Tennis Angels, Yes; Steroids, No

I sat riveted to my television this past week, watching C-Span over and over. I've never done that before, but I just couldn't get enough of Congress this week. It was clear to me, after watching the congressional hearings on steroid use in Major League Baseball that the sport I loved in my youth has become contaminated, and its current top level players might all be cheating. It actually disgusted me to see how in denial the players, owners, and governing body of baseball really were. Thank God for tennis.

You won't find widespread use of any performance enhancing drugs in tennis. First, professional tennis has Olympic-level testing programs and standards. Second, after a certain point, muscle mass is actually detrimental to your competitiveness. Third, tennis puts women athletes at the same competitive level as men. And we all remember what women on 'roids looks like. Well, any of us who are old enough to remember the days of the old Soviet Union.

They are young. They are very, very attractive. They are athletic and professional. They are four of the top 200 players in the world. They are Anna Kournikova hot. Oh, and they don't do steroids. Welcome to the Tennis Angels. Tennis Angels, you say? The Angels are Emmanuelle Gagliardi, Alina Jidkova, Jennifer Hopkins, and Henrieta Nagyova. All veteran WTA Tour players, all successful. All have had some great runs in tournaments, and they all have singles titles under their belt.

Jenny, Henrieta, Alina, and Emmanuelle are the "grunts" of the WTA Tour, the players who make the tour function, the vital cogs in the wheel. These are the girls who are playing every week, in places on this globe both awesome and awful. For every Lindsay Davenport there are four to six Jennies, Henrietas, Alinas, and Emmanuelles. What is more interesting is that these everyday players, these key pieces of the puzzle, are often ignored or pushed to the back pages. The talent of these players in the 50-200 rank is just incredible, and they are all tough competitors. I often wonder out loud when the press would take a closer look. Good thing they aren't waiting.

TennisAngels.com is their website, and I must say, it is surprisingly good. Along with bios and pictures of the Angels and their friends (Anastasia Myskina appears in a couple of pictures just to make my heart race), there are tennis tips, some pretty good articles written by the Angels themselves, and a feature of the December tennis camp they host and appear at. I was skeptical at first, but then I noticed that Vic Braden himself was one of the clinicians and coaches at the camp. Looking at the agenda, it's a pretty busy camp with drills, coaching, and teaching, a tournament and plenty of opportunity to hit with the Angels themselves. Oh, and it's in Hawaii, and yes, the Angels do wear their bikinis.

I'm highlighting this now because the tennis season is just getting in full swing, with the Pacific Life Open just finished and the NASDAQ 100 in Miami just starting. These are large tournaments, so you will most likely see the unsung WTA Tour girls, the Angels included. As of press time, Jennifer, Alina, and Emmanuelle were in the main draw. I wish there were more ways to highlight these players, and the others in this workman's level. They are what tennis is all about. People playing more for the love of the sport then the money they aren't making, players who love to bring the professional game to each and every one of us.

Anyone who knows me can tell you stories upon stories about my escapades in looking for love. My mother used to say to me that I shouldn't ignore "the low-hanging fruit," and I never really could understand what she really meant ... until now, and while not love, I understand it well about tennis. So if you want to see great tennis, just keep an eye on these "Angels." You wont be disappointed.

Before I go, I just wanted to say hello to Madeline Hauptman, founder and President of PowerAngle tennis racquets. Madeline is a long-time tennis industry member, having invented the revolutionary MadRaq tennis racquet in the 1980s. She was absent from the industry for several years, but has returned with the diagonally strung PowerAngle tennis racquet line. The diagonal stringing pattern provides more spin and control and the patented racquets have a more uniform string bed response due to the equal lengths of the diagonal strings. Like the Tennis Angels, the PowerAngle tennis racquets are also "low-hanging fruit." You can learn more about them at PowerAngle.net.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned, and just say no to steroids...