Mary Jo Fernandez needs to tell the Williams sisters to "Get Bent".

There is a ITF rule that states that a player must make themselves available for Fed Cup duty in 2 years out of the 4 to be eligible to play for their country in the Olympics.  Now this does not mean they have to play in every Fed Cup tie for 2 years.  In the least a player can play once each year.  Lets think about that, all you have to do is show up and play for 2 weekends in four years, and you are eligible to compete in the Olympic Games.  Sounds pretty simple, right?

Well not for the Williams sisters.  If they can't make a little money off of it, they will be sure to think of an injury or excuse for why they cannot play.  According to ITF officials, they have ruled that Venus and Serena have not made themselves available for Fed Cup duty in 2009 and 2010.  So that means they must play atleast once in 2011 and 2012 to be in the 2012 Olympics.

Here is when it gets a little tricky.  The U.S. has a Fed Cup matchup in April, and if they lose this matchup there will be no more Fed Cup ties for the U.S. in 2011.  So that means if the Williams sisters decide to get their nuts waxed that weekend they will be ineligible to represent their country in 2012.

Since when did the Williams sisters care about playing for their country?  They get the opportunity to do it 3-4 times a year and decline to do so in rare pathetic fashion.  If there is no money or a big time spotlight on it, they want nothing to do with it.  For instance in 2009 Serena Williams confimed that she would play in the Fed Cup final against Italy, 3 days later during the Tour Championship she pulled out of the Fed Cup final due to fatigue, yet 2 days after that she won the Tour Championship.

That would be like you or I shooting hoops in the yard, and your husband/wife/girlfriend asking you to take out the trash, you responding by saying "I'm too tired to do it." and then continuing to shoot hoops for another hour.  Its horse shit, plain and simple.

While the Williams sisters are getting vasectomies, plugging garbage on QVC, walking the red carpet for crappy films, going to weddings of fellow retards like LaLa and Carmelo Anthony, and players like Melanie Oudin and Bethany Mattek-Sands get on a plane and play wherever they are asked for Fed Cup.  They aren't the best players, but they actually do quite well and seem to play their best tennis while representing their country and being patriotic.  If anything, even when they lose, they are still there supporting their fellow teammates and enjoying the experience.

The Williams brats have yanked U.S. Fed Cup captain Mary Jo Fernandez's chain so many times over the past few years by committing to play, yet to pull out due to hypochondria.  Fernandez needs to take the power back and stick it in their ear and not even ask them to play.  Let the players who have been loyal to Fernandez like Mattek-Sands, Oudin, and Liezel Huber play.  Its just utter garbage that Venus and Serena can have total control over something that in reality they don't care about.  Yet will pretend to care  once it comes time that it becomes in their best interest that they play.

In reality they are selfish in their tennis outlook and as fake as that garbage Serena peddles on QVC.  The USTA and ITF need to stand up and take a stand and not bend the rules if for some reason these babies come up with another excuse.  But we all know they don't have a back bone and will let Serena and Venus make the rules.

They need to grow a sac as big as Venus' and then maybe they could make a stand on this issue.

Milos Raonic? What is the big deal?

Everybody is raving about Milos Raonic lately.  For those of you unfamiliar with him he's the 20 year old from Canada via Yugoslavia.  He has been creating a buzz on tour this year for his big serve and what many perceive as tremendous upside.  Everybody from John McEnroe, and Martina Navratilova to Brad Gilbert and tennis writer Matt Cronin have been hanging from this kid's nuts saying how he is the next big thing and being ballsy enough to compare him to Pete Sampras.

I guess I just don't see it....yet.

Milos started his 2011 season trying to qualify for the ATP event in Chennai, India.  He didn't have the "goods" to get through qualifying and wasn't able to participate in the main draw.

Next came the 1st major of the season the Australian Open.  Raonic had a pretty good run in only his 2nd career major (lost in 1R of 2010 U.S. Open) making it to the 4th round.  He had quality wins over Bjorn Phau, Michael Llodra, and upset the 10th seeded Mikhail Youzhny, before losing to David Ferrer in the 4th round.  In the match against Ferrer, Raonic looked real good in the 1st set and won that set by keeping Ferrer off balance with his huge serve and solid net game.  Then the wheels came off for the young Canadian.  Ferrer who is one of the better return-of-servers in the game figured out the serve and made Raonic try to match him from the baseline and that was toxic to his chances of survival.  Ferrer took the next 3 sets easily, and his 2011 Australian Open run was dead.  But the buzz of this kid was just starting to begin.  ESPN's coverage had him sitting at their desk with Brad Gilbert drooling all over this kids potential.

This week is when Raonic hit an all time high.  He won the SAP Open in San Jose this past weekend.  His first ever ATP tournament win.  He had some nice wins in San Jose:  beating former roided out vet Xavier Malisse, "the fork" James Blake, fellow up-and-comer Richard Berankis, advanced to the final with a walkover victory over Gael Monfils who pulled out of the event with a wrist injury that will keep him sidelined for possibly the next couple months, and won the title with a 7-6, 7-6 win over Fernando Verdasco.

The "tennis world" now has a "boner" for Milos Raonic.

I'm not ready to crown this kid yet.  Sure its a possibility he could be a top 5 or top 10 player, but he has a lot to work on.  Currently he's at his all-time high of #59 in the world.  At 20 years old that is excellent and definetly could make a run at top 30 by the end of the year.  BUT I've seen this hype before.  Just a year and a half ago I heard how Melanie Oudin is going to be the American version of Justine Henin.  Currently Oudin is struggling to stay in the top 75 and is barely making it out of the 1st round of smaller WTA events.  Like Oudin, Raonic is going to get figured out by the competition.  The kid has a monster serve and that will keep him in matches against mid-level players, but when he starts facing top 20 guys he is going to have to do more than rely on aces to win matches.  In the Ferrer match his backhand was atrocious.  He didn't have the mental game to come to net, when it was working.  On court strategy especially in multi-set Grand Slams will be a weakness, but he's only 20 I keep telling myself.

I'm not sold yet.  American media loves to crown everyone as the next (put name in here).  I've been told by "experts" that Sam Querrey will be a top 10 player.  The guy is 1-8 in his last 9 matches.  And John Isner is going to be "special".  Well if being "special" is having a big serve, below average ground strokes, terrible return of serve, well then I guess Ivo Karlovic is "really special".

Raonic is in Memphis this week for the ATP 500 event.  In his first round he gets a rematch with Fernando Verdasco.  Lets see if he can mix his game up against a top 10 player who has seen him before.  Now that the world is on notice, lets see how he does when he won't sneak up on someone who isn't expecting anything.

You're on the radar now, Milos Raonic.  Time to step your game up and show the world if you are the next Pete Sampras or the next Ivo Karlovic.