The Best and Worst of the British Press

L O N D O N, July 23 -- Late-breaking news that tennis beauty Anna Kournikova secretly wed hockey superstar Sergei Fedorov bounced Prince Andrew back to page nine in The Sun.

Kournikova's glamorous image makes her a perfect match for the tabloids, even though she has never won a major professional tournament. Printing the news they believe "millions of men hoped never to hear," the paper's late edition reveals the couple enjoyed a private ceremony of just five guests in Moscow.

In Moscow, Kournikova's father Sergei, denied the report, telling radio station Echo Moskvy that his daughter had not been in Russia since the Kremlin Cup tournament last November. However, he did not rule out, "hypothetically speaking," that a marriage might have taken place elsewhere.

The Detroit Red Wings center reportedly won Kournikova back after she had previously agreed to marry another NHL star, Pavel Bure of the Florida Panthers.

A Costly British Open

In case you were wondering, Andrew led the early edition thanks to a $15,000 flap over a private taxpayer-funded flight to the British Open. Buckingham Palace insists the trip was an official engagement, but one insider says that's a bogey story.

Elsewhere on the fairway, excess baggage landed a Welsh golfer's chances of a winning the tournament in the rough.

According to The Daily Telegraph's account, Ian Woosnam's caddie forgot to remove an extra driver from the bag, costing the player a two-stroke penalty. Only 14 clubs are allowed in the bag. But when reporters pinned the golfer down, he admitted he would not sack the caddie.

"He's a good lad," Woosnam said.

Woosnam still bagged a third-place prize — even though it amounted to roughly $300,000 less than what he might have claimed, had it not been for the blunder.