Bartoli, Radwanska and Cibulkova upset in U.S. Open 2nd round

Just when we were (well, sort of) getting used to the first-round upsets of Petra Kivotva and Li Na, along came today's big second round upsets. 8th seed Marion Bartoli went out to Christina McHale in straight sets (7-6, 6-2). Carlsbad champion Agnieszka Radwanska, the 12th seed, lost to Angelique Kerber, and 14th seed Dominika Cibulkova was upset by Irina Falconi. On top of that, Venus Williams withdrew from the tournament, and 20th seedYanina Wickmayer retired because of a back injury.

This is a lot to process. It is for me, anyway, because I'm still stuck at trying to figure out what happened to Kvitova and Li. Daniela Hantuchova is out, too, of course, and I didn't expect such an early exit from her, either. Radwanska has had her shoulder taped for several weeks because of a nerve problem in her shoulder, so her loss isn't a complete surprise.

2nd seed Vera Zvonareva is still around, but she had to work to get her second round win against Kateryna Bondarenko. She also had to tend to a lot of broken racquet strings.16-year-old Madison Keys took a set off of 27th seed Lucie Safarova, but in the third set, she looked tired, and she was rushing her play. All the same, it was nice to see her win a round and a set.

Alexandra Dulgheru, the woman who upset Petra Kvitova, was defeated in straight sets today by Monica Niculescu. Flavia Pennetta beat countrywoman Romina Oprandi, Peng Shuai defeated Tsvetana Pironkova (because someone had to), and 24th seed Nadia Petrova defeated Polona Hercog.

On Thursday, Victoria Azarenka will play Gisela Dulko, who falls into the "dangerous floater" category. Dulko played Azarenka in the second round of the U.S. Open last year, too, but that match didn't last too long. Behind 1-5 in the first set, Azarenka collapsed into a heap on the court, and had to be carried off in a wheelchair because of a concussion she sustained during a training session prior to the match. Dulko has a 3-2 record against the 4th seed.

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki will also be in action on Thursday; Wozniacki plays Arantxa Rus. 10th seed Andrea Petkovic, who's dealing with a small meniscus tear, faces an always-tough opponent in Zheng Jie, and Petra Cetkovska plays 16th seed Ana Ivanovic.

There were a couple of upsets in doubles today. 10th seeds Chan Yung-Jan and Anastasia Rodionova were defeated by Andreja Klepac and Anna Tatishvili, and 13th seeds Chuang Chia-Jung and Olga Govortsova were defeated by Liga Dekmeijere and Jelena Jankovic.