shut?

This weekend's the Fed Cup finals and we all know the story of how WTA Championships winner Serena Williams decided to pull out of the tie. But you know what? I don't think it really would've made a difference because, man, that Italian team is tough!

Francesca Schiavone has been one of the hottest players on tour the past couple of months and Flavia Pennetta has been having a career year. Plus, the tie is being played on a slow red clay court. Plus, plus, it's being played in Italy. Plus, plus, PLUS … naw, I'm just kidding, those are enough factors!

This U.S. team has been amazing this year with youngsters such as Melanie Oudin and Alexa Glatch coming up big in Fed Cup play, and those two are tapped to play the Italian stars this weekend. Of course, I'm going to be pulling for Team USA this weekend because their accomplishments this season had me observing Fed Cup like never before. But what a tough row to hoe they have now. Who knows? But I'm going to have to pick Team Italia to win this one.

(Photo: AP)

Oh, Andre ...

I can't believe the news:

Andre Agassi wore a hairpiece in the early 1990s! What a bombshell he dropped in his new book! (I promise I'm not being sarcastic; I really was shocked to hear that.)

And speaking of that autobiography of his, how about the other big news that came out a few days ago? You know, the whole crystal meth thing? All I have to say is I don't know what to say about that.

I guess I do want to say this: Agassi is, without a doubt, my absolute favorite athlete of all time. Tennis has been as close to a dominant force as anything in my life and 'Dre has been there through most of it. From 1989 until the end, I followed his career every step of the way. And if I saw his name in a tournament draw, you can better believe that I expected him to win it and it didn't matter against who: I always thought he would be able to beat Pete Sampras regardless of the surface. It was just a blind faith I had, I guess.

Here's a funny thing, too: When I tried to model my game after pre-Brad Gilbert Agassi, looking back, it definitely hampered my results. I just wanted to hit all-out on the ball. That was way flashier than the play-it-safe (but winning more) Mats Wilander style I tried to emulate. But you know what? I didn't really care as I adopted that Agassi line, "It's all about the journey" for my game and life.

Anyway, I never figured Agassi to be a saint or anything: Everyone has faults. I never would've thought, though, that he would get busted in a drug test and blatantly lie about it. I mean, wow. And the ATP letting it go with a note? Double-wow. A shame, really.

Agassi's done amazing things both on and off the court, and I don't know if this really taints his legacy or not. I wish it wouldn't have been revealed at this point in the season (if at all, really) when players are still out there battling to better their place in the game and this is the hot tennis story going around.

Unless I come up with some other thoughts about it, I'm just going to keep my own disappointed counsel, and not post anything else on the matter.

And that picture? That's from one of the biggest moments in my life, getting to meet Agassi at a trade-show event in Las Vegas after, like I said, nearly following every single step of his career.

Man, this news still really sucks.

Round (and around and around) robin

The semifinals are now set at the WTA Year-End Championships in Doha with Serena Williams set to play Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams slated to go against Jelena Jankovic.

But honestly, aside from Serena going undefeated, the way everyone else advanced has my head spinning! Venus got there on sets won, Jankovic benefited from Dinara Safina's retirement and Wozniacki got help when Victoria Azarenka had to retire against alternate Agnieszka Radwanska, a real tough break for the Ukrainian.

It's been an interesting tournament, to say the least, just by the sheer unpredictability of the results. And you want to know what's really been shocking to me, though? The performance of Serena. Of course, she has the ability to run through any event she enters, but doesn't do that nearly as much as she did in her earlier years. She's gonna end the year at number one, regardless if she wins the whole shebang here or not. But going undefeated here and taking home the hardware, I think, would be a sign that she really wants to show that she's the best.

(Photo: AP)

Smile and the whole world smiles with you

The winners' lists at last week's tournaments brought a show of pearly whites to this old blogger's face. Maybe not as much as Marcos Baghdatis', but a pretty decent-sized one! A lot of players showed signs of rounding into form after dropping from their earlier highs. Why not take a quick trip back? OK, I will!

• In Stockholm, Baghdatis won his first ATP title since 2007 by beating Olivier Rochus in the final. Now about Baghdatis: Waay back when this season first kicked off, I made a mention that I thought he was due for a big comeback year. He really didn't do too much to prove me right, but he did pick up three Challenger titles and now the Stockholm crown. Can I get a rollover plan for 2010? And a doubles shout-out: Kevin Ullyett won his fifth title at the tournament, all with different partners.

• In Moscow, Mikhail Youzhny beat a player I thought was more known for being a character than a good player, Janko Tipsarevic, and Francesca Schiavone took the women's title. Both of those winners finish runner-up a LOT more than winning titles, so that was good to see them come through.

• Young Swiss miss Timea Bacsinszky won her first career title beating young German miss Sabine Lisicki in the finals. It's always great to see the youngsters duke it out!

And while all that main-draw action was happening, three Challenger results also gave me a good reason to grin as TTA? faves Xavier Malisse, Donald Young and Eduardo Schwank won in France, California and Chile, respectively.

Good show by all and a nice way to start wrapping up the season!

(Photo: AP)

How will history judge Nikolay Davydenko?

Maybe you expected it, but if you didn't, no worries: I'll bet you're like about 95 percent of the tennis fans out there!

I'm referring to Nikolay Davydenko winning one of the ATP Tour's biggest stops, the Shanghai Masters. He followed up his near-classic semifinal win over Novak Djokovic with a straight-set defeat of Rafael Nadal, the top seed. This is Davydenko's fourth title of the season, all coming post-Wimbledon. I wonder if his legs are a little fresher after being sidelined in the early part of the year? (I still vote "no" on a shorter season!) But there I go again, making excuses for a Davydenko win.

You see, he regularly slips under my radar (and I don't think I'm the only one: Check out this posting at Tennis From Beyond the Baseline on that). But the fact of the matter is this: The dude can ball. Great strokes and excellent footspeed help him seriously grind down his opponents. I think he can open up a point in the middle of a rally almost as good as anyone out there.

Here's the thing, though: Why hasn't he won a Slam, or even made a Slam final.

It seems luck, mainly bad for him, has a lot to do with it. Aside from the loss to Mariano Puerta in 2005 at the French, his other pre-final runs at Majors have been ended by someone named Roger Federer. I thought this year at the French after Nadal lost that he was going to be the guy to make it to the finals from that side, but Robin Soderling blasted him.

Also, I used to have the idea that Tommy Haas was the best player in the Open era to never make a Slam final, mainly because of his career-high number-two ranking. Now I'm not so sure. Davydenko's gotten as high as number three and could realistically end his career with 30 titiles (more than two probable Hall of Famers, countrymen Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin). If there's nary a Slam final on his resume, where does that leave him and his legacy in the game?

I guess as just a footnote, if that.

(Photo: Getty Images)

Season of discontent

The quarters are set in Shanghai, but it seems like all the talk this week has been about injuries leading to match retirements and the big issue on players' minds: a longer offseason.

Scratch that: I meant on "some" players' minds. It's not everybody, but two of the game's big dawgs on the ATP Tour, Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick, have made their thoughts known on the subject. But here's something I thought of that should be brought up: Why hasn't Novak Djokovic come out and said anything? That guy plays almost more than anyone and I can't recall him missing major time with an injury. Is it a matter of training better and more efficiently?

Or what about Robin Soderling? He's been out there chasing points like crazy and has been getting pretty deep in draws. I haven't heard him say anything.

But I'll take it out of the top 10: What about young up-and-comer Marin Cilic? He just had the biggest win of his career last week with beating Nadal. I've heard nary a peep from that camp.

And how about the journeyman? Take Robert Kendrick, for instance: He bounces between Challengers and main tour events all through the year. Guy probably can't get enough opportunities to play!

Now I'm not trying to make light of some players' concerns. I just don't see the need to reduce the season, and I don't know if this (possibly injury-prone?) contingent should be doing all this talking for its peers, especially when it seems a vast majority is doing OK with things as is.

(Photo: Getty Images)

Remember Australia '08?

You know what? Maybe there does need to be a longer offseason for the pros (and as Freakyfrites of GoToTennis once said) for the bloggers, too!

Last night, I was trying to remember when Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga played in the finals of the Australian Open. To me, for some reason, it felt like it was years and years ago, not just January '08. The days are really starting to blur together! This came to my mind upon hearing that they both made finals in China and Tokyo, respectively, and each were going for their third titles of the year.

From that Aussie Open on, the Slam results have been mixed, to say the least, especially as I thought they would have made multiple Major finals since then. But as I mentioned, the two have still been picking up titles and did so today. Djokovic knocked off Marin Cilic in straights and Jo-Willy did the same to Mikhail Youzhny.

Djoko and Tsonga play a great style of tennis, one that'll see them facing off in more Slam finals in the future, I'm sure.

(Photos: Djokovic, AP; Tsonga, Getty Images)