They say that “Washington is Hollywood for ugly people.” In DC you go to parties with people you usually see on CNN, whereas in Hollywood you go to parties with people that you usually see on the E! network. Today felt a little more like Hollywood, and fortunately, with tennis stars to gawk at instead of Lou Dobbs wagging neck, life was good. But then again, I’m a tennis fan. So let me tell you all about the great party I went to today.

All this week I will be blogging live from the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C. Check back daily and feel free to ask questions. I love comments!

Today was the first qualifier day. I live in DC and have been going to the tournament for about five or six years now. I also happen to play at the Rock Creek Tennis Center, the tournament site, several times a week. Although it’s probably one of the hottest weeks of the year, the Mason gives us Washingtonians a great reason to stay in town and not hit the shore during the first week of August.

Dear ESPN,

I’m writing to tell you that I think it’s time that we start seeing other people.

I can forgive alot. I can forgive the fact that you will feature darts on your homepage before tennis; unless it’s a Grand Slam, in which case you give me a little below-the-fold action. I can even forgive the fact that if I want to find tennis on your website that I need to look in the “more” menu. More is for bass fishing. More is for rodeo. I thought we were closer than more. I thought we really had something more than more.

The Greatest Road Trip in Sports departs the Midwest heat to take over the campuses of California this week as we head into the Countrywide Classic in LA and the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford.

Countrywide Classic at UCLA

On the men’s side, the newly-renamed Countrywide on the campus of UCLA features the farewell tour of defending champ Andre Agassi as fifth seed. The top slot went to wildcard Andy Roddick, with other seeds including Lleyton Hewitt at No. 2, Fernando Gonzalez at No. 3, Robby Ginepri at No. 4, Tommy Haas at No. 6, Dominik Hrbaty at No. 7 and Californian-Russian Dmitry Tursunov in the No. 8 slot.

Tennis guru Robert Lansdorp has always been the guy in the background. He’s the guy who pulled many a junior player up out of the bowels of the ship and put them on the Lido deck. Fresh from his Sharapova dumping, surgery for cancer, a divorce, and subsequent forced relocation, he’s not having what you would call a “great year.”

At the 2004 Pacific Life Open, Justine Henin-Hardenne was given a warning by the chair umpire after her coach, Carlos Rodriguez, was heard shouting instructions from the side of the court late in the second set of the quarterfinal match. Henin-Hardenne didn’t deny it, and instead blatantly admitted that Rodriguez was helping her. “He told me be aggressive … go to the net,” she said, “You can tell it’s coaching. I know what I have to do, but sometimes it’s hard for me when I’m on court, in the match, to do what you know you have to do.”

At the time, Henin-Hardenne held the World No. 1 ranking.

You know women’s tennis is in trouble when the WTA dips into their un-original bag of ideas to better the game, only to pull out the on-court coaching card.

In a press release Friday the WTA announced that it will “experiment” with on-court coaching at upcoming summer stops in Montreal and New Haven, meaning coaches will be allowed to come on court during matches to help their players.

What do you do when you’re 34 years old, retired with a wife and kids, and have earned more than $43 million in your career?

You bottle your boredom and go back to work part-time.

It’s a pretty typical cast of characters for the men’s hard court season, with Americans Blake, Roddick, Spadea, Reynolds, and Gimelstob in da house. The field features a strong group of outsiders too, including Tursunov, whose game seems perfectly suited for hard courts, and the debut of 21 year old Canadian Frank Dancevic, who is working his way into the ATP Tour after his start at the Challengers. Be on the lookout for Sam Querrey in Indy, who was given a wild card into the tournament a couple of weeks ago. Also drawing the big wc was Tommy Haas, while Andre Agassi, Marcos Baghdatis, Tommy Robredo and Donald Young are possibilities for the remaining one.

So what did Wimbledon teach us? Many things.

It taught us that the Australian Open champion is better than the French Open champion on grass court. That is both Aussie champs, Roger Federer and Amelie Mauresmo, defeated the French winners, Rafael Nadal and Justine Henin, in their respective Wimbledon finals.

So a few weeks ago I wrote in my last blog why Rafael Nadal could win Wimbledon before Roger Federer will win the French Open – and wow, was I hammered for it! Well, I’m back from my 10-day vacation and it’s time for an update, like it not.