Family Circle Cup day 6--semifinals and champions

The day began in an exciting way--Breakfast with Bud. This event was supposed to have featured Bud Collins, plus a number of former champions: Rosie Casals, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Iva Majoli, Mary Pierce, Conchita Martinez, and Jennifer Capriati. Capriati, Pierce and Majoli did not even make it to the tournaments, and Evert and Navratilova skipped the breakfast.

Joining Collins was Pam Shriver, who first had Rosie Casals come up and answer fan questions. After that, Sanchez Vicario came on, and she did not disappoint. Collins roamed the audience on the Grand Lawn so that people could ask questions, and suddenly, I realized he was standing right next to me. He had taken a position directly to my left, and he stayed there for the remainder of the interview. He and I both cracked up listening to Sanchez Vicario. When Collins said, referring to her place in the tour, "you were an accident," Sanchez Vicario said "No, my parents wanted me!" She then went on to tell a story about how her mother rode on a roller coaster, which "did something to her metabolism," and she wound up pregnant with Arantxa.

I got Sanchez Vicario's autograph right before she went up on the stage, and I also got lots of great photos of her.

Conchita Martinez was next, but I missed her. I thought that the breakfast event was over, so I left to get in the Chris Evert autograph line. I got Evert's autograph, and I got many nice photos, too. Chris Evert is my favorite tennis player of all time, and it meant a lot to me to see her eye to eye. (My enthusiam for Evert is restricted to the tennis court and to what she did for women's tennis, but it is strong and everlasting.)

Later in the morning, I stopped by a broadcast booth ESPN had set up in front of the stadium and got some photos of Mary Joe Fernandez and Cliff Drysdale.

The first match of the day was a doubles contest that ended with top seeds Black and Huber getting taken out by Govortsova and Gallovits. Having seen Govortsova and Gallovits play, we were not really surprised that they were able to do this. Match point was a thing to behold: Gallovits had just hit an impressive lob into the deuce court that moved her team toward a final victory. Then, right after that, she hit a second lob right over the heads of both Black and Huber and spot onto the baseline. Govortsova/Gallovits def. Black/Huber, 6-4, 4-6, 10-7

The match between Serena Williams and Alize Cornet was very entertaining, and Cornet received wild applause when she left the court.

Then came the other singles semifinal, featuring Vera Zvonareva and Elena Dementieva. Zvonareva took the first set handily, then both her serve and her backhand failed her, and Dementieva took the second by running over her opponent in a tiebreak. Down 0-3 in the third, Zvonareva suddenly made a strong comeback to take the set and the match, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.

We saw most of the Srebotnik/Sugiyama v. Azarenka/Vesnina match, which Srebotnik/Sugiyama won, 6-1, 6-1.

Tennis outfit of the day: Elena Vesnina, in a turquoise and white dress with a balloon skirt.