NYPOST.COM National News: TENNIS HOAX IS ‘STUNNING' By MARC BERMAN and GERSH KUNTZMAN

A lot of you probably heard about this. Sports Illustrated ran a prank story about a ficticious female Russian tennis player. It was an obvious joke, really from the beginning. (Her name was supposedly "Simonya", as in S1m0ne.) But the Women's Tennis Association is all upset at SI and the author, Jon Wertheim for making fun of their sport and insinuating that the WTA really wants an infusion of sex to promote. Of course, the WTA does use sex to sell the game, but they like to deny it.

You know what's most ridiculous? Wertheim has promoted tennis an awful lot, and is one of the sport's more visible writers. Getting five pages -- even five pages of a joke -- into Sports Illustrated seems good for the game. To me, anyway.