Rivalry? Try Mutual Admiration Society

While the rivalry between the top two players in women’s tennis, Belgium’s Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne, has grown increasingly tense, the guys at the top of the men’s game are having a regular love-fest.

Andy Roddick, talking about Roger Federer, a player many consider the most talented in the game, said, “I like Roger’s game a lot. I love watching him. I definitely admire him.”

Federer on Roddick: “If he’s not the best, he’s definitely one of the best.”

Roddick relies on a big forehand and a dominating serve. Federer, when he’s playing well, makes the game look easy.

“He’s almost artistic,” Roddick said. “It would be fun to be able to hit some of the shots he plays. I play more brutal tennis. That’s the way I have to play. He plays instruments, I just bang on the drum.”

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Old foes: Federer says he and Roddick have “known each other a long time, but, to be honest, I don’t remember him too well from the juniors.” Roddick: “That’s because I was awful.”

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Trivia time: What NBA team did Dick Vitale coach?

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A rare offer: Craig Stadler, known as “the Walrus” because of his drooping mustache and girth, turned 50 in June and became the first member of the Champions’ Tour to win a PGA Tour event.

He doesn’t get that many offers to do commercials, and when he was approached by Smith & Wollensky he had to acknowledge that he had never heard of it or them, only that he was pretty sure they didn’t want him to model a new clothing line.

When a friend told him it was one of the nation’s top steakhouse chains, Stadler said he thought to himself, “I can do that.”

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Designer rage: The San Francisco Chronicle’s Scott Ostler is feeling nostalgic about “the good old days when our American chemists couldn’t carry the East German steroid designers’ jocks.”

But at least he says you don’t have to worry about major league baseball players getting caught up in the growing steroid scandal.

“Under the guidelines of Major League Baseball’s new anti-drug policy, the only way a player gets busted is if he is caught smoking an opium hookah in the on-deck circle.”

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Grudge match: Mark your calendars for Nov. 20. The Orlando Magic will be in Phoenix that night, and if Tracy McGrady gets knocked down, the Suns’ Amare Stoudemire won’t be picking him up.

“When I was in high school, I tried to talk to Tracy McGrady because we’re both from the same neighborhood,” Stoudemire told GQ magazine, “but he brushed me off. Kind of embarrassed me.

“I go up to him, ‘Hey, Tracy, man, how you doing?’ He looked at me like I was crazy or something. So, right now, we’re not really friends.”

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Trivia answer: The Detroit Pistons.

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And finally: Denver Coach Jeff Bzdelik, on the notion that the Nuggets might give Dennis Rodman a tryout:

“I’ll keep an open mind, but I have concerns. Will a 42-year-old player be an asset? Or an asset without the ‘e-t’?”