That’s my explanation. And here is Marat’s explanation:

A battered-looking Marat Safin on Sunday admitted involvement in a brawl in Moscow last week, but wasted no time declaring he had won the fight.

The fiery Russian stunned fans when he turned up late at the mixed team Hopman Cup sporting two black eyes, but recovered in time to beat Italian Simone Bolelli 7-6, 6-4 in his opening match.

“I won the fight, I’m good, I’m OK,” said the former world No. 1. “I got in trouble in Moscow but it’s OK, I can survive.

“It’s just a small problem. I wasn’t in the right place at the right time,” he added, without elaborating.

Dolce is eclipsing Maria’s fame…

Lindsay Davenport is pregnant again and withdraws from the Australian Open. “Of course this unexpected but exciting surprise now means I will be putting tennis on hold for the foreseeable future,” Davenport said in a statement.

The gossip sites have been reporting lately that Serena Williams and her latest beau rapper Common have broken up. In his latest interview to CNN, it looks like Common confirms those rumors. You be the judge!

McLaughlin: I heard you’ve been hanging out with Serena Williams? How are things?

Common: From what I was told, Serena’s doing excellent. She’s just finishing up a tennis tournament. I think she did a trip in Africa and did some really great things. They opened up a school in her name and different things like that, which was cool. If you want to know, for me right now, I’m so focused on music and the release of my album and movies and the release of my new Web site. I hadn’t really had a lot of time to focus on a relationship like that.

The latest cover girls here and here.

While our stars are busy enjoying their lives during the off season (which means falling in love, breaking up, buying tournaments, posing for magazine covers, etc). Let’s take a look at some photos of famous Russian stars and their “significant others.” Since this is based on mostly gossip, I have to say I don’t really know if these couples are still together as of my writing:-)

Maria Sharapova and Charlie Ebersol. When talking about Russian stars, she comes first.  Along with posing for magazines, making headlines for being threatened by a crazy tennis player, Maria Sharapova also managed to find a boyfriend while waiting for her shoulder to heal).

Igor Andreev and Maria Kirilenko. (Wikipedia still says Andreev is dating Russian fashionista Masha K.) Don’t they look like the blond version of this famous tennis couple

Mikhail Youzhny and Julia Thomas. So he can also be nice and tender?

Nikolay Davydenko and his wife Irina. (I hope Irina has more color and personality than her famous husband).

Marat Safin and Russian pop singer Nastya Osipova. (Our favorite playboy’s latest girlfriend didn’t score high among his  fan base:-)

…and Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias.

Are there any other couples out there that I don’t know of?

A former US university football player has been charged with threatening Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova. We often hear and see the glamorous side of the celebrities. However, being famous also means you have to deal all kinds of sickos that are out there. ESPN has the story.

Russian Ria news agency reports that Rafael Nadal will be a guest of honor at the gala opening of a Millionaire Fair in Moscow from Nov. 27 to 30.

He is invited by Vitaeibiza Homes, a company specializing in green homes. The company will also be building a luxury villa for Nadal on the southern island of the Balearic archipelago.

Why is Rafa mingling with millionaires? Because he IS a millionaire. He made $6,7 million this year, and that is only in career money. I wonder how much he is making for that appearance. Or maybe he is getting a nice discount on his house?

Maria Sharapova in Spanish GQ in December. See more photos at Craig Hickman’s tennis blog.

Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova at the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists event at Skylight Studios on Monday, Nov. 17, 2008 in New York. And here is her casual look a day before. (AP)