Chris Rattue: Sharapova is a stupid young woman

I mistakenly fell upon a women's tennis match from the US Open and endured Maria Sharapova's ridiculous screaming for all of a few minutes. This stupid young woman who is helping ruin tennis not only grunts when she hits her shots, she manages to elongate the noise to the point that it is still just about going when her poor opponents are playing their shots.

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Melanie Oudin, who upset this hopefully fading star, did us all a giant favour. The people who run tennis could easily put a stop to this nonsense by chucking the screamers out of the game. Until they do, I'll stick to men's tennis. The standard is far higher, anyway.

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A giant congratulations to Bay of Plenty for a stirring win over Canterbury in the NPC and their move to the top of the table. It was a terrific match to watch. The best thing that could happen to the dear old national championship would be for a team like the BoP to actually win it, rather than play the role of defeated darlings. The way things are shaping, this just might be the year for a smaller union to break the dominance which the game's system has allowed the Super base unions to enjoy.

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Australian league doesn't need a mad Monday. It has mad seasons, year after year. As of yesterday, the latest scandal involves a Souths player punching the Souths coach in a pub. This column can't vouch for it as the very latest incident, however, because who knows what might have happened overnight.

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Hooray for Ricky Ponting. His decision to quit Twenty20 cricket to pursue Ashes revenge in England in 2013 is wonderful for the test game. From the moment Australia surrendered the Ashes this year, you just knew that this incredibly determined man would want to set the record straight, even if he will be 38 in 2013. As to whether he survives that long - that's another story.