Big story this A.M. is the “shock” defeat of Roger Federer yesterday to Andy Murray at Cincy. I didn’t get the chance to see it live - hey, I’m working, okay? - but I caught the replay of the last set on ESPN after the Roddick match.

Fed clearly didn’t look like the Fed that we have known, and I wonder just how much the Swiss wanted to partake in Cincy. Fed added winning Toronto, Cincy back-to-back was next to impossible. Well Rog, Andy Roddick did it a few years ago if I remember correctly, so it’s not impossible. You just got to want it.

Well…I’m back from my last vacation of the year, or at least the last of the summer, and it’s catch-up time in the tennis world. Fortunately I had a cable TV handy, unfortunately I had to endure that fill-in Sean guy on ESPN.

As it was my vacation, I saw several other people vacationing also. Namely WTA stars like Justin Henin, Amelie Mauresmo, Venus Williams, etc. Okay, I didn’t see them but I get the feeling they along with a few others are enjoying their rest based on all the pulls from Montreal the past few days.

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.

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.

Is there anyone who can beat Rafael Nadal on clay? After last week in Monte Carlo the kid follows up by winning in Barcelona today to up his current clay win streak to 47 straight.

More importantly, he’s placed himself head and shoulders above anyone else on the surface, Sir Roger Federer included.

The Barcelona win was nearly a foregone conclusion - though he did have to overcome a set and 4-1 deficit to Niemenin - but it was his Monte Carlo performance that sent the message to the rest of the tennis world that he is still the No. 1 man on dirt. Just ask Roger.

Okay…So clearly many of you are not seeing eye-to-eye with me on my position that the top female players on the WTA should be ashamed of themselves for only playing 41% of the tournaments at best. Thanks for the comments.

Folks…I get that Lindsay Davenport cannot play all 63 WTA events, or that she could even play half of them for a number of reasons. But my point is that tennis is a sport (the only sport i still wonder??) in which its best players are unable to play a full schedule and play less than half of the tournaments, which in most cases is less than 25%.

Anyone who watched the NCAA final last night in which the Florida Gators pounded the UCLA Bruins has to agree that Joakim Noah is a freak. Why? The kid is, according to announces, seven feet tall and can run and jump like a gazelle.

Now imagine in tennis a guy taller than Dr. Ivo Karlovic who can run and jump as well as say James Blake. Or just imagine James Blake as a seven footer! Ha.

Happy New Year to all. May your 2006 be healthy, successful and of course, full of tennis.

Tennis is one of those rare sports which basically begins with the New Year. Unfortunately for the pros, the year ends in November, and for some in December making the off season a bit on the short side.