Pennetta defeats Pavlyuchenkova in Cincinnati

Not that long ago, Flavia Pennetta was feared on hard courts. During the last several months, though--with the exception of her stunning (despite losing) performance in the third round of Wimbledon--she has had problems since returning from shoulder injury rebab. Today in Cincinnati, however, Pennetta caused the first upset of a seeded player. The Italian star defeated 12th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. Pennetta's next opponent will be Daniela Hantuchova.

Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova had a shaky match against Chanelle Scheepers. Kvitova, the 6th seed, won it 7-6, 6-3, but she double-faulted nine times, and didn't do very well converting break points. She's likely to play 9th seed Andrea Petkovic in the third round; Petkovic handily defeated Kvitova last week in Toronto.

Toronto star Roberta Vinci went out to Nadia Petrova in the first round today, though Vinci did win every game in the second set. Serena Williams, Li Na and Maria Sharapova also won their matches today, as did Toronto runner-up Sam Stosur. And yesterday, Shahar Peer defeated Sabine Lisicki in straight sets.

Tomorrow, top seed Caroline Wozniacki will play Christina McHale, who defeated Tsvetana Pironkova in the first round. This will be the first time that these two have played one another. If I were in Cincinnati, I'd want to see the match between Maria Kirilenko and Francesca Schiavone because I enjoy watching both of them play. Surely, though, all eyes will be on Rogers Cup champion Serena Williams and runner-up Sam Stosur; the winner gets 5th seed Li Na.