Arno

Richard Williams is relieved. Andy Roddick, who qualified for the 4th round of the Sony Ericsson Open tonight, stole the spotlight with the announcement of his engagement to Brooklyn Decker, a 20-year-old American model.

Miss Decker was seen courtside in Key Biscayne, but not much else will be revealed about the upcoming nuptials. All we know is that Roddick went down on one knee when he proposed. That’s all he said about the event.

He jokingly added that he lost half of his fan base today, but categorically refused to talk to People magazine which has suddenly found an interest in tennis.

Pictures of Brooklyn Decker are easily available on the www.

It’s Sunday night. The day has been extremely hot. Play is currently suspended because of the rain, here, at the Sony Ericsson Open, in Key Biscayne, Florida.

I’ll take advantage of the break in an otherwise hectic schedule to share an observation that many will consider shallow. Some may even wonder why I care about it. But I do care and since the CBS corporation kindly gives me the opportunity to express myself here, I will use it.

Ladies, a tennis outfit shall never be worn off a tennis court. It is more than an opinion, it is a rule. To function properly a society needs rules. So I am told. Well, you can add the tennis outfit rule to your book of rules. The only acceptable exception is of course on the way to and back from the tennis court.

I don’t want to be mistaken. Daniela Hantuchova looked stunning in her black outfit today. She also looked stunned when Ai Sugiyama upset her in three sets. But Hantuchova is a professional tennis player. She is required to wear a short skirt and and a tight top to make a living. But no one, I repeat, no one needs to don a tennis outfit to gain access to the tournament premises.

To be thorough, I even asked a WTA Tour representative if a person from the stands could be picked to play in case a player was to pull out of a match.

Imagine that Ana Ivanovic, who looked awful against Lindsay Davenport on Stadium court today, decides to quit. “I feel flat, can't get no rhythm, can’t find the court, my serve sucks and my good looks are not helping me at all right now. I’d rather go home. I’ll still be cute and there is always next week,” she may tell herself before packing up and walking off.

In that instance, to calm the fury coming up from the stands, the WTA Tour suddenly realizes that the only way to prevent riots from spreading to the very quiet community of Key Biscayne, is to pick somebody, anybody, sitting here and ask them to play. Well, you want to be prepared, they’ll provide the racket but you want to look your best in your tennis clothes.

All this is of course pure fantasy. It is never going to happen. First, because Ana is no quitter and still charming even in defeat. And second, the WTA Tour is adament about it: "No player shall be replaced during a match." And I am told that the organization would rather move on to the next match scheduled to take place on the court, which happened to be between Rafael Nadal and Nicolas Kiefer, just in case something like that happened.

So, please ladies, no more tennis outfits when you’re not playing. I am well aware that American women believe that flip-flops are shoes and sweat pants can be worn to go to the mall, but we all know those are major fashion faux-pas. You know what they call flip-flop in Europe? Thongs. Furthermore, when you’re over 40, and your last trip to the gym was when you were in high school, there is a huge probability that you won’t look good in a tennis skirt.

And, would you wear scrubs to go to the dentist? Would you wear a flight attendant suit when boarding an airplane?

Following his win at the Pacific Life Open, in Indian Wells, California, I wrote that Novak Djokovic was the best player in the world this year. And despite his early exit from the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida, --he lost his first match to South African qualifier Kevin Anderson--  I haven’t changed my mind.

But believe it or not, my friends (who else is reading this blog?) are now sending me emails to question my reasoning and poke fun at my assertion.

“You said he was the best player in the world and he loses to an unknown qualifier. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I cut out the expletives and other personal comments. They are my friends and shall remain so, despite those nasty emails.

Instead of hitting the reply button 64 times and send the same email over and over, I thought I’d put my well thought rebuke here, for the whole world to enjoy. I’ll kill at least 3 birds with that stone in the process.

First, I keep in touch with those people who are kind enough to email me. Second, I update this blog so that the people who pay me know that I still work. Third, I address one of the main issues in men’s tennis: the depth of the field.

First, I will start with a comparison, which may very well trigger another wave of “friendly” emails but that is necessary, I believe, to put things in perspective.

Anderson, who may not be the best known player on Tour, reached the final of the Tennis Channel Open, in Las Vegas, Nevada, earlier this year and was ranked 122nd in the world before defeating Djokovic. I know you’re all very demanding and believe that No.2 is not really good, let alone No.122. But being the 122nd best player in the world is not all that bad.

I looked at CBSSports.com’s NBA player rankings. And at the time I am writing this, the 122nd player in the rankings is Juan Carlos Navarro of the Memphis Grizzlies. For those of you who don’t follow basketball, Navarro was a member of the Spanish team that claimed the world championship in 2006 in Japan. He was also the best player in the Spanish pro league that year. My point is that Navarro is a very solid basketball player and yet, 121 players are better than him in the NBA.

Now that we’ve established in the most scientific way possible that being in the top 150 of your trade was quite an accomplishment, we can confidently say that Djokovic lost to a very valuable opponent. And that doesn’t make him less of a player.

Although should he lose early again 4 or 5 times this year, I may have to revised my statement.

A few days back, Rafael Nadal was asked how he felt about Roger Federer’s bad start of the season. His answer was quick and blunt. “His season hasn’t been that bad so far, with semifinals in Australia and at Indian Wells. And his loss to Andy Murray in the first round in Dubai is the result of a tough draw, Murray is a good player.” He went on saying that : “What is not normal is when he loses 4 or 5 matches a year (Federer won 92 matches and lost only 5 in 2006). The players know that. We all know that.”

See, my friends, ( I don't know if I can say that anymore, I think John McCain does it too often), even Nadal believes you can be the best in the world with a loss every now and then.

Losing is part of the game. Even the top players have to be at their very best from the first round on to advance today. David Nalbandian (7) and Richard Gasquet (8) also lost their first match in Miami, to Xavier Malisse and Dmitry Tursunov. Guillermo Canas, who reached the final here last year, came close to losing to qualifier Sam Warburg.

Those early losses should help us appreciate more the amazing accomplishment of those rare players who managed to remain at the top of the rankings for years.

“Nothing is so common as the wish to be remarkable.” William Shakespeare

“I am just a regular girl. I do what regular girls do.” A tennis player. All tennis players.

You can’t go wrong, they all are “regular girls,” when they’re not playing tennis that is. They never forget that part. Off the court, they are just like any other girl. Or so they think. They repeat it often, as though they’d been trained to. Maybe it’s compulsory when you join the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

That could be their next slogan. “We’re just regular girls.” Only, we play tennis better than you, we make loads of money doing it and we stay in nice hotels because we’re constently on the road, living off suitcases. But we swear, “we’re regular girls.”

Yet, for some reasons, I don’t believe they show a remarkable grasp of the real world, or the regular girl’s world, should I say instead. They do live in the real world. They are elite athletes whose lives are dedicated to be better than their "friends," but that is still the real world.

It is true though that I am not exactly familiar with what being a regular girl means. But I believe that I can safely say that not many of them do buy a house in Belgrade Serbia, another one near Miami, Florida and a third one in San Diego, California, because, and I quote, “you understand I need a place to put all those Gucci shoes and Louis Vuitton handbags that I buy.”

That was “regular girl” No. 1, Jelena Jankovic. She is charming, her smile is contagious. But her idea of shopping may be a little different that from most 20 year olds. She admits it though: “I have to swipe my card, I am like a regular girl.”

“I wish I didn’t have to get up every morning and go practice. I’d like to take my time, you know, like a regular girl. That’s what I do when I go home.” That’s “regular girl” No. 2, Anna Chakvetadze. Moscow, Russia is home to her.

Note to Anna: Unless you’re unemployed, you don’t take your time in the morning. She also admits that, “I don’t think about money.” She made nearly $1.5 million on the court last year. Isn’t she your kind of “regular girl?”

Aside from being “regular girls” off the court, most of those young women aspire to become the new Coco Channel.

Jankovic has already launched her own line of clothing back home in Serbia. It’s called JJ. How inspired!

Venus Williams is already donning her own creation on the court. It’s called Eleven. “One better than ten” she like to add. That’s brilliant marketing, isn’t it?

Maria Sharapova is also talking about it. She is "fascinated" by Asian fashion.

However and that is the fascinating part to me, I have watched three matches today where both girls were wearing the exact same outfit.

And, that is what regular girls do, they dress alike.

Side note: my “Grand Slam of the Americas” idea is catching up. Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, on the main stadium and James Blake, on the Grandstand are scheduled to play Friday afternoon. While Pablo Cuevas, of Uruguay, is set to anchor the night session against Fernando Gonzalez, of Chile. The Americas, I told you so.