US OPEN

James Blake needs to start playing tennis topless. But if not, then the Mets jersey works fine for me. Blake gave a shout out to Carlos Beltran of the New York Mets…love the support that Blake has been giving his team, and love his swing at the Open. “I need to let people know I am a true, blue Mets fan.” Blake spanked Tomas Berdych outta the Open, but had a much more difficult task ahead of him. Spanking the arrogance outta Roger Federer.

And last night, the beast put up one hell of a fight against Roger Federer. The match was hot, sexy, and wonderfully spornographic. With the crowd behind him, Blake’s amazing battle against the snobby-terminator was one of the greatest matches ever. Although he didn’t “win”, James Blake gave us something better than a victory. He gave us hope. He fought with a spirit you’ll never see in Federer. A spirit that stems from hope, not expectation. I do have to give Federer a touch of love. After winning the match, he smiled and thanked the crowd and did his usual wave-but this time there was something different. I do believe that his “Yes, of course I won” smile, was a “Wow, he kicked my ass and I had to fight for it” smile…

Andy Roddick has gotten his mojo back something fierce. Love the bad-boy screams, grunts and fist pumping. Andy spanked Lleyton Hewitt and illustrated to us that he is not only hot, but also hot when he cries. “I just appreciate playing good tennis again,” Roddick said. “I’d love to be a great player, but I feel like I’m very good right now.” My libido agree’s with you 100% Andy.

THE MILLION DOLLAR RACKET
The world’s most expensive tennis racket isn’t attached to one of our hotties, but is on display at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York until September 11. The $1 million Kwiat diamond-encrusted Wilson tennis racket, is set with more than 3,041 Kwiat diamonds with a total weight of 180 carats in an 18-karat white gold base. Aside from making an appearance at Saks, the racket was shown during the recent Glam Slam ’06 party. During the party, luggage manufacturer Hartmann unveiled a little surprise. They created a one-of-a-kind tennis racket cover for the Million Dollar Swinger. The racket cover, which is valued at $7,500, features a yellow and white gold diamond heart also by Kwiat and is accented with 14 karat gold hardware.

You may snub your nose at the cost of these luxury items, but keep in mind that while making its appearance at the Glam Slam, the Hartmann racket cover was signed by Athlebrities including Serena Williams, James Blake, Mary Pierce, Elena Dementieva and Tommy Haas. The cover will be auctioned off for charity and proceeds donated to the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation.

FRANCE BEAT ITALY

And I don’t wanna talk about it. Italian hotties Andrea Pirlo, Gianluigi Buffon, Andrea Barzagli and captain fabulous Fabio Cannavaro lost to France 3-1, at the 2008 UEFA European Cup Group B qualifying match.

CHRIS KLUG

What would you do if you were riding in an elevator and the only other person in it was Chris Klug? I suppose that if you knew who he was, you’d hit the emergency stop button and get down to business. If you ask around, Klug is the king of snowboarding. He won the Olympic Bronze Medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics just a year and a half after receiving a liver transplant. If that’s not worthy of all our love, nothing is. Anyway, a friend of mine, who lives in Oregon, was leaving her physical therapists office…and the story goes something like this: “Chris was coming out of physical therapy and so was I, we started chitchatting in the elevator. He was on crutches and I was just off mine. He told me he smashed up his tibia snowboarding on Mt. Hood. So, my parting words were, well, that’ll teach you not to snowboard in summer. I didn’t have a clue who he was. Just thought he was a handsome young thing and nice as can be.” Good thing for Chris I wasn’t there. He would have been back in physical therapy before the elevator made it to the bottom.

CHAD JOHNSON GIVES HEAD

The jury is still out on this, but I say it’s not looking good. Dangerously close to reject status, Chad Johnson unveiled “a rubber scalp complete with a gold-colored hairstyle on top” and he says, get this…it will be available for sale in the team’s Pro Shop beginning next week. “You can buy the head. It’s me, get your own earrings,” said Johnson. “Those are my eyebrows. Those are my veins. It looks just like me.” I’m sacred.

ONE GOOD BUSH

Reggie Bush should be president. Not only does the hottie have a heart of gold, but a roster full of Athlebrity achievements. Bush has already landed deals with adidas, PepsiCo and Subway, and Bush’s marketing rep, Mike Ornstein, is currently in talks with companies in the wireless, consumer electronics and (NO) fragrance categories…this alleged “fragrance” deal would normally kick him off my Hot List, in reality however, Reggie Bush walks on water. Hottie has shown a commitment to helping rebuild after Hurricane Katrina and is also working on a national deal with a home builder. Ornstein said of Bush’s potential sponsors, “It’s not always the money. Everything we do with Reggie’s sponsors, there is a tie-in to New Orleans, or else we won’t do it.” And that, my friends, is why Reggie Bush is and will be one of the most important athletes of our time.

ESPN T-SHIRTS

ESPN…they are now making several lines of sports-themed clothing…The first line of T-shirts and fleeces are “part of a football-themed line called College GameDay” (yawn)…and will be available at “various retail locations” which probably means K-mart or a kiosk at the mall. The second line will be part of the “We need fact checkers” themed collection.

That’s it for now. More coming in a bit…As always, thanks for reading. Delinda

ASK D&D: delinda@athlebrities.com OR debbie@athlebrities.com