Those red clay courts have never been kind to Maria Sharapova. Given her long absence from singles play, it would be fair to say her performance at the 2009 French Open was at least respectable considering she made it to the Quarterfinals. On the other hand, once she made it that far she was absolutely crushed, losing consecutive sets to Dominika Cibulkova (6-0, 6-2). With Ivanovic and Sharapova both eliminated, my interest in the remainder of this event has officially diminished. Sorry, die-hard tennis fans.

Maria Sharapova appears in a cover shoot along with #1 draft pick Matt Stafford for ESPN the Magazine and as you can tell she really seems to enjoy this photography and fashion stuff. Aside from her recent return to doubles action it's been quite some time since we've seen her actually play competitive tennis. I realize she's been dealing with a shoulder injury, but at some point you have to wonder if she's going to waste away a few years of her playing prime due to her celebrity exposure, ala Serena Williams.

Ana Ivanovic was spotted working on her tennis game a few weeks back in Key Biscayne, Florida. I suspect a good number of our readers might be interested in the photographs of said workout. It's been a tough road for the Serbian tennis star since she achieved the world's top ranking back in early 2008, with various early-round upsets and disappointing grand slam efforts causing her to slide all the way back to the seventh spot. The good news for most male viewers is win or lose Ana still looks very good doing it.

Tennis star Andy Roddick is set to marry Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker this weekend. People magazine reports on the details:

Roddick, 26, and Decker, 21, plan to celebrate the nuptials with two days of festivities near Roddick's Austin, Texas, home. "They wanted to keep it local," the source says. And very private. The pared-down guest lists includes mostly family and a few close friends of the pair, who met when Roddick spotted Decker in a magazine and asked his agent to find her number.

Being a professional athlete has got to be awesome. If you see some beautiful model in a magazine you just dial up your agent and tell him to get her digits for you. In a way, agents really are like pimps more than we often realize.

Say what you will about the way Roddick's career has turned out after those early major wins only to get crushed time and time again by the likes of Nadal and Federer, he's clearly a big winner off the court. Some serious congratulations are in order for locking that down.

If you'd like to see more of Brooklyn Decker, perhaps in some lingerie for a change, check her out on our sister site Celebrity Milkshake.

Anna Kournikova may not have the amazing tennis body she had back when she still played professional tennis, but when she participated in the Nautica Triathlon in South Beach recently she proved that she still can fill out some form-fitting spandex pants with the best of 'em.

Although I think it's extremely unfair how Anna got tagged with the whole "never won a singles tournament" label even though she won countless doubles tournaments and was actually ranked as the top female doubles player in the world at one point, I still couldn't help but chuckle that she was assigned number 1 for the event.

Maria Sharapova, our favorite blonde Russian tennis player (who still actually plays tennis) returned to action at Indian Wells recently, opting to play only in the doubles tournament while she gets back into the swing of things. Sharapova and partner Maria Kirilenko ended up losing in the first round, but with the return of the best legs in women's tennis we're all winners if you ask me. Of course we have the pictures to prove it - why else would I be writing about tennis?