07-26-2008, 09:27 PM
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| Moderator | | Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: denial
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Quote: | If Madden Football has a cover curse and SI has a cover curse, it only makes sense that Playboy has a cover curse. Miss August Ashley Harkleroad tanked at the East West Bank Classic, losing to no-namer Stephanie Dubois, 6-2, 6-3. | Quote: U.S. tennis player Ashley Harkleroad is appearing in the August issue of Playboy Magazine, but she's in no danger of being over-exposed.
On the tennis courts at Home Depot Center, that is.
Harkleroad, 23, lost her first-round match in the East West Bank Classic Tuesday at Home Depot Center, falling to Canada's little-known Stephanie Dubois, 6-2, 6-3.
Harkleroad's record is 15-11 in 2008, but she's struggled in her past six tournaments going back to May 19. She's won just one match since she won 13 of 17 matches covering five events earlier in the year.
Harkleroad admitted after the demoralizing defeat the publicity from the Playboy shoot has been "a little bit of a distraction," but that's not the real problem.
Turns out she's struggling to recovery from an April surgery to remove an ovary that was necessary because she had internal bleeding.
"I was playing well," Harkleroad said, recalling her strong early-season form, "then the next thing you know, I'm lying in a hospital bed.
"I was just not feeling my best today. I feel out of breath, I'm feeling rusty out there (because she's been losing and thus playing few matches)."
Harkleroad, who played for the U.S. in the Fed Cup during the spring, called the loss "my worst match in a couple of years."
Although she's concerned about falling out of the top 100, she said she may be forced "to take a few weeks off" to regain her strength and conditioning.
She has no regrets about the Playboy shoot even though she admitted it was "partly a financial decision."
What was the other part? "I felt I could pull it off," she said, smiling. |  |
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