Two unseeded teams to compete for Charleston doubles title

Anabel Medina Garrigues and Yaroslava Shvedova advanced to the Family Circle Cup doubles final tonight when they upset 3rd seeds Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears 7-5, 6-7, 10-8. The two-hour match included a medical timeout taken by Medina Garrigues for treatment of her leg.

That was a pretty routine medical timeout; then there was the medical timeout taken by Anastasia Rodionova in the other semifinal. To the best of my memory, it's been a while since the Russian-turned-Australian has been involved in on-court drama (it used to be constant), but she was involved in a lot of it tonight. She and partner Alla Kudryavtseva played Chan Hao-Ching and Chan Yung-Jan, and Rodionova was hitting forehands right at Chan Hao Ching's body. She got her in the chest, and shortly after that, a ball came back and hit Rodionova in the head. Rodionova had some things to say.

Then Rodionova began hitting moonballs, and then there was a medical timeout with a pulse check, and finally, Rodionova retired. Chan and Chan won the match 6-2, 3-1.

Photo by Daniel Ward