No handshake, no love lost between Kuznetsova + Rodionova

Something tells me Anastasia Rodionova won't be getting an invite to the next girls night at Svetlana Kuznetsova's crib.

The 2-time Grand Slammer defended herself over Twitter after refusing to shake hands with Rodio at the net. The Aussie defeated Sveta 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in the Wimbledon second round.

Rodio, who has a reputation for on-court theatrics and was defaulted from a match at Cincinnati in 2007 for unsportsmanlike conduct, apparently questioned a ton of line calls and took a strangely timed medical break for her hip during the match. She was surprised but not bothered by Sveta's non-action:

I don't know what happened, I guess Svetlana was disappointed. It doesn't really bother me. I go out there and try my best, every single match that I play.

I'm happy that I won the match and I'm looking forward to my next round. I played really well and I served really well. I felt really good on the court. It can't even compare to my first round.

And what about suggestions the injury was not as severe as she claimed?

I strained a muscle a bit on my hip at the beginning of the second set. I'm fine. I have a bit of history there and I wanted to make sure it was nothing serious.

It's one of the biggest slaps in the face to refuse to shake your opponent's hand after a match so Sveta must've been seething with anger over Rodio's behavior. I mean if Sveta, who has a great reputation on the WTA tour and with fans as being uber-friendly, refuses to shake your hand you know it's pretty bad.

THE LOW DOWN: Stefan Koubek uses foul language, gets booted from Open de Moselle

Stefan Koubek was booted from the Open de Moselle today for some apparently inappropriate comments he made to tournament supervisor Thomas Karlberg during his match against Frenchie Sebastien Grosjean.

According to Karlberg, "On the first point of the seventh game, on Grosjean's serve, a Koubek forehand close to the baseline gave a 0-15 advantage to Koubek," [...] "But the umpire realized Grosjean was in the way of the line judge, who was therefore unable to judge the point. In this case, the rule is to replay the point. Koubek disagreed and asked for the supervisor's intervention. He did not want to accept the rules and used strong language. I told him the match was over and asked the umpire to announce it."

Stefan is not a first-time offender, however. He was disqualified from the French Open in 2000 and from the qualies of the Paris Open in '03. He follows fellow dis-qualie Anastasia Rodionova who was bounced from her match earlier this year for hitting a tennis ball towards some fans.

(source)

UPDATE: SMACKDOWN: Anastasia Rodionova gets defaulted from her match

(images courtesy of AP Photos)

Russian Anastasia Rodionova was defaulted from her 1st round match against Angelique Kerber of Germany at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open. According to officials she smacked a ball towards fans that were rooting for Kerber in a display of frustration.

She is only the second player ever to be defaulted from a WTA main draw tournament. The first was Irina Spirlea, who was disqualified in 1996 at Palermo for directing abusive language at an official.

BONUS: Spirlea gained notoriety in another controversial tennis match involving a current Grand Slam champ and featuring unsportsmanlike conduct. Does anyone know what that match was? Tell us!

UPDATE 7/19/07: The Enquirer, a Cincinnati publication, reports a fan who was in the stands and involved in the verbal exchanges with Rodionova emailed the pub and said, "... We, like the rest of the people in the stands, were calling to the referee to warn her rather than have a defaulted match." She goes on to say, "At one point (Rodionova) approached us and asked, 'Do you want the ball? Come down here and play.' I responded, 'No, Thank you.' It was after loosing (sic) the 2nd set that she turned and slammed the tennis ball into the backstop below where we were sitting. I believe she had no intentions of hitting us but just wanted to scare us."

Rodionova has responded by saying, "That's wrong," she said. "I did not say that, and I did not try to hit anyone. I just let out my frustration."

She was fined $5,000 by the WTA Tour.