Fernando Verdasco lost to big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic twice this week, first in the finals of the SAP Open and then in the opening round at Memphis. But he's not worried since neither of these matches were "real."

The ninth-ranked Spaniard dismissed Raonic's victories because they came on faster hard courts rather than the artisan's surface of clay:

"For me that's not a real match in tennis. I hope to play soon against him in clay court to show him what it is to play tennis, and play rallies, and run, and not [just] serve.

"I think he was more lucky than me in the tiebreak. He hit the line at 5-5 with a return and when you are at that point in the match and are lucky to put a ball on the line then you have big options to win the match."

As our friends at @SIOpenSource Tweeted on Thursday: "Some whine with your queso, Nando?"

If hard court tennis isn't "real" tennis, then are we to consider Verdasco's two non-clay tournament titles to be null and void? Does Roger Federer only

By mistreating Super Bowl fans who were left without seats at Cowboys Stadium and then subsequently lowballing them with compensation, the NFL gave off the impression that it doesn't care about the little guy. According to a few VIP fans who were at Super Bowl XLV, the league didn't show much concern for the big guys either.

In an article in the Philadelphia Daily News, Paul Domowitch entertainingly details a myriad of Super Bowl-sized complaints from VIPs and sponsors.

"In the past, you couldn't miss where you were supposed to go," [said a source close to the situation.] "You'd get off a bus or out of your limo and there would be someone there to tell you, 'Tailgate party right this way.' This one, no one had any idea where to go. VIPs and sponsors were being funneled in [to the stadium] with regular fans."

With the regular fans? Ugh. Hobknobbing with the proletariat and common folk. I hope the "regular fans" at least had the decency not to look the VIPs directly in the eyes. And I

Let's hope Caroline Wozniacki enjoyed the five days in which she was free from questions about whether she deserves to be No. 1 because when the WTA rankings come out next week, the 20-year-old Dane will be back in the top spot.

Thanks to her semifinal appearance in Dubai, Wozniacki will have enough points to surpass Kim Clijsters in next week's rankings. The current No. 2 defeated Shahar Peer 6-2, 6-4 in a match played off Centre Court due to security concerns about the Israeli Peer.

Clijsters' brief reign is the 10th one-week reign in rankings history. Twice before, the displaced No. 1 got back to the top spot one week later (Monica Seles was passed by, and then leapfrogged, Steffi Graf in 1990 and Lindsay Davenport did the same dance with Martina Hingis in 2000), but that won't happen this time around. Clijsters doesn''t play another tournament until Indian Wells in early March.

Depending on how Wozniacki finishes up in Dubai, there's a chance the back-and-forth could go on for

There's only so much a photographer can get at a tennis match. Other sports have dozens of players and coaches to shoot and different sorts of passes, runs, breaks, dunks, shots and swings on which to focus. Tennis has two players, a handful of shots and the occasional ridiculously-dressed ball boy. As such, pictures on the photo wires tend to fall into one of three narrow categories:

1. Action -- Usually a groundstroke just before the point of impact or a serve immediately after. Many times these pictures will feature a player's off-hand in a weird, mutated position.

2. Fist pumping -- Lots and lots and lots of fist pumping. It's like an episode of "Jersey Shore," minus the spray tans, manicured hairstyles and cursing. (Unless it's a Lleyton Hewitt match.)

3. Surliness -- This is what brings us to this post. While scanning through some pictures taken at the current WTA tournament in Dubai, it was hard not to notice that a good number featured players looking frustrated. It's an easy

The Onion has long been my favorite site on the Internet. Thus, I was excited when the satirical news site took a swipe at the unpopularity of tennis earlier this week:

The story reads, in part:

NOWHERE -- With Super Bowl XLV concluding the 2010 football season and with several months to go before the 2011 baseball season, absolutely nobody in the country confirmed Sunday that they were looking forward to watching tennis. [...] Although even the faintest thought of the 2011 tennis season occurred to no one whatsoever, 95 percent of the country has reportedly been wondering what Michael Chang is up to.

What's Michael Chang been up to? Like most Americans, he hasn't been paying attention to the NBA's regular season.

If The Onion said this about a sport that wasn't football, baseball or basketball, fans of that sport might get all indignant and defensive. But unlike, say, hockey fans, I find that tennis fans aren't super-sensitive about the fact that they love an unpopular game. I'd

Like with any Olympic games that are three years away, there's a long list of concerns about the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

Will the Black Sea resort be able to handle the influx of international visitors? Can the power grid hold up? How will the nation deal with terrorism threats? And, the classic, will the venues be ready in time?

One thing Sochi organizers shouldn't have to worry about, however, is the weather. Heavy snows forced the postponement of the first Olympic test events at the newly built Rosa Khutor ski resort. A second-tier Europa Cup event was to serve as the inaugural test of the new venue, but a large winter storm delayed the start of races.

It's a big change from test events for the last Olympics in Vancouver, which were marred by cancellations due to warm weather. Rain and unseasonal temperatures had organizers scrambling in the days leading up those Games.

Though the weather is fickle, Sochi officials won't be worrying yet about high temperatures. Daytime

On the surface, it seems like Joe Banner's ode to Andy Reid earlier this week was a ringing endorsement of the Philadelphia Eagles coach. The team president sat for a radio interview with Howard Eskin and Ike Reese and spoke glowingly about his coach, praising his leadership and decision-making, and brushing off criticisms that Reid has never won a Super Bowl.

But in his lengthy defense of Reid, Banner makes it clear that while Reid's seat may not be hot, it's getting warmer and warmer. His quotes are peppered with qualifiers and subtle foreshadowing that the coach may force the team's hand if he doesn't win a title in the next three years. It's clear he's in Reid's corner. It's clearer that he's willing to move out of it if necessary. (Emphasis mine.)

"We are determined to win a Super Bowl, and we're actually determined to win more than one, and as long as we believe that Andy Reid is the person out there at the leadership position of the team in both the personnel and coaching

Turns out the Michael Vick(notes) image rehabilitation tour won't be making a stop at "The Oprah Winfrey Show." The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback canceled his planned interview with Oprah late Tuesday night, one week before he was scheduled to sit down with the talk show legend.

CNBC's Darren Rovell first reported the news of the canceled interview, which was set to air next Thursday.

Vick's rep later issued a statement about the decision: "After careful consideration, I will need to postpone the taping of the Oprah Winfrey interview scheduled for February 22. I admire and respect Oprah and hope to be able to participate in an interview in the future."

Earlier in the day, it was reported that Vick's agent contacted Oprah last week and asked her to drop a $320 wager she had with CNN personality Piers Morgan about who would be the first to land Vick on their show. Oprah complied and announced her plans to talk to Vick on Monday's show.

The decision to cancel without giving a reason is