During our (long) trek from the parking lot to the front door, S would randomly go up to couples on their way home and ask for their ticket stubs. Out of the kindness of their hearts, and also a little help from my beaming, innocent smile, people were pretty willing to dig into their pockets to find their crumpled tickets. We landed our first set of tickets, and I was already satisfied. But S would not stop there. He wanted to score some pimp seats. We collected a few pairs of ticket stubs, but none that were of baller status.

We then walked by the VIP area, and quickly asked a foreign couple for their ticket stubs as they exited the section. By distracting the doorman with ice cream, we were quickly allowed reentry, and the entire VIP floor area was at our fingertips.

Food makes a great diversion for people working long hours, no matter how "important" they seem to be? Did I ever tell you about the time I scored a luxury box for the Pro Bowl by dousing my nipples with poi? Man, that's the oldest trick in the book.

Blogger Uses Ice Cream, Trickery To Get 'Pimp' Seats At The US Open [Machochip]

Roddick, 25, has already begun fielding questions about his engagement even though he's in the middle of playing in the Masters Series tournament in Key Biscayne. :

Q. So does it feel any different to be an engaged man other than, you know, questions in People Magazine and all that?

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah. I think so. I think it's a life choice, so it is a bit different. I think I lost half my fan base today.

Well, given the astronomical chances of this marriage actually working, we're sure Roddick will regain the fanbase he lost in, oh, a little over a year.

The girl's 20, Andy. She hasn't even grown all of her lady parts yet. (Ed. Note: But she is better at picking NFL games than Paul Zimmerman!) But good luck keeping that gazelle in a cage when you're both traveling nine months out of the year.

(Better non-convenience store picture of Brooklyn Decker below, without the blushing bald guy.)

Andy engaged to Brooklyn Decker [Andy Roddick]
Andy Roddick interview [Tennis X]

I spent the last few weeks in Austin really focused on my training and getting back into shape...but pretty sure I'm not as fit as the Men's Fitness cover suggests...little did I know I have 22 inch guns and a disappearing birth mark on my right arm. I saw the cover for the first time when I landed after Rome...it was pretty funny...I walked by the newsstand in the airport and did a total double take ...I can barely figure out how to work the red-eye tool on my digital camera...whoever did this has mad skills...maybe Rafael Nadal wants his arms back?...

We'd like to take this moment to remind you of one of our favorite athlete run-in stories of all time: Andy Roddick's intense fear of rabbits.

Checking In From Austria [AndyRoddick.com]
Athlete Run-Ins: Roddick's Rabbit Phobia [Deadspin]

Roger Federer won his third consecutive U.S. Open men's final yesterday, defeating Andy Roddick — who ran out of both mojo and Dick Enberg comparisons to his coach, Jimmy Connors — in four sets, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, a match that was not even that close. For Federer, it was his ninth Grand Slam title, putting him a touch below guys named Sampras (14), Emerson (12), Borg (11), Laver (11) and Tilden (10) and in the exhaustive Tiger Woods conversation of greatest all-time in their respective sports.

(Editor's Note: While watching the NFL yesterday, we occasionally noticed Woods on the TV, cheering Federer on while wearing a backwards hat. God, he's such a dork.)

I spent most of the afternoon struggling to find a reason to hate Federer. And while his Feder-bear charity is perhaps reason enough, the search proved futile. The guy's a fucking machine. A very friendly, handsome, respectful machine that apparently manufactures titles as frequently as it does teddy bears for UNICEF. God, I fucking hate him.

Roddick's now 1-11 all-time vs. Federer — the kind of domination one normally pays $300 an hour for. You know, let's not go there, either.

Stableford: Sharapova Fingered In Bananagate [Deadspin]
Stableford: Long Night In Flushing [Deadspin]
Stableford: A Night Of Agassi [Deadspin]

Andy Roddick, in Houston for the Davis Cup in 2002, then at least 18 or 19, was forced to attend an Easter morning brunch at the St. Regis Hotel, where the players were sequestered. Seems that the hotel had hired a bunch of mascots in training to wear various costumes of loveable Easter icons to wander around the brunch, giving gifts to the kiddies (no recollection of a Jesus type character working the room, but that would have been perfect).

Seems Andy (who was fresh off of his allegedly celibate fling with THE Jessica Simpson and had moved on to another, hotter woman named Jessica Simpson, whom no doubt put out) is petrified of the Easter Bunny. Not just the munchkin in the costume, apparently. He s Easter Bunny-phobic, in general. He got all sorts of agitated when he saw the bunny frolicking about. To the point of asking us to make sure we kept the bunny far, far away from him. And acting all freaky about it. This show of manliness no doubt concerned Jessica v.2, but she then remembered that Andy was 19, stupid and loaded, and all was well, once again.

The mental image of Roddick cowering from the Easter Bunny is going to stick with us, we think. By the way, much to our surprise, there doesn't appear to be an official name for the fear of rabbits. (We checked.)

Athlete Run-Ins: The Angry Tim Duncan. Grrr! [Deadspin]

(Update: There is a word for the fear of rabbits. We knew it! It's "Leporiphobia;" supposedly it was once considered unlucky to have rabbits aboard ships. Which makes sense, we guess.)