Sports Beat

Sprinters Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones share a whole lot: title (World's Fastest Man/Woman), coach, agent, even footwear—Montgomery set a then personal best in the 100 meters last year wearing Jones's shoes. Now they share an address. Montgomery, who set a world record of 9.78 seconds in the 100 two weeks ago, and Jones, who won five Olympic medals in 2000, recently moved into the house that Jones and her former husband, shot-putter C.J. Hunter, were building near Chapel Hill, N.C. The couple's relationship began when they started training together at North Carolina State. "She would give me advice," says Montgomery. "She became a friend first, and then it became stronger Now they become stronger by continuing to work out together, including doing 1,000 sit-ups a day. "Tim now has structure in everything he does," said the couple's agent, Charley Wells. "That's why he's successful. That and a thing called love."

?For two centuries the world has been clamoring for a tale about a naked Russian woman and an amorous horse that doesn't involve Catherine the Great. Well, thanks to WTA star Anastasia Myskina, we've finally got one. The 21-year-old appears in the October issue of GQ lying atop a very happy-looking horse named Norman and wearing nothing but herskina. As GQ's heavy-breathing editor's letter describes it, Norman was a little too excited about the Muscovite's climbing aboard; the shoot couldn't commence until he calmed down. Fellow Eastern European players Daniela Hantuchova and Elena Dementieva also appear in the magazine—clothed, but posing suggestively. All this comes just weeks after the WTA, in the wake of SI's story on fictional tennis starlet Simonya Popova, insisted that it doesn't need to traffic in sex to promote the game.

?Speaking of Russian tennis babes, Anna Kournikova's play has never been described as show-stopping, but that doesn't mean she can't literally stop a show. Last week a concert given by her boyfriend, Enrique Iglesias, in Ottawa was delayed for nearly an hour while Kournikova was sneaked into the arena and ushered to her heavily guarded seat near the sound board on the floor of the Corel Centre. There the winless wonder sat alone until Iglesias's encore, when she jumped the barricade and joined the hoi polloi in some salsa dancing.

?Looks like Pete Sampras's U.S. Open title—not to mention the postmatch smooch he got from his wife, Bridgette—was in the stars. In January, SI asked astrologer Susan Miller to make predictions on some big names in sports. Here's what she said about Sampras, whose victory at Flushing Meadows was his first of the year: " Sampras's career is gathering power and heat, and although the first half of 2002 is unremarkable, by October it will be obvious Peter has become a virtual steamroller in competitions. The universe will be raining buckets of luck down on him in an exceptional cycle that will mark a period of reward, happiness and growth. Even romance will sizzle." Miller says the good run won't end there: "The best of the best arrives in June and July 2003." Guess we know whom to pick in next year's French Open and Wimbledon.